Clearly if you put one of the top two or three managers in the world in charge then you’ll get better results - that is beyond doubt. But I think you are still underestimating the difficulty of setting patterns of play in the time international managers have. The intricacies come from playing together regularly and that can’t happen for most international teams. The best counter evidence I can think of is the tikitaka style of Spain but even then then nearly every last player came from Barcelona or Real Madrid with the entire midfield from one very successful club side. The patterns weren’t set at international training camps.What would Klopp need to install? The top teams in the Prem currently play very similar styles. Technical, high possession Football with patterns of play that are suited to the skillsets of the players. Under Southgate we do that in patches, and when we do we look superb. We'd do that a helluva lot more under Klopp, with players essentially doing the same as they do in their club Football.
He'd elevate us simply by having players doing what they do week in, week out.
You hear comparisons from a handful, but you attribute them to everyone. I've already acknowledged Deschamps achievements, he most definitely is a level above Southgate, but I don't see him as 'elite' because I feel he could and should have gotten even more out of that France team.
The playing career is a straw man argument as well. Ferguson, Wenger and Mourinho hardly had stellar playing careers.
The playing career is not a strawman. I didn’t make the claim that having a successful playing career was a necessary condition for being a successful manager. I brought Deschamps’ playing career as an example of his experience fighting (and leading) big teams to the biggest trophies. To pretend that this experience has no value for a coach is surely wrong. And no, a successful playing career is not a sufficient condition either.