Football’s Mr Marmite gives his take on the biggest talking points in England’s top flight

MUCH as every Manchester United fan will hate to admit it, Jurgen Klopp has shown it is possible to convert also-rans into champions inside four years.

Klopp has spent £395million on new players since he became Liverpool manager in October 2015 – with a net spend of just under £70m.

In that time, he has won the European Cup, reached four other major finals and is sitting pretty with an eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League.

Contrast Klopp’s ascent with United’s wretched decline since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013.

In the last six seasons, United have finished an average of 21.5 points behind the champions.

They are now an irrelevance in the title race.

Liverpool don’t just go to Old Trafford, where they have a poor record of two wins in 18 games, as firm favourites this weekend.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they won comprehensively because they have the best manager and the best front three in the world.

Look at the first Liverpool team Klopp picked four years ago, against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, and you can see the extent of his makeover: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho, Moreno, Leiva, Can, Milner, Lallana, Coutinho, Origi. Survivors, as first-team picks in 2019 are few and far between.

Klopp turned that lot from eighth in 2016 to Champions League winners three years later.

From back to front, his signings have been supreme value for money from keeper Alisson Becker to Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.

Contrast Klopp’s surgery with United’s line-up the same weekend: De Gea, Darmian, Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Mata, Herrera, Martial, Rooney.

Yes, there have been changes. But United have spent £900m on new players since Fergie stepped down – and they have gone backwards.

In Fergie’s era there used to be a nucleus of senior players calling the shots and leading by example for youngsters to follow. Now there is too much dead wood cluttering up the squad.

Young players used to give United pace and energy, now they are having to carry the team.

Loyal supporters at Old Trafford won’t thank me for this but if I had to pick a combined United/ Liverpool XI now, French international Paul Pogba would be the only Red Devils player to make the cut.

And United fans won’t enjoy this either: In the visitors’ dugout this weekend, under the beard and baseball cap, will be the best manager in the world.

Klopp has shown that it is possible to build champions of Europe without wasting £900m.