Pellegrini’s last season was sabotaged by the pending arrival of Pep; it was performing way below its natural level, even factoring in the advancing age of certain players. There was still an unprecedented depth of elite quality here - probably 5 of the top 20 players the league has seen all in the same team at once. It needed reinforcements, but Guardiola bought players for the bench that would be key players in most first 11’s in the league. He should have won what he has here, and probably more.
That 2014 Liverpool team was carried to a title challenge by the attacking trident of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterlingby the time Klopp got there, Suarez and Sterling had forced moves, and Sturridge was crocked.
Klopp also inherited terrible fullbacks in Clyne and Moreno; Pep addressed it by spending about £200m on them to find solutions, while Klopp converted an academy midfielder and brought in an £8m signing from a relegated club, and made them the most effective pair in Europe and catalysts of their overachievement.
Do you not think Klopp could have matched or even eclipsed what Pep has done here? I’d say fewer Carabao cups, but compensated for by European success.
It seems your default (and shared) dislike for Liverpool as a club is obscuring your subjective view of what Klopp’s achieved there.
Not especially so, your revisionism seems to want it both ways?
Liverpool spent decent amounts on both Moreno and Clyne, certainly for the period in question.
City had the services of a £5.6m Pablo Zabaleta, for nigh on a decade and into his thirties.
Throw into the mix a £6m Gael Clichy, a free transfer in Sagna and a player in Kolorov, £17m, albeit, one who divided opinion, and City were winning trophies with our full-backs stable for a good number of years, for the approx outlay of £28m.
Re Pep - Walker was £50m when the market had already shifted upwards across that decade.
Same goes for the disaster that is Mendy.
But throw in converted full-backs of Zinchenko and Delph, at a total cost of £11m and I would counter back at you that Klopp would not have been able to do likewise for this team, and losing Robertson for any length of serious time would have seen the wheels fall off his team, such is his integral component.
You can't have it both ways. Delph and Zinchenko are midfielders and been outstanding converts, yet you want to laud Klopp for converting Alexander, when it was already well known at Melwood he was coming through but struggled as an outright midfielder and to be defined.
Does Klopp win us a Champions League trophy without De Bruyne also missing for several months?
Does he win our team the trophies Pep still managed to that year?
Even Cancelo, widely considered to be one of the best full backs on the planet right now, is a £28m balancing trade on a £25m Danilo.
I would argue Pep has had Klopp's number for at least three seasons now and has evolved again, evidenced in results and performances against Liverpool over our last eight matches.
If we wanted to play a numbers game, people could cite we bought Aguero for £35m for ten years service and now have a vaccumn to fill which is going to cost ten of millions, simply because of demand and market conditions.
On the flip side, Klopp has had the benefit of spending £37m on Salah, £40m on Mane and £10m on Firminho.
A good manager, yes, but perhaps one dimensional and with the players City would have had at it disposal, I'd argue not only would he have not gone one better than Pep in the Champions League, we would not have three titles in four years either.
What does it say about Klopp as a manager when you perhaps quite rightly state the wheels will likely fall off there when he leaves?
It says he is very good at his job, whereas we have a manager who not only wins in the present, but has created a template for the future.
I'd take that trade off against two trophies in six years, even if one was a Champions League win against Spurs.