Claudio Ranieri turned to Jurgen Klopp after Greece axe… and the pair meet again when Leicester travel to Liverpool

Ranieri, 64, was dismissed by Greece in November last year following defeat to the Faroe Islands
The Leicester manager watched Klopp coach his Borussia Dortmund players at a sunshine camp
The pair will come face to face as Leicester travel to Anfield, and Ranieri insists Liverpool have one of Europe’s best coaches

Published:
22:40 GMT, 25 December 2015

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Updated:
22:40 GMT, 25 December 2015

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Claudio Ranieri has revealed how he turned to Jurgen Klopp last Christmas after experiencing the anguish of being sacked by Greece.

The Leicester manager watched Klopp coach his Borussia Dortmund players at a sunshine camp during the Bundesliga’s winter break, admitting a manager can never be too old to learn new tricks.

Ranieri, 64, was dismissed by Greece in November last year following defeat to the Faroe Islands and praised Klopp for allowing him to witness him at work.

Claudio Ranieri reached out to Jurgen Klopp after being dismissed as Greece coach

Klopp comes face to face with Ranieri again as table-toppers Leicester travel to Anfield

The pair will come face to face as Leicester travel to Anfield, and Ranieri insists Liverpool have one of Europe’s best coaches.

‘I appreciate Klopp a lot, I know Liverpool has a very, very good manager,’ said Ranieri. ‘I went to watch him during the winter break last season, and spent one week with him. I watched how he played, how he worked.

‘It was in La Manga in Spain. There was my Greece player there (Sokratis Papastathopoulos) and I called him and I asked if Klopp agreed for me to go and he said yes.

‘I want to learn. Football is always the same, you can learn, if you have an open mind you can take. Every time I have time I go to another place. I watched Pep Guardiola in Barcelona, and I also went to Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg last winter.’

Ranieri likened his approach to the Japanese automotive industry. ‘I am like the Japanese, I take a photo and I get better. At the beginning Japanese cars weren’t good and now they are better than the others!’