Mario Gotze believes Jurgen Klopp is a better manager than Pep Guardiola after working under both in his career.
The World Cup winner was handed his professional debut by Klopp during his time at Borussia Dortmund, before going on to work with Guardiola at Bayern Munich.
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Gotze has also worked under Thomas Tuchel at Dortmund, but thinks nobody can compare to Klopp for one simple reason.
"Every coach had his strengths and his own philosophy, but from my point of view Jurgen (Klopp) did it best in the area of people management - the team, the staff, the whole club led the best," the 30-year-old told BILD.
Gotze and Klopp won two Bundesliga titles together and also made the 2013 Champions League final, which they lost to Bayern. Interestingly, Gotze missed that game through injury and was set to join Bayern a few months later.
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He made the move and despite winning three Bundesligas with Guardiola and the World Cup with Germany in 2014, the midfielder never fully fulfilled his potential.
Klopp moved to Liverpool in 2015 and when Gotze returned to Dortmund in 2016, he was managed by current Chelsea boss Tuchel.
In the meantime, Guardiola moved to Manchester City and he's won four of the last five Premier League titles.
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Gotze was given the chance to make a move to Liverpool in 2016, but opted to stay in Germany.
The Reds were not the team they are now and had just lost the Europa League final to Sevilla and finished eighth in the table.
In hindsight, Gotze admits it may have been a mistake.
He continued: "Liverpool had finished eighth in the first season with Jurgen and had not qualified for the Champions League.
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"Even in the years before, this was not the club that always played at the top. I came from Bavaria and had this claim.
"Dortmund had previously played a top season under Thomas Tuchel. BVB was on top.
"Jurgen was still in the process of building something. In retrospect, you have to say: Liverpool would have been better."
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Gotze left Dortmund for a second time in 2020 to join Eredivise outfit PSV Eindhoven. Last month, he completed a move to Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt.
Topics: Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp