sport news Thomas Tuchel says Chelsea must be perfect to win Saturday's FA Cup final trends now
Thomas Tuchel was the coach who followed Jurgen Klopp into Borussia Dortmund so he knows plenty about the impact the man he calls 'Kloppo' can have on a club, a fanbase and even a whole country.
'When he trained Dortmund, the whole of Germany loved Dortmund,' said Tuchel with a smile on Friday. 'So now he trains Liverpool and you have the feeling the whole country loves Liverpool.'
Tuchel and Klopp will meet at Wembley on Saturday afternoon for an FA Cup final that promises to deliver much. Their Chelsea and Liverpool teams have played three times this season and have been separated only once, by the 22nd of a remarkable set of penalties when Klopp's team won the Carabao Cup in February.
Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel are set to go head-to-head on Saturday in the FA Cup final
Tuchel says Chelsea must be perfect to beat their Premier League opponents on Saturday
Speaking at Chelsea's training ground on Friday, Tuchel carried the air of a man who is glad to have the chance of another go but there was also the theme of the week to consider.
Asked his opinion on Pep Guardiola's strange recent assertion that everybody in the country supports Liverpool, Tuchel thought about it for a minute and then decided to dive straight off the high board.
'I can understand why Pep made that comment,' said Tuchel. 'I can understand why he has that feeling. It is hard to really argue with it. I did not say I agree 100 per cent but I can see what he meant.
'There is a huge sympathy for Liverpool in the country. They work hard for it and no offence.'
Klopp's team won the Carabao Cup (above) in February following a epic penalty shootout
Tuchel will be looking to get revenge with his Chelsea side on Saturday afternoon at Wembley
Guardiola's comments came perhaps from a position of battle fatigue.
His Manchester City team have been locked in combat with Klopp's Liverpool for some years now. But Tuchel has not managed to take his team quite to that exalted level of consistency yet.
He does not look quite as worn down by the sheer force of Klopp's personality but that doesn't mean he has no understanding of how things work.
'If you fight against it, like Pep for many, many years, I can understand the comment that it feels sometimes like this,' he said.
'But at the same time, I don't think it's only here. It's in Germany like this and in France too. That sympathy for Liverpool is there, too. It's everywhere.
'I have friends in Germany, of course it is also because of Jurgen, but in general [they love] what this club stands for and how they run
