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Pep Guardiola is an excellent coach, educated in the ways of the fabled Ajax school of coaching.

But the fact remains he has struggled in the latter stages of the Champions League when he hasn’t had Lionel Messi at his disposal.

If Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Jock Stein, Brian Clough and Carlo Ancelotti, or any number of managers, had had Guardiola’s Barcelona team, with Messi in it, they would have won the European Cups he did.

And, unlike Guardiola , four of those I mentioned even managed to win the competition without the Argentine wizard — one of the greatest players of all time — in their sides.

This is one of the reasons I’m still unable to bow down and worship at the altar of Pep alongside all those who profess him to be the greatest coach the game has seen.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

Another is that he’s a manager who does not seem to think defending is as important as attacking judging by the number of times his sides have been done by threes and fours deep in European competition.

Real Madrid put four past Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in 2014 and his old Barcelona side — with Messi in it — scored three against the Germans in the Nou Camp a year later.

Now Liverpool have a 3-0 first-leg lead in their Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City , which is why the factual evidence does not say to me, ‘That, right there, is one of the all-time greats of coaching.’

It says to me that his Barcelona was one of the all-time great teams with a very good coach at the helm.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

(Image: Offside/Getty)

Of course, I’ll start to think differently if Guardiola can mastermind one of the great comebacks at the Etihad on Tuesday. And I’m certainly not daft enough to think City aren’t capable of doing it.

They have an attacking pool of five or six players who can all create and finish enough chances to turn this tie on its head.

In Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane, they have men who have played themselves into such a groove this season that if they can get that little bit of luck and get to 2-0 in the first half, then it’s very much game on.

After back-to-back defeats by Liverpool and Manchester United last week, I have a sneaking feeling City might just light the blue touch paper and take to the pitch with their pride telling them, ‘We leave it all out here.’

(Image: Action Images via Reuters)

I can envisage two possible scenarios:

The first sees City win 2-1 and my old club in the pot for the semis.

The second sees City win 4-0 and me starting to eat my words. And the columnist in me, rather than the ex-Red, will happily do that.

To avoid the latter outcome, Liverpool must approach the game against Guardiola as they did last Wednesday, and as United did on Saturday.

And as Real and Barcelona did against Bayern.

They must show no fear and that, despite all of City’s stars, Guardiola isn’t the same coach as when he has that little genius Messi to call on.

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