KLOPP’S HAD IT TOUGHER THAN PEP...

JURGEN KLOPP v Pep Guardiola will be the subject of many arguments here in the weeks ahead. This season tests their judgment of strikers: Erling Haaland v Darwin Nunez. What I would say going into the season is that Jurgen has had the more difficult inheritance and more difficult job of the two. He has had to come in, make big decisions and earn his stripes.

Pep and his staff have had an incredible run with their recruitment. But Pep joined a club who had won the title twice in five years, under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini. Jurgen joined one who hadn’t won the title for 25 years. Pep’s net spend has been £530million. Jurgen’s has been £260m.

Pep could afford to leave his new England international Kalvin Phillips on the bench in the Community Shield last Sunday. But Jurgen’s relatively modest summer buying — with Nunez, Calvin Ramsay as cover at right back and Fabio Carvalho from Fulham — seems a throwback to Bob Paisley tweaking 14-man squads during my time at Anfield. With Paisley it was evolution, not revolution, and it made us serial winners of the title.