Jurgen Klopp names best manager in the world ahead of Man City showdown

Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to Pep Guardiola as the pair prepare to battle in the Premier League for one final time, hailing the Spaniard as the best manager in the business.

Klopp will step down as Liverpool manager in the summer and has vowed never to take charge of another English side, bringing down the curtain on a famous rivalry which has seen the pair dominate English football in recent years.

Ahead of Liverpool's crunch clash with Manchester City on Sunday, Klopp did not shy away from just how much respect he has for Guardiola and thanked the City boss for helping take his career to another level.

"The way he influenced football, easy as that," Klopp revealed as the thing he admires most about Guardiola." Then, winning the amount of trophies he won in his career but you feel like when you see him on the touchline, he behaves like he never won anything before, like the desire he has. That's absolutely outstanding. He's outstanding in so many aspects.

"I do the job myself so I see excellence when I face it, and Pep is definitely that. So many different things over the years he did with his teams, always possession-based obviously, but even if necessary he plays long balls. Like, brings Ederson in years ago and all of a sudden [Sergio] Aguero waits 20 yards in the other half and he fires the ball there and then you think, 'OK, that's difficult to defend now', the next challenge. So many different things he did over the years.

"I don't know, how can I judge managers from the past? But in my lifetime he is the outstanding manager, definitely."

Klopp continued: "I was never frustrated towards Pep. I don't know them but I knew around 3,000 footballers were better than me and still loved the game. And all the others were better than me I didn't know. So, I have no problem with that, absolutely not.

"That never frustrated me. It made me definitely a better manager, to find solutions against these teams to win these games. In this moment, I just got told now, I have a positive record against Pep. I have no clue how that happened, to be honest! But it is all fine. I know I'm quite good at what I'm doing as well, I don’t want to sound like somebody who is happy to be here and I can't face these kind of [managers]. I know I'm not bad.

"But you ask about the best and for me, he is the best, bam. That's why I say it, nothing to do with me. We face [each other] twice or three times or four times a year, that's it. All the other time I do the job without facing Pep Guardiola, which is quite good, to be honest! It's all fine."

Liverpool head into the game with a one-point advantage over City, with both sides also keeping a close eye on Saturday's meeting between fellow title hopefuls Arsenal and Brentford.

READ MORE BUILD-UP TO LIVERPOOL VS MAN CITY ON SUNDAY