Jurgen Klopp says Manchester City wouldn’t have survived in Liverpool’s situation. We think he’s got a point with his remarks.
Jurgen Klopp doesn’t believe Manchester City would have won the Premier League with Liverpool’s injury crisis. He says that’s the same for everyone – including, of course, his own side.
That’s the reason the Reds couldn’t compete, he says, and no one else could have managed it, either.
Liverpool haven’t had Virgil van Dijk since October 17th, Joe Gomez since November 8th, or Joel Matip since January 28th. It’s been a historically unfortunate series of injuries that crippled the side.
And according to Klopp, no one could compete under those circumstances.
Jurgen Klopp on Manchester City
“With our injuries it was not the year to become champions,” Klopp said, per the BBC. “No chance – for nobody.
“As good as they are, if City have their three centre-halves out, no [they don’t win the league]. Three centre-halves of [Manchester] United, no.
“We have fought back a bit, accepted the difficulties and made the best of it, and if we win on Sunday, and if we qualify for the Champions League, then we made the best of it. That is it.”
We’re not sure how anyone could argue that Klopp is wrong here. Take out the three best centre-backs from any club and they’re not going to be good.
You can’t simultaneously say Ruben Dias is an elite centre-back while also arguing that City win the title regardless of him being there. Let alone if you’re also taking out Aymeric Laporte and John Stones.
United would suffer even worse, given they don’t have the same quality in depth.
But this is where the similarities end. Fact is, City have so many top centre-backs that they wouldn’t feel an injury crisis quite as badly as Liverpool.
That’s the benefit of being able to spend £40m on Nathan Ake to be your fourth-choice centre-back. That’s literally more than all of Liverpool’s defensive options put together outside of Van Dijk.
Liverpool, of course, had to rely on Nat Phillips who had never played Premier League football before.
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