It's not a fallacy though, it's a matter of fact (relative to who we're competing with anyway). Yes, the overall cost of our first 11 or even our squad isn't massively short of that of Utd or City's however we've built that squad with a far smaller budget. Where Utd and City have signed a £50m player, flopped, signed a £50m player, flopped and signed another £50m to replace them, we've typically bought once and bought well. Had we not bought so well then there's not a chance that we'd have a squad that could compete with City's, because we can't (or at least couldn't) keep replacing failed £50m signings with more £50m signings.I am not saying Liverpool haven't spent wisely. They clearly have. I am just pointing out that Liverpool have a top top team built on a small budget is a fallacy. The cost of Liverpool's strongest 11 is up there with the rest of them.
It is the same reason Manchester United's spend is realistically even worse considering Mctominay, Rashford and Greenwood were all essentially free in terms of transfer fees. Net spend never shows the true picture when talking transfers.