Klopp “Very Similar” to Wenger Says Liverpool Veteran

When he arrived in England, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp sought to set himself apart from Arsene Wenger by saying the Arsenal man likes to conduct symphonies while Klopp himself is more into heavy metal football. According to defender Kolo Toure, though, there might just be a few similarities between the two managers to be found, too.

"The training we do under Jürgen is very similar to Arsene," Toure said ahead of the two sides meeting up for a mid-week Premier League clash. "They have the same approach to games in terms of the speed of the game, the togetherness—their teams move together with a lot of passing. Technically they like to have good players on the ball and the intensity of both their teams is amazing."

With Liverpool suffering a defensive injury crisis, Toure is a lock to face off against his old boss at Anfield. The visiting gunners will rightly be favourites, arriving as they do as league leaders, but Liverpool have thrived against top opposition in the early days of Klopp’s Liverpool career and many will be hoping that trend can continue as the Reds seek to close the gap on the top four.

Currently stood eighth, Liverpool are six points back of Tottenham. At this stage of the season, it’s a bigger gap then perhaps it looks at first glance—if Spurs continue to earn 1.8 points per game, Liverpool would need 2.1 the rest of the way to catch up, more than half a point better than the 1.5 points per game they have taken so far. Toure, though, is convinced that there’s still a chance.

"There is still a long way to go in the season, still plenty of games for every team, and with having games every two or three days things can change," he said. "Liverpool and Arsenal have always produced great games in the Premier League and, for us, we just want to win. For sure, with what we have shown against City and Chelsea this season, I think they will come with caution."