Jurgen Klopp Scores Another Own Goal with Manchester City Criticism

It must be one of the things Jurgen Klopp loves doing the most; using every opportunity given to paint Manchester City black. It’s a ploy he uses in order to cover up for his and Liverpool’s failures. It’s been recurring as the competition between Liverpool and Manchester City has continued since Pep Guardiola took over dominance of the Premier League after his initial struggle with the Blues in 2016/17.

Whenever Klopp’s side is not doing well, the German just redirects the focus to Manchester City’s money as the reason his team is failing to perform. The media, who are mostly sympathetic to Liverpool and the other traditional club sides in Europe buy it hook, line, and sinker.

How would you explain the headlines on Friday night after his press conference ahead of the crunch tie between the two sides at Anfield on Sunday? They mostly claimed that the German has “admitted” or “acknowledged” that no team can compete against Manchester City because of the club’s unlimited spending power.

An admission presupposes that something is true.

Of course, to say that Manchester City has unlimited spending power is clearly false and misleading. But none of the journalists will point that out or try to lay the cards on the table to present the fact that Liverpool are also spending big just like City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and most other top clubs.

The German has formed a habit of playing holier than thou to garner sympathy, painting Manchester City and a few other clubs like Paris Saint Germain and newly bought Newcastle United as the bad guys ruining the game, while his and other teams have to put up with the evil because there’s nothing they can do about it.

Speaking when questioned about the fortunes of Man City and Liverpool this season, the German used Erling Haaland as a case to buttress his point that City spend without limit. That they were able to buy the best striker in the market even when they already have a superb team as a result. That’s despite the glaring fact that Liverpool spent more on Darwin Nunez than City did on Haaland.

He made a case for why his team cannot compete claiming that City have unlimited resources while other clubs like Liverpool don’t.

“You will not like the answer, and you all have the answer already,” Klopp stated.

“Nobody can compete with City. You have the best team in the world, and you put in the best striker on the market.

“No matter what it costs, they just do it. I know City will not like it, nobody will like it. Liverpool cannot act like them. It’s not possible.

“It’s just clear. There are three clubs in world football that can do what they want, financially. It’s legal and everything, fine. But it’s a fact.

“It’s not a problem at all for me, it is what it is. But don’t ask me that question. You all should know it, it’s not possible to deal with that, and it will be like this.

“I hear now at Newcastle they said, ‘there’s no ceiling for this club’. He’s absolutely right, there’s no ceiling for Newcastle. Congratulations, some other clubs have ceilings.”

What makes this rather disheartening is that none of the journalists even tries to point out the real facts.

Records from transfermkt.co.uk on the two clubs’ summer transfer business clearly expose Jurgen Klopp’s baseless claims for what they are.

Manchester City spent a total of £125.55m on new players. But the club also sold several key players for £136.71m. The business transactions produced a profit of £11.16m.

That means technically, the club didn’t lose a dime this summer on player transfers. Instead made £11.16m.

But Liverpool spent money. The Reds conducted business that resulted in a loss of £12.87m.

How on earth does Jurgen Klopp still mislead the media and the football world by claiming Manchester City are ruining the game with excessive spending? Only bias or a lack of concern about the real facts can make anybody believe the Liverpool manager.

But of course, he will continue to play the hand to take the focus away from his failure and his team’s poor form which has resulted from several factors. One of them being the loss of one of their key players, Sadio Mane. Another is the fact that last season’s golden boot winner Mohamed Salah has simply not come to the party this season scoring just two goals in the Premier League so far.

Instead of asking probing questions about why Mohamed Salah has failed to replicate the form that saw him win the golden boot last season, the media will rather believe false claims about City outspending everybody.

With the news making the rounds in the myriad of sports platforms worldwide, football fans will pick up these unfounded views and begin to run with them. They will follow Klopp’s lead in criticising City for being the enemy of football.

The German is up there among the biggest critics of City, alongside notable Spanish and German football executives. It's a price City have continued to pay for daring to challenge the status quo.