Jurgen Klopp has insisted that he is wary of Carlo Ancelotti’s mind games ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Napoli tomorrow night in the Champions League.
Former AC Milan, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich boss Ancelotti has been lavishing praise on Klopp and his team ahead of tonight’s encounter in Naples, although Klopp laughed this off as nothing more than the antics of a wily old campaigner.
“I like Carlo Ancelotti, he is a fantastic guy. As we say in Germany ‘He is obviously a smart fox’,” said Klopp in his pre-match press conference.
“He says all these positive things about us and all these nice things about me. It is nice but it is tactics, it starts already.
“Carlo is so long in the business and he wants to bring the nice fella out in me but I am ready for a real battle.
“I don’t care too much what people say about us in the moment. Yes we have performed on a consistent, OK, level in the last few weeks but tomorrow we need to make the next step up in our development.
“This is a fantastic manager, a fantastic football team and a very emotional crowd so that will be a challenge.”