Diallo has really flourished into a top quality player. One of the few genuine success stories of United's recruitment policy of late.
Liverpool dropping two points and very nearly three to relegation-threatened Man Utd? Not a serious club...
Slot quite critical of Man Utd’s defensive approach to the game and their low block. I know Ange won’t but Spurs should to try frustrate Liverpool rather than trying to go toe to toe and losing badly like the previous game.
Pool have so much in the bank compared to us I remember in 2015/16 when Klopp arrived felt like both clubs were in similar positions we know how it turned out for both clubs since
They also have so much more in the bank, as they had at least a dozen years worth of CL football in the bank on us before we qualified for the first time That was the main issue with the top four being the same something like 4-5 seasons in a row: the rich got richer, the poor got their best players tapped up
As I've pointed out elsewhere, their net spend over that period until now is very close to ours if not slightly lower. There are quite a few years where they show a net profit. Ironically (not), 18/19 is the only season they significantly outspent us, adding Allison and Fabinho for big money while we added N'Obody, and unsurprisingly that was the year they started to pull away from us both in the league and in Europe. For me, as annoying as their fan base is, Liverpool are the club I want us to emulate. Their wage bill is significantly higher than ours but they are the team immediately above us on that metric, so that's what we need to aspire towards. And as said, their net spend in the market is extremely similar to us and goes to show that it you spend wisely and invest in problem areas before they become chronic disasters, you can reap dividends without having to behave like Chelsea.
I think you can boil it down to one issue - recruitment. They made some stellar choices in the transfer market. Allisson, van Dijk, Salah in particular. But there are others too. Contrast these signings to Utd - who have spent more to recruit lesser players. Chelsea too, although Palmer is the exception. And Liverpool have brought through some good young players too. They could easily have spent the same money on middling PL players and be performing at a different level. Whoever is responsible for their transfer activity is the difference.
He most certainly was. But I don’t know how much he was involved in recruitment. I’m sure he must have had some input. Maybe he had the biggest say on who was signed. I don’t think I was saying that Klopp’s management skills were diminished by recruiting these players, but I doubt he would have been as successful without them. Van Dijk and Salah are two of the best players of their era. Both have been vital to Liverpool’s achievements. It is a significant point of difference between Liverpool and Spurs - and Utd - who have also had top managers in this period, with a proven record of success at the highest level.
In fairness VVD was a no brainer, Salah on the other hand was a massive surprise in the impact he has made.
IIRC Michael Edwards was responsible for a lot of that period of immense signings. I think Klopp himself pushed for van Dijk though and fair play too, they ended up backing his judgement and I think just about all of Europe laughed when they paid £75m for a CB but it turned out to be one of the bargains of the decade.
It also helped that they had an asset who they could afford to sell in Coutinho, as the creativity in Norbert's system comes from the wide areas while Coutinho created through the centre, which effectively made him free money as they didn't need to sign a direct replacement and could invest the fee into other areas of the team ...which is the detail the DGCses of the world failed to understand when saying we should sell Harry Kane 5-6 years ago, as the vast majority of the fee would immediately have been swallowed up signing somebody who could score a minimum of 20 league goals a season due to selling a 25+ goal a season striker, so we wouldn't have been able to sign a transformative player elsewhere
Good point about Coutinho. It did cross my mind how his transfer boosted their funds. Did they get lucky or was it just part of their savviness in the transfer market over this period?
To be fair dele alli, eriksen could have gone for silly money. Hell even dier was nearly sold for 45m which was silly money at the time but levy didn't want to be bullied anymore after the berba, bale, modric sagas. In the end they all left for peanuts.
Agreed. Levy got his ego so bruised by Walker moving to City that he refused to even consider the possibility that selling other assets could help rather than hinder us. Didn't help that the Walker money was largely wasted on Sanchez. Also didn't help that Poch had 'his' players who I don't think he could ever bring himself to sell.
