Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has made the comparison between rivals Manchester City and themselves regarding their squad’s changes this season.
Both sides have dominated England for the last five years, but both have gone through extensive changes to their squad for the first time in a long time.
Key players have departed for pastures new and unknown quantities have come in – with some claiming it to be a transitional period for both.
Where that may be true for both sides, Klopp believes that Man City have dealt with their changes far better than Liverpool have.
Liverpool's players struggling to find form and twitter's response is to sack the most important manager they've had since Paisley. Rinse and repeat the insanity.
— The Tactical Times (@Tactical_Times) September 3, 2022
Klopp’s comments on squad changes
Klopp went into detail about both squads and how City have adapted better to the losses of key players such as Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and others.
As quoted by Anfield Watch on Twitter, he told Sport1 the following: “Haaland is an exceptional footballer and of course, they have become stronger because of him. You just have to know – Pep (Guardiola) sees this just as much as I do – that the team has to be reshuffled from time to time.
“We also gained players and lost one (Sadio Mane) who almost always played. That will take time. That applies to City as well as to us.
“But when you see how City play, how the balls come into the penalty area, how Erling stays in the right spaces, it’s hard to avoid scoring.“
Liverpool’s next 8 games:
• Wolves (H)
• Ajax (H – UCL)
• Chelsea (A)
• Brighton (H)
• Rangers (H – UCL)
• Arsenal (A)
• Rangers (A – UCL)
• Man City (H)How many points do you see us getting?
— Anfield Edition (@AnfieldEdition) September 8, 2022
“But City have also given up a lot of players and are also in transition, even more than we are. It’s part of refreshing a successful team.
“You gave up Gabriel Jesus, as did Raheem Sterling, who was a fixture in Manchester for years. (Oleksandr) Zinchenko too. Fernandinho has retired, or rather, has gone back to Brazil. They were important players for City.
“And the season is damn long and is interrupted again by the World Cup, no one has a clue.”
Recruitment is key – and Liverpool will take time to adapt
City have seen their biggest turnover of players since the beginning of Pep’s era at City. However, with their owners and the finances involved, they’ve seen their squad refreshed with Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Kalvin Phillips and Manuel Akanji.
The Reds went all in for Aurélien Tchouaméni but missed out and then proceeded to not sign a midfielder until deadline day – when they panic-bought an injured and temperamental Arthur Melo.
Losing Sadio Mane was huge for the Reds but signing Darwin Nunez, a player who is the complete opposite of Mane was and is a big risk. Going from a mobile, fluid front three to a more fixed and traditional two wingers and a number nine is massively different – both for the squad to play with and for teams to play against.
Klopp needs time to build up the chemistry of this team whilst also balancing injuries. In terms of Nunez, we may even see Diogo Jota return to the central striking role, given he had huge success their last season and he’s the closest thing they have to emulate what Mane did down the centre last season.
