Gary Neville claims Pep Guardiola mimics Sir Alex Ferguson by acting differently when he comes to Anfield.
The Manchester City boss has spent much of his time in England fighting against Liverpool for various trophies. Trips to Merseyside have rarely resulted in three points with Guardiola winning just one of his seven visits in the league whilst also coming up short in Europe.
Anfield presents unique challenges and Guardiola has been animated on the touchline over the years due to his desire to win. Neville has compared that to Ferguson, who bought Manchester United to Anfield for over 20 years during his time in charge at Old Trafford.
He led the Red Devils during a period where they toppled Liverpool as England's most successful top flight outfit, but was aware of the difficulties that came with trips to the red half of Merseyside. Guardiola, who was incensed by a disallowed goal in Sunday's defeat, has bemoaned the cauldron that is Anfield, drawing comparisons to Ferguson.
Neville said on his podcast : "Pep Guardiola was incensed, he was furious. In that first-half he was out of his technical area quite a lot. It’s like when I came here with Man United, coming into this game the manager was different, Sir Alex was different, he’d be more serious, that look in his eyes that was different.
"You come here and there’s very little talking before the game like today, even when you’re a really good side, you come here, that You’ll Never Walk Alone hits you and it’s different than most grounds. You come here and Pep Guardiola knows it’s as tough as it gets, I was on the touchline before kick-off and he was in the dugout, you do things here you don’t do elsewhere, you don’t see him doing that at away grounds."
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Guardiola, who has felt short changed during games at Liverpool in the past, was unhappy with VARs intervention that eventually resulted in Phil Foden's opener being chalked off. Last term he was angered by the decision not to send James Milner off and clearly felt that the Anfield factor benefitted the home side with the officials.
He said: “This is Anfield. The referee spoke with my assistant coaches and said: ‘I’m not going to make fouls and I will be clear.’ All game it was play on and play on and play on. Except the goal [for Foden]. The ref can decide: ‘I’m going to whistle all the actions,’ but he decided not to do it and then after he did it. When we scored a goal it was not play on. This is the reality."
