I just wrote down all of the City team he inherited. I did not mean all of them were World Class. I am also not arguing whether Pep improves players or not. It is obvious he does. He also makes the team much more than the sum of its parts with the system he employs.
But with an unlimited cheque book I don't see his signings better than his predecessors. KDB, Sterling, Aguero, Kompany, Silva, and Fernandinho at their best are better players than what Pep has brought in. Pep is responsible for them being at their best in many cases obviously. Out of Pep's signings I would count Ederson and maybe Bernardo Silva at that level. Pep gets judged to a different standard than other managers because he will likely be in contention for GOAT by the time he retires.
Regarding Klopp getting battered. If you have unlimited money and want to play the best football you bring in Pep. No one can dominate the way Pep does. If you have a budget and want to win you bring in Klopp. These two are the best managers in the world and both have their specific use cases. Klopp's team has been decimated with injuries. He doesn't have a second XI worth as much as his first like City has so we can't really read too much into this battering.
Fair point and I misunderstood. But there is also the argument that City under Pep haven't went looking for a marquee signings because they had those players and replacement of a similar stand weren't going to come in and be rotated. For example you don't go looking for Bruno when you have KDB or vice versa. You don't go sniffing at Kane when you have Aguero. And we had already pre-purchased Silva for Silva. But now those players are coming to an end, he will have to bring in the replacements who hit said standard Will Dias be as good as Kompany? Unlikely but he's so far shown he could be. Will Silva or Foden become the next Silva? again time will tell, we'll see in 3 or 4 years. But his challenge for now is replacing Aguero. Those players are only out the door, we should wait to see how their replacements get on before saying they aren't as good.
I absolutely agree on Pep is better at polishing a diamond and Klopp better at polishing a turd.
But we have to keep in mind for all the media bollix, Klopp had 9 of his best XI at the weekend, he chose to put his better midfielders in defence. He had Alisson, TAA, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago, Salah, Mane and Firminio on the pitch. If theres an argument to be made Fabinho will be VVD's partner, then with Wijnaldum, he had 10.
City had arguably 9 of their first XI on the pitch, Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko, Rodri, Gundo, Sterling and Mahrez. Should Klopp had played Henderson in midfield and one of his new signings or a kid at the back?
Instead he pulled the exact same bullshit Pep did last season with Fernandinho and is reaping the same results. He's weakening midfield to bolster defense. Liverpool have loads of squad depth.
They might not have cost what Cities have but in midfield alone they have Thiago, Fabinho, Hendo, Wijnaldo, Keita, Jones, The Ox all going for 3 positions. They have Mane, Salah, Firminio, Jota, Little Shaq and Origi for attacking positions 6 players for 3 positions. They left themselves short at the CB just like City last season. They went into the season with 3 cb's and weirdly lost all 3, City made the same mistake last terms and were without Laporte and Stones (personal problems) for much of the season. The difference being City had Otamendi. Other than that it was either a cdm at cb or a youth player in Garcia. This injury crisis of Liverpool's is media bollix and not something that hasn't been seen before. They can field 9 of their first XI week in week out, just like City last season with stop gaps in defence, but Klopp is choosing to weaken his midfield for no reason, just like Pep. They are missing 2 first team players and 1 sub. My point here is worth doesn't matter, he has them and has 10/11 or 9/11 of his best XI/world class players available.
Like Pep last season, they need to put square pegs in square holes instead of fannying about are ruining 2 key area's of the pitch to try and patch one which is seeing them have a season pretty much on par with Cities failings last seasn.
