A penny for the thoughts of Jurgen Klopp at this moment as he watches an extraordinary title race unfold in the Premier League from afar. For years, Liverpool were seen as the nearly men in the Premier League.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride as Manchester City seemed to always have the edge over their Merseyside opponents. Winning the title in the Covid-hit season aside, it felt like the Reds were always destined to be second best to Pep Guardiola.

Perhaps that realisation was one of the reasons Klopp chose to walk away. Who could blame him for feeling fatigued trying to outwit the Catalan coach and just falling short.

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Yet, here we are, little more than six months on from the German's departure and seeing Liverpool capitalise on a City team, led by Guardiola, that appears to have run out of ideas. They did not play badly on Wednesday night in the 2-0 defeat to Juventus but there was weirdly a sense of inevitability in the defeat once they went a goal down.

That is unheard of for a Guardiola team and this is something which Jamie Carragher spotted almost immediately after the full-time whistle in Turin. "You can't believe what you're seeing," he told CBS Sports.

"I mean, this is a massive crisis. This was a crisis two or three weeks ago.

"The greatest and most successful manager, possibly, of all-time... he's got no answers for it right now! He's tried different systems, players in different positions.

"He's never gone through this before, so he's got no experience in this situation. Nothing to fall back on, because he's been so successful in the past!

"I think there's a lot of coaches around the world looking at Pep with a wry smile and thinking: 'Finally! Pep Guardiola is going through something that we've all been through at some stage in our career!"

Carragher's giddiness is understandable, especially with Liverpool in red hot form. And that is where the Reds' title advantage lies.

While Guardiola is trying to solve this seemingly unsolvable puzzle, the Reds are cracking on with business and opening up a gap that feels unassailable. They have played their nearest rivals - Chelsea, Arsenal and City once already and remain unbeaten against all three of them.

Suddenly, as we hurdle towards Christmas, it feels as though Guardiola does not have the time to fix whatever crisis of confidence his team is currently facing. In the meantime, it is Liverpool who benefit and begin to close in on what would be a spectacular first season for Arne Slot.

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