Klopp over Guardiola! Liverpool legend Aldridge says Reds boss is the best in the business

“I get asked this a lot,” says John Aldridge, taking a sip of coffee. “The fact that it’s even a question tells you just what this team has achieved, I guess.”

We are sat on the terrace at Hotel TIA, a hundred yards or so from Anfield. It’s a match day and so business is booming at an establishment which, since opening its doors in 2018, has become one of the go-to places for Liverpool supporters in the city.

Later Aldridge will, together with fellow Reds legend Sami Hyypia, take part in a Q&A session on behalf of Carlsberg, the official beer of Liverpool FC. 

He will talk about his career, about the joy of representing his boyhood club, about the 104 appearances, the 63 goals, the league championship and the FA Cup. 

And he’ll discuss the great side he played in. The team of Alan Hansen, John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Ray Houghton, which romped to the league championship in 1988, and which is widely considered to be among Liverpool’s greatest ever. 

“Some side, eh?” he smiles. “It was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for me as a striker in that team. Too good to be true.”

Great memories, but for Aldridge the future is just as exciting as the past. 

Later, he will watch Jurgen Klopp’s 2019 vintage open up an eight-point gap at the top of the Premier League, courtesy of a last-gasp win over Leicester – their 17th league victory in succession. 

“They’re some side as well!” he laughs, before offering his comparison with the class of 1987-88.

“Different teams, but similar,” he says. “We played what you would probably say was a 4-2-3-1, while this team is a more traditional 4-3-3. 

“But in terms of the football both teams play; attacking, flamboyant, with game-changers everywhere, yeah, you can see the similarities.” 

Aldridge is modest when he discusses his own Liverpool career. “I was just there to finish the moves off,” he says, preferring to heap praise on the likes of Barnes and Beardsley instead.

“Barnesy was the best player I ever played with,” he says. “He was the absolute business. 

“I had good movement, but most of my goals were six-yard tap-ins or headers. All I had to do is give it simple, take the centre-half away and get to the far post. Then Barnesy would pick me out!”

He’s simplifying things, of course. Aldridge was a far more gifted striker than he would let on, a player who scored close to 450 career goals and won 69 international caps for the Republic of Ireland. 

How, though, would he have fitted into the current setup under Klopp, we wonder? 

“Good question!” he grins. “I was more of a goalscorer than someone like [Roberto] Firmino, But I couldn’t do the things outside the box that Bobby does. 

“It’s his awareness, the way he brings people into play. Beardsley, for example, was a great player, with great feet and tricks, but he would play more with his head down. Firmino has more awareness.

“Bobby has 360 degree vision. He knows where people are, and he has the touches and the flicks to open the game up. He’s more creative, more of an all-rounder.”

He’s also a European Cup winner and will, along with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, be key if Liverpool are to finally end that wait for a league title this season. 

Do that, and they’ll be guaranteed legendary status at Anfield, right?

“They’re getting there, for sure,” says Aldridge, before issuing a word of warning.

He himself only spent two-and-a-half years at Anfield, leaving for Real Sociedad in 1989 with a broken heart. 

Unsurprisingly, then, he has little time for those who wonder if the grass is greener away from Liverpool. He still, for example, refuses to refer to Fernando Torres by name – “FT,” he calls him – and says that neither Luis Suarez nor Philippe Coutinho could ever be considered Reds legends. He hopes that the likes of Mane, Salah and Firmino will remain a little longer than those three.

“We’re not fickle as Liverpool fans,” he says. “And to become a proper Liverpool icon you have to do certain things. I think you have to love the club, and you have to stay at the club for a long time. I hope that these players understand that.”

They ought to, surely. After all, there can’t be many better places to be right now than at Klopp’s Liverpool?

“Unless they like good weather, there’s not a lot of reason to leave, is there?” laughs Aldridge, glancing upwards at the slate-grey Merseyside sky.

“Barcelona and Real Madrid? Fantastic clubs, but we are up with them at the moment. If you want to win big trophies, you’ve got as much chance here as you have over there, if not more.

“Those clubs are in transition. We are not.”

He’s got that right. Liverpool’s form over the past two seasons has been remarkable. They are European champions, and have put themselves in a wonderful position to add the Premier League this time around. It may only be October, but the Reds are well and truly in the box seat.

“Jurgen has done brilliantly,” Aldridge says. “He’s dealt with all those problems in pre-season, he’s lost his first-choice goalkeeper for two months, and we are top of the league by a good distance. It’s ridiculous, just outstanding management.

“Europe-wise, he’s the best in the business, for me. He’s had what, three European finals on the bounce? Pep Guardiola has not even had a semi-final in that period, let alone a final!

“Guardiola is a great coach, but he was very fortunate in the fact that he walked into a Monopoly game where he could spend what he wants and bring the players in willy-nilly. Klopp has had to do it the harder way. He’s spent money, but far less than City and on far fewer players too.”

So, is Aldridge, a Liverpool fan first and foremost, daring to dream of the league title yet?

“It would be a great statement if we could go and beat them, given what they’ve spent,” he says, before throwing a kidney punch towards the Etihad Stadium. “But I’d take the Champions League, too. That’s the one City want, and they can’t get it!”

John Aldridge was speaking at the launch of Hotel Tia as an official Carlsberg supporter’s venue. This season Carlsberg will be upgrading venues across Liverpool to improve fan experience on matchdays.