Liverpool vs Man City: Jurgen Klopp insists it is ‘impossible’ for Reds to compete with transfer spending

George Flood14 October 2022

A feisty Jurgen Klopp insists it is impossible for Liverpool to compete with Manchester City on the transfer front as the two sides prepare to lock horns this weekend.

Defending Premier League champions City head to Anfield on Sunday for the latest instalment of arguably English football’s most enthralling current rivalry sitting nine places and 13 points above their traditional title foes after hugely contrasting starts to the season.

After adding Norwegian goal machine Erling Haaland to their already star-studded squad in a £51million deal over the summer, Pep Guardiola’s team have continued to go from strength to strength, notching 44 goals already across all competitions this term - 20 from Haaland - and jostling with Arsenal for top-flight supremacy.

Liverpool, by contrast, have their Champions League campaign firmly back on track after routing Rangers in midweek but have made their worst start to a domestic season for a decade, sitting 10th with just two wins from eight games and Klopp ruling them out of the title race already.

Asked during Friday’s pre-match press conference how Liverpool, who spent an initial £64m on their own star forward in Darwin Nunez over the summer, could keep up with City, a defiant Klopp said: "Oh, you won't like the answer. Nobody can compete with City in that.

Unstoppable: Erling Haaland has already scored 20 competitive goals for Manchester City
AP

"You have the best team in the world and you put in the best striker on the market, no matter what it costs, you just do it.

"What does Liverpool do? We cannot act like them. It is not possible.

"There are three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially. It's legal and everything, fine, but they can do what they want.

"We have to look at it (and say) 'We need that and we need that and we have to look here and make it younger, and here a prospect and here a talent'.

"That is what you have to do. And you compete with them. You have to compete with them. It is not a problem at all for me, it's like it is.

"I heard now that at Newcastle somebody (sporting director Dan Ashworth) said 'There is no ceiling for this club'.

"Yes, he is absolutely right. There is no ceiling for Newcastle. Congratulations. But some other clubs have ceilings."

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