Didi Hamann has claimed that weaknesses in Liverpool’s squad make Manchester City strong favourites to go on and lift the Premier League title this season.
The Reds travelled to the Etihad yesterday and played out a pulsating 2-2 draw with Pep Guardiola’s side, and whilst the German was reviewing the game for talkSPORT, he claimed the Cityzen’s strength in depth give them an advantage over Liverpool.
“What’s in City’s favour is obviously the bench they’ve got and the squad they’ve got,” said Hamman (as quoted by Rousing The Kop).
“If you look at Liverpool’s bench yesterday, there was Keita, who has been indifferent since he came to the club, then Diaz came on.
“Firmino looks off at the moment, he’s not really an option I don’t think. So off the bench they’ve (City) got more options, they can rotate the squad more than Liverpool can.”
The comments are rather surprising from Hamann considering that Jurgen Klopp now appears to have more squad depth than ever before during his time at the club.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi were not even a part of the matchday squad yesterday which does point to some sort of strength in depth for Liverpool.
The signing of Luis Diaz has had a huge impact on the Liverpool side and we now have more quality options than ever in the attacking department.
Naby Keita hasn’t yet reached his full potential in a red shirt but has shown glimpses.
We’d argue that Bobby Firmino doesn’t necessarily look ‘off’ at the moment as our former midfielder has claimed, but many would suggest that he no longer finds a spot in Klopp’s strongest XI.
To claim he’s ‘not really an option’ is rather harsh when you take into consideration that the Brazilian has missed a lot of games through injury recently but still has nine goals and four assists to his name in 29 appearances so far this season (across all competitions).
Guardiola’s side do have serious strength in depth, that’s clear for all to see, but you can only field 11 players at a time and we’re proving that we certainly match them.
With just seven games to go, yesterday’s result did suit the Manchester outfit more than it suited us, but as captain Jordan Henderson claimed following the game, we will give it everything.