Indeed and so are Liverpool, its funny how so many Spurs fans keep going on about how crap Jose, Klopp are as managers and how poor those teams are, yet they are above us in the table. Our fans are no different from other teams we all look at our teams and compere others through tinted glasses.
Mate, you are picking a point in time
- Over the period Klopp & Mourinho have been in charge of thier clubs, Poch has out performed them, by season, and I'm sure in total points/GD/everything to this moment.
- This despite significantly more gross spend, and both clubs having 2X or better wage structure
- How a team plays vs. points they pick up in any given short stretch is usually an indicator of what long term result is (Manure has been lucky, Pool less so, Salad has been a big factor for them)
I've said it before, you are measure by return on investment - United has one of the supposedly elite 3 managers in the world, de Gea, Matic, Pogba, Zlatan, Sanchez, Mata, Lukaku, Carrick, Martial, Lingard, Blind, etc. If they manage to finish 2-3 points ahead of us in table having spent 300M on players, with 3X wages and playing football that makes my eyes bleed, I won't say that's an achievement.
Lets be clear (and fans may not like it)
- Poch's goal at the beginning of the season is to secure a CL spot = we still have our fate in our hands
- Pool (for last 20+ years) and United are supposed to be winning the PL and/or deep run in CL = not even close, neither of them were ever at the races.
The arguments against both managers are quite logical
- Jose is a wrecking ball that gets short term results at the cost of significant drama (works for some clubs)
- If Klopp had spent a little more time focusing on defense with Salad's season they would have been in the running for title (just naïve, missed opportunity)
I'm not saying Poch is beyond reproach, I'm just not sure expecting results greater than we have based on wages/squad/expenditure is realistic for us, where for those two, you could easily say they should be further.