Jürgen Klopp - Liverpool Legend

Lovely and I completely agree! :+1:t2: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

3 Likes

Liverpool need to be very careful. History is a good teacher. Dortmund CEO, Watzke, on when Klopp left Dortmund: “Maybe it would’ve been better if we’d changed the team and not the coach. It was obvious we’d never have such a coach again, but you can get such players again.”

5 Likes

All nice and everything but at least half the team has been missing at some point since September.

4 Likes

Surely Klopp wouldn’t have turned his back on the players as that statement is indicating. So really doesn’t make a difference or sense!

1 Like

I disagree. We were top at Christmas. It’s march. Klopp has more than three months grace in that changeroom.

No point in taking it further.

3 Likes

Well you could explain your comment.

1 Like

It’s fairly self explanatory

Klopp makes the decisions. Not the players.

2 Likes

That cleared it up.

2 Likes

I wonder if the intensity of Klopp’s tactics and approach can be so mentally and physically demanding - especially with injuries and relatively little depth at certain positions - that it can have a dam-breaking effect at one point where everything just collapses and you need to start over fresh with new players with something to prove.

It happened during his last year at Dortmund, where the club was circling the drain in the relegation zone during his final year before rebounding towards the end - leading to his departure.

1 Like

Yep

Been hinting at it for a while really.

Klopp s brand of management actually requires more squad rotation ( sales and purchases) than he and the club seem willing to sanction.

I get he likes a thin squad and a while to work with players, but really, it should be forced upon him to rotate the squad a bit each window.

There’s only so many times one player can’ go to the well’

Opinion only obviously, but guys like mane have been on for so long they need a mental break.

2 Likes

I completely agree with this, but it isn’t like Klopp has much choice. He has depth, but he can’t use it.

Take the full backs. Neco Williams and Kostas Tsimikas are the back up full backs. But Klopp can’t use them. He can‘t go into Premier League games asking Kabak or Phillips to look after Neco, or expecting one of the midfielders covering Van Dijk to help Tsimikas.

He lost Jota (partly his fault to be honest), his option up front, and had little choice but to ask the front three to go again.

As for midfield, having required Hendo or/and Fab to drop back, he has been short of options - Keita and Ox are clearly not fit, and frequently he has had only three options to go with.

3 Likes

Yep that’s all true

But I’m talking about fresh blood

Jota and Thiago actually ticked those boxes in the summer

It’s nuanced, it’s not like a default go to answer to all our issues, but we kept our powder dry for just a tad too long in my humble opinion, and then when we really needed it, we came up with Kabakand Davies

More than willing to give them time, but it just has the feel of missed opportunity.

Time will tell. But by god I’m hoping Klopp can pull this one out… just like the ‘perennial cup final loser’ tag I hope ‘Dortmund 2.0’ gets smashed out of the park by the great man.

Given us so much so far, few more years yet to set up the next great dynasty… I’ll back him all the way.

2 Likes

He does have options, we’ve had periods of having enough midfielders available to play 2 up front and rest one of the front three.

Likewise when Hendo or Fab was fit why not play Williams or Tsimikas. Yes the level of those players may of been less, but in not trusting anyone outside his core 14 he’s burnt them all out which has had an even worse affect.

2 Likes

Klopp put up with Moreno for months until Robertson was ready. For better or for worse, unless he has no choice at all he will not use a player who is not up to the required standard and essentially sacrifice him. Particularly in a disfunctioning side that is on its worst run since 2016.

It goes without saying that he would have liked to be able to bring them along by using them when circumstances allowed but that went down the toilet thanks to the injuries. Along with his possibility to rotate, the team’s form and the season so far.

He is still having to play a midfielder at the back, that’s already weakened the side so you do it even more by removing more first team players.

Good teams start with a solid back line and he hasn’t had that, the players look exhausted at times and then full of energy at others.

Nothing explains the drop off so much but all things added together does, every team in the bottom of the form table has had a bad run of injuries, we’ve had that since September. Continuously missing 5 first team players for long periods. Have you seen the bench some weeks, he stuck two youngsters on and didn’t even fill the quota, at one point he was putting Kelleher and Adrian on a bench of 7.

I think the question is not why has it got so bad now, it’s how did we hold it together til Christmas. People criticised those mid season breaks in a hot climate and we did usually have a crap result on return but maybe they worked in the long term.

4 Likes

Yes he has been forced into that, but he isn’t forced into playing a high defensive line and the midfield not pressing is he? My point is Klopp has got options, he can change the formation to help utilise the fit players better, but he doesn’t. The 433 hasn’t worked for months. He needs to be pragmatic during this injury crisis rather than sticking to his philosophy.

4 Likes

Where did you get that from?
Robertson won his place during a lay off period for Moreno. I consider your comment as bending the truth. It was clear that Klopp liked Moreno and let’s face it some things Moreno could do were technically far superior to Robertson. The fact that Robertson was rubbish at rondo seems to be what kept him out of the team (just ask AOC).

2 Likes

And allowing Origi to stay and then never giving him a run of games to find form? Origi has been fit all season yet never used to rotate the front three. Even if Origi doesn’t score and we draw, he’s given a Mane or Salah some breathing space.

There are options, we just haven’t used them and ran everyone into the ground.

4 Likes

Yes, however you don’t drop your potentially best 3 players when your struggling you keep pushing them until something clicks. Ok I would drop Firmino but Klopp won’t and he must have his reasons.

We had Taki fit, he played well and then dropped and shipped out. One of the strangest decisions made. So to say we didn’t have options to shake things up just doesn’t add up, its also not true.

2 Likes