He gets the best seats in the house every week, so it is not time Sir Alex Ferguson was asked to earn his price of admission? Jurgen Klopp meanwhile shows he consistently seems to know good value when he sees it while Thomas Tuchel shows there is a need to be much braver when it comes to dealing properly with the Ukraine crisis at Stamford Bridge.
FERGIE TIME LONG OVERDUE
The result, the manner and the post-match devastation all clearly shows something desperate is needed at Manchester United if they are not to sink into the kind of Premier League wilderness Liverpool sank into for three decades.
Ralf Rangnick seems still to be a man caught in the headlights unable to stop the juggernaut as it hurtles down the hill. Roy Keane in the pundit’s box certainly has the passion, but if Micah Richards can chuckle throughout his latest diatribe, perhaps the former Manchester United captain can no longer be taken as seriously as he once was in that Old Trafford dressing room.
Sir Alex Ferguson looked to be seething as every goal went in. He cannot be the day-to-day crisis management option for the club so long after he retired. But this is an emergency situation.
If there is one voice the current Manchester United dressing room could be shamed into action by – from Cristiano Ronaldo to Marcus Rashford via Harry Maguire – it is the angry one that Ferguson must surely still possess.
If Rangnick were a big enough character, he would ask his prize asset right now to dust down the hairdryer for one last blast. If that fails to galvanise players who simply should not be performing this badly, United could be in for a very miserable few more years yet.
Whether out of deference to the Beatles, Jurgen Klopp has made no long-term commitment to build a Fab Four. Instead, he has gone from a three to a five.
When Liverpool did finally win the title it was built on the striking prowess of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino. But Klopp’s brilliance is that he quickly realised that would not be enough to hunt down a galvanised City a second time.
And even though it is hard enough to blend three attacking forces into one irrepressible unit, the Liverpool manager felt he had to get five working together with the club still involved in four competitions.
Against West Ham it was Luis Diaz’s turn to be the powerhouse with Roberto Firmino continuing to struggle with muscle issues, but he already looks like he has been part of the set-up for years.
Given Pep Guardiola can’t even find one striker he particularly likes – at least for the money he is willing to spend – Klopp’s achievements in the transfer market at this end are probably even more significant than his masterstroke signings of Alisson Becker and Virgil Van Dyke.