Jose Mourinho believes Liverpool’s summer spending means they face immense pressure to win the Premier League, with the Manchester United boss labelling Jurgen Klopp’s change in transfer policy as “funny”. Klopp has been forced to defend Liverpool’s expenditure on players, which topped £170m after signing goalkeeper Alisson last week, two years after the Liverpool boss was critical of United’s £90m move for Paul Pogba. Speaking after the friendly against AC Milan – which United won 9-8 in a shootout after a 1-1 draw – Mourinho was in a jovial mood when asked about Liverpool’s transfer business, but stressed there will now be a “demand” for the club to end their 28-year wait for a league title.
“I think if you have the money, if you invest well, it is better than to have it in the bank. Because the interest rates are very low,” Mourinho said. “The problem is you have to invest well and honestly I think they did very well, because every player they bought are quality players. I’m happy for them. And I’m also happy to smile [about Klopp’s previous comments] and to see that, you know, you can change your opinion and change as a person, it’s funny.That’s okay, but maybe this season finally you demand that they win. I think you have to be fair and now you have to demand [they win the league]. You have to say the team, with the investments not just this season, last season, that you made in January, that you make now, because that will probably be the record for the Premier League this season, I can’t see anyone else getting close to spending what they have. A team that was a finalist in the Champions League, you have to say you are a big candidate, you have to win.”
United and Liverpool go head to head in the International Champions Cup on Sunday at the Michigan Stadium. Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool cannot afford to become complacent after a busy summer in the transfer market. Reds fans are feeling optimistic going into next season after the club splashed out £176.95m to bring in Alisson (£67m), Naby Keita (£52.75m), Fabinho (£43.7m) and Xherdan Shaqiri (£13.5m). But Klopp knows there is nothing to celebrate and says his squad must be ready to fight to put themselves in position to win their first league title since 1990.
Klopp said : “We need to not only be ready to face Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, City and Tottenham, we need to be ready in all these games.When we go Burnley and when we go to Fulham, they don’t like our squad. They don’t think ‘wow, what a team, they earn such good wages’. They want to have our points – that is how it is. And we have to make sure we are ready for these fights and not celebrating signings and stuff like that. I get it – it is only preseason and people are happy. Cool. But if we want to stay happy there is a lot of work ahead.”
Mohamed Salah & Sadio Mane score in Reds win helping Liverpool beat Manchester City 2-1 in a pre-season match on the US. Salah, who scored 44 goals in 52 games for the Reds last season, equalised Leroy Sane’s second-half goal barely a minute after coming on as a substitute in front of a 52,000 crowd. Salah had another header cleared off the line and hit the bar. Sadio Mane’s injury-time penalty won the International Champions Cup match.
Salah and Senegal forward Mane were both playing for the first time since their countries were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage. City’s Bernardo Silva – whose Portugal side went out at the last-16 stage – made his first pre-season appearance, but the Blues are still without 15 other players who were on duty in Russia.
“It is incredible what we have done with the players we have for 75 minutes against the Champions League finalists,” said City boss Pep Guardiola after the game.