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Jose Mourinho aims dig at Jurgen Klopp and rates Liverpool’s title chances


Mourinho aimed a dig at Klopp (Picture: Getty Images)

Jose Mourinho will face off against Jurgen Klopp when Tottenham Hotspur take on Liverpool in north London on Thursday night and he couldn’t resist a sly dig at the Reds boss ahead of the Premier League clash.

Mourinho and Klopp exchanged words at the end of Liverpool’s dramatic 2-1 win over Spurs six weeks ago before suggesting that Klopp’s animated antics on the touchline go unpunished by match officials.

He’s not the only manager to clash with Klopp this season. Burnley manager Sean Dyche was confronted by the Liverpool boss in the tunnel after their 1-0 win over the defending Premier League champions just a week ago.

And Mourinho thinks he would never get away with behaving in the manner his German counterpart does on the touchline.

‘In my case, I felt an evolution. I felt an evolution on the emotional control,’ Mourinho said.

‘I felt an evolution in that the calmer I am, the better I can read the game. And I’m even happy that my assistants, they look to the touchline sometimes for communication and I stay in a privileged position.

Klopp and Mourinho clashed the last time the two sides met (Picture: Getty)

‘And I felt that I had to change my behaviour, which I’m really happy with. That’s my personal case. I cannot speak for other guys.

‘What I can say, is when I didn’t behave well, I paid the price. And I paid the price in two ways: one was to see matches on TV in the dressing room and another price was big-money fines and I feel that, for some of the other guys, it doesn’t happen the same.

“It doesn’t happen the same with them. But, if the referee and the fourth official are there to do that job, I just hope they do that job and act the way they have to act.’

Despite his dig at their manager’s behaviour, Mourinho still thinks Liverpool can win the Premier League this season.

Klopp’s side have struggled in recent weeks, failing to win any of their last five league matches, and they will slip to sixth in the table if they suffer defeat to Mourinho’s men.

‘For me, Liverpool is an amazing team and they can still win the Premier League,’ Mourinho added.

‘The team is the same or better. The coach is the same or better. Because as a coach, it’s a job where experience helps you to be better. Because, for me, a coach with one more year is better than previously.

‘They got some very good players. They lost a fundamental player, they lost a fundamental player, we can say what we want, we can try to hide things, but some players are special and they are impossible to replace so even sometimes the defensive process has a relation with losing an attacking player.

Mourinho aimed a dig at Klopp (Picture: Getty)

‘The attacking process also is related to a defensive player that you have lost. It can look like a contradiction but is not a contradiction. But it is not a contradiction.

‘A team very stable defensively is a team with much better conditions to attack and vice versa. They lost (Virgil) Van Dijk. It’s very, very important for them.

‘If they had one or two results, not the best results, they didn’t score as many goals as normal, then it’s normal they went into a little phase of a little bit of less confidence, a little bit of less results but, for me, they are the same. For me, nothing changes in the way I look to Liverpool.’

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