Jamie Carragher reveals how Liverpool trump Man Utd in transfer market - and Jurgen Klopp's influence

Jamie Carragher has explained how Liverpool's transfer policy has thrived where Manchester United's hasn't over the course of the last eight years.

Liverpool have achieved a huge amount of success since the arrival of Jurgen Klopp at the club, with the structure of having a dedicated transfer team allowing them to make smart and responsible choices in the market as opposed to United, who have almost done the opposite over the same time period.

The Reds brought in many of their star names for lower transfer fees, identifying players right before they burst into their top level and form. And even when they have allocated bigger money signings such as Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk, it's safe to say they also got those spot on. In contrast, United's approach has been hugely flawed and without direction which has left them in limbo as a club trying to find some way back to the success they had during Sir Alex Ferguson's reign.

Speaking on the Overlap's Stick to Football podcast, Carragher spoke about the difference between the two clubs and opened up about how Klopp has a certain amount of power and say-so regarding deals, but also that he has a dedicated team that have helped him avoid misfires in the market. “When Jürgen Klopp first came to Liverpool there was talk of a transfer committee – FSG came in and said, ‘we don’t want to buy players left, right, and centre, we want a director of football.'" He began.

“The director of football or footballing CEO, they’re thinking about the long-term for the club, whereas a manager is thinking of the short term – how long is a manager there? Maybe two years. However, when you get to situation, like Jürgen Klopp, when he’s now been at the club for eight years, he comes in initially with the transfer committee and its successful, but the longer he’s there he becomes almost like the sporting director. He’s never going to be sacked and he’s probably going to be there for another two years, so he is actually in there for the long haul. He gets that power as the time goes on.

“When he initially came in, an interesting one was Mohammed Salah and Jurgen Klopp is open about this. He didn’t want to sign him, he wanted Julian Brandt. Liverpool had tried to sign Salah before he went to Chelsea and the people behind the scenes at Liverpool were still there and Salah then went to Roma, and they were very adamant that they had to sign this player.

“You look at what Mohammed Salah has done, but it could have easily gone the other way. I do feel that this idea that managers should buy every player isn’t right, but a manager shouldn’t have a player pushed on him. I don’t think a manager should just be able to do what he wants, you look at Manchester United and its worrying, it feels as if he’s [Erik ten Hag] just bought every player he knows.”