Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will not allow Manchester United's greater financial muscle to become a plotline behind Monday's heavyweight Premier League clash. Jose Mourinho was afforded over £150million to bring United's squad into shape ahead of the campaign, funding a world-record move for Paul Pogba and a costly 'free' transfer for top scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Liverpool's spending was modest in comparison, with big-money moves for Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum being financed in part by the departures of Christian Benteke, Jordon Ibe and Joe Allen. Klopp attracted Mourinho's trademark invective when he questioned the prospective signing of Pogba in pre-season, saying: "If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney."
But the Reds boss insisted those comments were not borne of jealousy and that he prefers to work under greater restraint. "I don't care how much money another club can spend. Absolutely not one second of my life," Klopp said. "And I am completely fine with what we could spend and what we did in the summer. Having more money or all the money in the world is not in my dreams for the manager's job."
"I am completely fine with the situation we have here. It's not a competition. It's not that you win the league before the season. You have a team without spending money and you have a team with spending a lot of money. Everybody has their own possibilities, their own ideas. I am happy with our possibilities."
Klopp added: "I have the attacking options I want. It's not about having to have the best players around anyway, it's about doing the best with what you have. Of course, I am pleased to have scored the most goals, even if I still remember most of the chances we missed."
"I am quite happy with the offensive part of our game, but even if we have scored a lot of goals we still have to show we can score goals in the future."
Though satisfied with his lot, Klopp's selection is almost certain to give up a physical advantage to a United side likely to include towering figures such as Ibrahimovic, Pogba and Marouane Fellaini. Klopp joked: "We have already started to stretch our players!
"Seriously, though, I would imagine that if United start putting their tall players in the box they will be fighting for the result, and for that to happen it must mean that something we did must have worked pretty well."
"We know about United's physical strength and we cannot do anything to change it, all we can do is try to avoid situations where they can use it. But we have strengths of our own and first we must concentrate on what we do well."
Comments
SHARE