Looking back on the last two seasons, one of the things that really stands out for me is Pep’s determination to carry on playing football the way he sees as being the right way. Not for instance to put The Big Man on if we need a goal with 15 minutes to go and play hoof ball. That’s one of the reasons we have won so many games late on, especially last season, because we played our football till the end.
Remember when we played Liverpool at home in January? We were 2-1 up in the last few minutes and so what did they do? They put Van Dijk up front and started hoofing long balls to him.
When push comes to shove, Pep has complete faith that his approach will prevail over 90 minutes. Klopp panics if they need a goal with 5 minutes to go and reverts to hoof ball. He might actually have achieved better results if he stuck to his principles the whole time, rather than abandon them in panic.
Maybe that, deep down, is the difference between the two.