Gary Neville feels Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are ’empowering’ their respective squads after taking the gamble to secure wins for Liverpool and Manchester City in much-changed sides on Saturday.
The Premier League title rivals continued their titanic battle as Klopp’s men won 1-0 at Newcastle earlier in the day to go top, before City responded to return to the summit after a 4-0 romp at Leeds United.
Klopp and Guardiola both made five changes to their sides to freshen things up, with one eye on next week’s Champions League semi-final second legs.
And Neville feels they showed faith in the players coming in, giving them confidence that they can make a major impact in vitally important games in the run-in.
He told The Gary Neville Podcast on Sky Sports: “What Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are doing today is, they’re basically empowering the squad.
“You hear managers say ‘I’ve got a great squad’. But have you got the guts and the courage to really use that squad in big matches where you need to win?
“Where you know if you don’t win there is a large consequence, or you’re probably going to lose a league title, or you’re going to get knocked out of a European Cup competition. So to do it and then come out of it and win – you’ve empowered everybody.
“You’ve made everybody feel part of it. And the strength in that squad and the commitment of everybody means that you start to blend into the feeling of every three days, you know everyone’s had a game, no one feels like there’s a first eleven.
Bench players so important in title race
“It’s a real mistake to name your first eleven, then always play that first eleven in modern football, if you’re going to go for three and four trophies because you’re going to need those five and six and seven on the bench. And so to keep them included to make them feel part of it, get them on the pitch if you can, even it’s for 10 or 15 minutes at the end.
“It’s really critical that you make everybody feel proud of being part of the squad because there is absolute certainty there is going to come a game that will catch you out, and you’re going to need two or three subs to come on and save you. That could be a defensive sub, it could be an attacking sub as well more often than not.
“We had it in the Champions League final, where we had two subs come off the bench and win it for us. Liverpool have that in them, Manchester City have that in them, but you need to keep those players in form, confident, fit, part of it, energised. Making them feel like they’re contributing to the success, and it’s not just a token gesture where you’re being played in the sort of weak games.”
