Klopp’s reliance on the undroppables reveals Liverpool’s soft underbelly

Even Jürgen Klopp seemed a little mannered and grave in his pre-match press conference, unwilling to offer up barbs or jokes or amusingly exuberant swear words. There was some headline-grabbing stuff about the limits of being able to compete long-term with clubs owned by nation states, remarks that, while undeniably true and worthy of debate, will still rile the more biddable foot soldiers of the Etihad public relations department.

Mainly Klopp sat at his desk talking without hyperbole about Manchester City as the best team in the world and Erling Haaland as the best striker in the world. Nobody disagreed (they shouldn’t: they are; he is) or really made much of it. But then, as Liverpool welcome City to Anfield on Sunday afternoon, eight games into a Premier League season of entropy and metal fatigue, it is hard to avoid the sense of a pistol hammer being cocked.

Liverpool haven’t won a league game since August. Liverpool had conceded 10 goals in five games before Wednesday night’s stroll through a Rangers backline that showed all the resistance of a beaded curtain.

If Klopp’s team look tired, well, maybe that’s because they are. At the Emirates last weekend Liverpool had eight men on the pitch who also played in the opening game of Champions League run four years and one global pandemic ago. Even the most resilient material has a limit to its tensile strength.

By contrast City have yet to lose this season and have looked like an entity in a state of transformation, all new shapes and new forms, new energy. City have 44 goals in 14 games, 31 of those scored by 22-year-olds. Even Pep Guardiola has begun to dress a little younger, to wear trousers with too many pockets, a man who is suddenly able to marvel a little at the