For many years now, Jurgen Klopp has been able to paint a picture of Liverpool as the plucky underdogs fighting against the state-owned Manchester City for Premier League supremacy.
However, over the last year or so especially, most fans outside of Liverpool have grown increasingly tired with the underdog act.
Speaking earlier this year, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel lauded Klopp for his ability to get people to believe his side are the underdogs: “Jurgen Klopp is the master of being the underdog.
“He can talk you into Liverpool being an underdog against Villarreal and against Benfica, and that it is a miracle how they make it to even draw against them. He does it a lot of times and that’s part of where the sympathy comes from.”
Klopp, himself, meanwhile, continues to make jibes at Manchester City’s spending, saying this about the Sky Blues last summer: “We are allowed to spend the money we earn…they obviously don’t have any limits.”
The reality of the situation in the last few years, though, is that Liverpool are one of the biggest spenders in the Premier League.
They have the second most expensive centre-back, second most expensive goalkeeper and, after the Darwin Nunez deal sees the add-ons met, the fourth most expensive signing in Premier League history.
In defence of their club, Liverpool fans have used the ‘Coutinho money’ argument, which is now something of a joke amongst rivals fans and, in more recent times, the Reds have pointed to their clubs net spend.
Even last summer, when City splashed £100m on Jack Grealish and Liverpool only signed Ibrahima Konate for £36m, Liverpool fans were on their high horse, not taking into account they then went and spent over £40m on Luis Diaz in January whilst City brought in nobody.
And, as per transfermarket, from the summer of 2020 to the present day, Liverpool have the third-highest net spend in the Premier League with a negative balance of £177.17m.
In comparison, Manchester City and Chelsea – both of whom have been heavily criticised by Liverpool fans and their manager for their signings of Romelu Lukaku (£97.5m) and Grealish (£100m) – have lower net spends with negative balances of just over £169m since the summer of 2020.
New York City vs Colorado Rapids betting tips: Major League Soccer preview, predictions and odds
Nashville vs Sporting Kansas City betting tips: Major League Soccer preview, predictions and odds
