The Best Player in 'Big Six' Games in the Klopp vs. Guardiola era

The top man is obvious but there are some pro-rata surprises

In his farewell Anfield speech, Jürgen Klopp was asked about a Liverpool match he’d like to go back to, and said: “one of the [Manchester] City games we drew! That would’ve helped, eh?”

At a similar time, a tearful Pep Guardiola paid tribute to the departing Reds manager. "Jürgen has been a really important part of my life. He brought me to another level as a manager. We respect each other incredibly,” he said.

The rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester City has defined the Premier League for the last few years, the teams pushing each other to previously unreached heights. They clashed 22 times in the Klopp-Guardiola era, with the Reds winning eight matches and losing six. As City also won a penalty shoot-out in the 2019 Community Shield, that leaves seven other draws and a head-to-head record which could barely be closer.

Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne were the teams’ top goal contributors, either with or without penalties, to the surprise of nobody. Among players with a decent sample size, Gabriel Jesus had the best rate for non-penalty goals and assists per 90 minutes. While that may seem surprising considering his legendarily sub-par finishing, two of his goals occurred after Liverpool went down to 10 men in the 37th minute of a match at the Etihad in 2017.

Even allowing for that boost, the Brazilian’s record is noticeably different in the Premier League in other matches between two of the established big six clubs; he had 1.23 goals and assists per 90 for City against Liverpool, 0.38 otherwise. Salah’s record is identical for both sets (0.88) while Erling Haaland is 0.99 worse versus the Reds than he has been when facing Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham, four sides against whom he has collectively feasted.

The former Dortmund striker is one of the leading players for goal contributions in the Big Six mini-league since the summer of 2016 (when the Klopp-Guardiola era began), even though he has only spent two seasons in England. Haaland made five contributions in a single Manchester derby in October 2022, the best performance by this measure in this study, while Salah has a pair of fours; coincidentally, or perhaps not, both against United.

The Egyptian also has the most Big Six goals and assists in total since the start of 2016/17, with his tally of 55 comfortably ahead of De Bruyne (40) and Harry Kane (35). It is remarkable that Haaland is ninth after so few minutes, while Trent Alexander-Arnold deserves credit for hitting joint-10th largely on assists.

Salah tops the table for away games too, having scored 14 times and set up six goals on the road. But back to the total figures. Sort them by goals and assists per 90, discount penalties and apply a minimum requirement of 1,500 minutes playing time and you’ll see Diogo Jota rise to second in the standings.

Across the era of Jürgen and Pep, City lead the Big Six mini-league with 145 points, while Liverpool (136) are comfortably ahead of joint-third Arsenal and United (99). But in 2023/24, the Reds only won two of their 10 such matches, with Jota starting just four of them.

Maybe Liverpool would have had a better record if their Portuguese forward had been fit to start more big matches this term? It’s hard not to assume he’d have converted some of the many, many chances which went begging in the draws home and away with United and against City at Anfield.

With standards rising across the Premier League, the truly dominant era of the Big Six may have ended. For the first four seasons covered here, Leicester’s fifth place in 2019/20 was the only top six spot not taken by one of the established big boys, whereas there have been five since then, including a top four berth in each of the last two campaigns.

But whatever happens there, the age of Guardiola and Klopp facing off is at an end. It’s pretty seismic.