I am just telling it how i see it.
Look at their team and look at our team. We don't even know our best 11. How can you be favourites to win the league if you don't have a settled 11?
Lets start with Liverpool... They have the two of the best full backs in the league in Trent and Robertson, they have an immense goalkeeper, they have the best CB in the world in Van Dijk (very settled back 5) and they have one of the best forward lines in world football. They won the league at a canter last season with a pretty ordinary midfield. Now add Thiago to that very workmanlike, mobile central midfield and he will take them up another level. He is in the top 3 CM in world football, he really is an incredible footballer. Just imagine the vision of Thiago in that midfield to pick out passes for the likes of Salah and Mane... imagine Thiago feeding the balls in between the lines for Firmino to hold up with Salah and Mane running off him. I could not think of a more perfect signing for Liverpool to elevate them to another level. He can speed the play up when he decides to and he can slow it down when he decides to, he is an absolute gem of a player.
Then look at City... we don't have a recognised starter at LB who can provide consistent displays every week. We have brought in Ake and we are still to bring in another CB, hopefully Koulibaly. We will have a back 5 going into the season that isn't settled, that will need to play together a number of times to develop an understanding and a defensive structure.
As we have seen from recent comments, nobody seems to know what our best midfield 3 is. People are moaning about how slow Rodri is, how Gundogan lacks the dynamism that we are craving for. We all know now that Pep will play Gundogan 3/4 of the season and shoehorn the likes of Foden and Bernardo in wide areas, so once again we go into the new season with the same problems as before. Lack dynamism and energy in the middle of the park and are suspect against teams who hit us on the break quickly (i.e. Wolves and Man Utd). The first game v Wolves will be an early indicator of how the season will go for me, it will show us whether we have learned from past mistakes or not.
Personally i rate Rodri highly and i do feel that if we add more energy and dynamism in and around him, we will certainly get the best out of him. The way to improve is by using Bernardo and Foden more in the middle or acquiring Aouar to give us something we are seriously lacking. Gundo should NOT be playing anywhere on the field other than in the number 6 role. If we use him in the number 8 role we are asking for trouble.
Moving on to the forward positions... Aguero is coming back from a pretty bad injury, will he last a full season? Will Jesus be good enough to lead the line 3/4 of the season?
There are so many question marks over this City side at the moment and that is partly because we are rebuilding again after losing big characters in the dressing room.
Another thing... you put De Bruyne in that Liverpool midfield and they would piss the league every season. It would not even be close. This is because they are more complete than us in other areas. They have a better structure than us. A settled starting 11, every single player knows their job inside out. I love Pep, but sometimes i find he has square pegs in round holes. Playing midfielders at left back and CM out wide, this sort of stuff needs to stop if we are to progress.
To finish off, if i was a betting man, i would bet Liverpool for the league. Hate me all you want, call me a doom merchant all you want, but that is just my opinion. Liverpool as a team are in their prime now, City as a team are waning now and are in the process of a pretty big rebuild. We need to seriously put our foot on the accelerator and do all we can in this market to rescue that title back to the Etihad.
