England rugby head coach Eddie Jones says Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are at clubs that 'want to win' and believes the environment is just as important as the personnel.
The Premier League rivals have gone head to head in recent years for the title and have both enjoyed a spell of success. Arguably the two best teams in the country at the moment, both Liverpool and City boast two of the best managers in the world.
Jones, who has been the head coach of the England rugby national team since 2015, believes there's more to just having the best manager.
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“Pep and Klopp are at clubs that really want to win," he said in an interview with the I newspaper. "I reckon both are strong on vision, how they want to play.
"Pep wants to beat you through possession. That’s my rudimentary understanding. Klopp wants to beat you by putting pressure on you. You don’t have to be Einstein to work out how they play. That’s clear. They recruit the right players then they train them hard.
"But the club has to know where it’s at and has to find the right coach for that particular time. There is never one kind of right leadership. The conditions at the club, where the owners want to go, how the administration works, what is the head coach’s responsibility?
"You have to have the best players but if you don’t have the right environment it’s like putting your best looking flowers in the desert. They are not going to grow.”
This then raised the conversation surrounding Manchester United and their struggles in recent years. The English club last won a league title in 2012 and have now gone 10 seasons without lifting the Premier League trophy.
“If City and Liverpool had not got their acts together United might still be at the top," Jones added.
"City and Liverpool are run by serious people who want to win. Winning is hard, mate. Everyone wants to win but have you got the will to prepare, to do that extra work?
"It starts at the top. Maybe the emphasis at United was on selling shirts. Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer) trains the team the whole pre-season to play a certain way with Sancho at the front. He’s their big buy and then they sign Ronaldo. So what do you do then?
"That is the sign of a failed institution, one that is not aligned. They can change that around in 24 months. And they will. Eventually incompetence changes everything. It makes you want to get better.”
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