Yahoo News Why John McGinn will miss Jurgen Klopp as he makes Unai Emery comparison with Liverpool legend
As Jurgen Klopp nears the end of his historic tenure at Liverpool, Unai Emery is targeting a strong finish to his first full season with Aston Villa, who hope he will lead a long and successful reign at Villa Park.
The two will meet on Monday night as Villa go in search of a victory which would secure qualification for the Champions League in front of home fans. Klopp, meanwhile, will take charge of his penultimate game as Reds boss.
"They are certainly slightly different but both of them are up there with the best managers in the world," Villa captain John McGinn said. "The league has been very lucky to have Klopp. He has obviously got an identity and a really strong team. He will be missed in the league differently.
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"I think everyone knows what we think of our manager. We are very lucky to have him and his staff. They work endlessly to make the improvements to make us better.
"Even before Thursday's game, he was treating it the same way he did the first pre-season game. It is just the way he is. He is a workaholic who is desperate for success. We would love him to be here for many years.
"I have three years left here, at the moment. He has three years left himself so hopefully he can be here for many years to come. But he wants success and does not want to stop short at semi-finals or fourth place. He wants more than that. That is the sort of manager you want to play under."
Villa come into the match on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Olympiacos out in Greece, which eliminated them from the Europa Conference League at the semi-final stage. McGinn admitted after the match that it simply wasn't Villa's night following a 4-2 home defeat last week.
"Looking back, it was not the performance we wanted, out of control at home," McGinn admitted. "There was probably a bit of inexperience. But the second leg, the first half performance was exactly what we wanted.
"The main message from everyone, even outside of the team, was don't lose the first goal. That, against the run of play, was obviously a massive blow. You can't argue over the two legs the better team went through.
"You can make excuses about X, Y or Z being injured. But the manager has driven into us there is a no excuse mentality. We had enough out there to turn the tie around and we fully believed it. It just wasn't our night.
"There are obviously massive improvements needed moving forward to try and compete and succeed at this level. There was no-one more desperate to get to the final than the boys."
