Just wanted to pop into the thread to say Jurgen Klopp is ace. I’m glad he is our manager, and there’s no one I’d rather have to lead us forward. I hope minor investment kicks in, or the owners cover it with a loan, and we spend a good amount in summer to build out the new side that is emerging, so that we can challenge for the league title again.
I want to comment on Jurgen’s loyalty, as I do think he has a fault there, but it is a minor fault that needs to be examined to give the full picture.
The upside of loyalty is that generally it fosters a great spirit in the group, and players will run through brick walls for you. We have hit the heights over the years under Jurgen, and a good part of that has been down to his loyalty. He believes in his players. They believe in him. And a synergy happens that takes the team to a great place.
Looking at it this season, I think it is more that they are knackered, mentally, physically, and a few are too old or too injured. I think the midfield aspect of recent recruitment has been lacking, so the whole team looks off. It’s a bit of a shitstorm of several factors.
To my eyes, rather than saying they have stopped playing for Klopp, or have a bad attitude or whatever, too many of them are just spent.
One other thing about loyalty is that if players are going to move on, a buyer is needed! If it is a highly paid Liverpool player, the pool of teams who will take on the wages is small. Then let’s remember that we are talking about a player who is getting close to being a spent force, hence the conversation about loyalty and moving them on. At that point who is going to sign such a player and pay their wages? Presumably other teams have scouts and they will want hungry players with more mileage left in their legs.
As an example, let’s look at the list of potential suitors for Fabinho in the summer. Most people would look at him and say that his form and energy have declined alarmingly. So what if he isn’t sold in the summer? Is that because Klopp is too loyal to Fabinho, or because we didn’t get a suitable offer? And so because there was no suitable offer, we decided to keep him around, in the hope that he can add something closer to what he showed before, rather than paying for the privilege of moving him on and perhaps even subsidizing his wages to have him play elsewhere.
I know this is a Hypothetical future example, but I’m just chipping away at the loyalty thing. It is a factor, such as Henderson’s contract which is too generous, but overall I don’t think it is as big a factor as we might think.
One other thing that comes to mind on loyalty is Naby Keita. Klopp pursued him and added him from the Bundesliga, paying in advance for the privilege, to some fanfare. He was a £55M man. Prime age. Should be helping to carry the midfield department, aided by old timers and young up and comers. Last night we were going up against Real Madrid, and we were depleted. But Klopp showed absolutely no loyalty to Naby Keita, probably because he hasn’t been nearly good enough for us, and so Klopp sat him on the bench and he watched.
Klopp can sometimes be cold and ruthless too, to my eye.
Anyway, I do believe Klopp has a minor fault with loyalty. But I don’t think it is as big a fault as some would say, especially when you break it down.
This summer there will be a broom sweeping through the squad. Not so drastic as to cut our nose off to spite our face, as we won’t have the unlimited funds to do that.
But I suspect there will be a fair old list of exits, and perhaps even one or two surprises among them.
Klopp is building a new Liverpool side and I hope he gets the backing required to do some significant business this summer.
Keep shining Jurgen! We are with you.