Klopp Will Take Time Out Of Southampton Preparations to Watch Man City

We won’t be watching Manchester City beat Cardiff. The Liverpool players won’t be watching City beat Cardiff. And we sincerely hope you won’t waste your time watching, either. Jürgen Klopp, though, says he will be and has one good reason to.

“If it is possible to watch it then I probably will,” Klopp said when asked about the upcoming City match at his pre-Southampton press conference today. “But because of Cardiff, not because of Man City. Because we play Cardiff in a couple of weeks.”

It’s a fair point for a manager—after Liverpool play Southampton, Porto twice, and Chelsea, they have a date with Cardiff. Still, even if Klopp will probably be tuning in this evening to watch City win, his main focus will remain Liverpool’s next opponents.

“They are eighth in the form table,” Klopp noted of Southampton, who have been much improved since appointing Ralph Hasenhuttl. “So they are fighting [to stay in] the league, and that gives you information about the intensity of the game probably.

“It’s a home game for Southampton, and they play a clear style of football. I have to say the job he is doing there is incredible. It’s a really good side, and [our] analysis was really interesting because it doesn’t look like a team that fights to stay in the league.”

Southampton are now in 16th, five points clear of the drop with a significant goal differential advantage compared to Burnley and Cardiff, the two sides behind them. And, under Hasenhuttl, it seems clear they’re better than the league’s 16th side.

It will be a tough test, one the Reds will have to win no matter what happens between City and Cardiff—which is more likely to involve City hitting double-figures than it is Cardiff getting anything. So you probably shouldn’t watch even if Klopp will.