It’s a period of “transition” for Liverpool and Man City currently, with Jurgen Klopp acknowledging that change comes with the territory of being a successful team.
Liverpool made three permanent additions to their squad this summer before Arthur hit the loan market on the last day of the deadline, while Sadio Mane was a significant departure.
But the general consensus is that the club did not do enough to build a position of strength and in the face of accumulated fatigue.
Early results and performances leave the Reds five points behind Man City in the Premier League, a team Klopp knows is in a state of transition alongside his after a busy transfer summer.
Erling Haaland led City’s arrivals and has already scored 12 goals this season, a signing that comes as part of “refreshing a successful team”, which Klopp knows needs to be done “from time to time”.
Interesting words from Klopp in his recent interview with Sport1, and his definition of a “winner” will form the basis for the Reds to regain their form.
“Haaland is an exceptional footballer and of course they have gotten stronger because of him,” Klopp said of Man City.
“You just have to know – Pep [Guardiola] he sees this as much as I do: that the team has to be reorganized from time to time.
“We also won players and lost one [Sadio Mane] who almost always played. And that will take time.
“That applies to City as much as it does to us. But when you see how City play, how the balls get into the penalty area, how Erling stays in the right spaces, it’s hard to avoid scoring goals. Many even.
“But City have also loaned out a lot of players and are also in transition, even more so than us.
“It’s part of renewing a successful team. They gave up Gabriel Jesús, Raheem Sterling, who was a fixture in Manchester for years. Zinchenko too. Fernandinho has retired, or rather, he has returned to Brazil.
“They were important players for City. And the season is fucking long and is interrupted again by the World Cup, nobody has a clue [what will happen].”
