The way things are looking I think it will be Ljinders.
My thoughts are if it were to be Gerrard he would have already been offered a prominant role within the senior coaching set up to learn from Klop and build his own personal style within the Liverpool set up.
August 14 can’t come soon enough 
It would be a catastrophy. I honestly wouldn’t know whom I’d want, probably Lijnders or someone else promoted from the inside. But if it had to be someone from the outside, Rafa would be in my top five without any hesitation, if only as a transitional choice until we find the truly perfect long-term replacement.
I would think that this job would ironically be a poisoned chalice for Rafa. Coming off the achievements of Jürgen, with a fanbase that is apparently still quite divided over him. Anything less than perfection and he’d be set upon immediately.
Stevie G after Klopp for me, so long as the current sort of set-up continued i.e. world class coaches, and a collaborative and thought out approach to recruitment.
Stevie would not need to be perfect from the get go, as all fans would know he is making a step up. He would have a bit of time, but since it’s football, not unlimited time… and neither should he.
The more I’ve thought about it the more the Stevie option has grown on me. Legendary player. Gets the club and then some. All that is there in abundance.
And what of the managerial record? Well, he is doing a fantastic job in Scotland. Took on a big club. They had been in trouble for a decade or more, and Stevie led them to the title. He has done as well as he possibly can with what has been placed before him.
Now, what about other more qualified potential candidates? It’s a fair point to make, but I look at Everton last season with Ancelotti. Been there, seen that, won the lot. And they were bang average.
Sometimes the best bet is to get hungry, up and coming leaders.
Klopp for a few more years, more silverware please Jurgen. Another Prem title or two, and another big ears, and jobs a good 'un. And then leave a world class and refreshed team, younger than now, with a healthy set up all around it in terms of coaching and recruitment, and set Stevie up for sustained success.
I think he will take to it like a duck to water. But we’re not there yet…
BR thinks only about himself. We have a first hand experience of that. Even with Celtic, you just need to look at the way he left them mid season. I wouldn’t get BR ever. Rafa I may be ok with as an interim manager.
I wouldn’t want to see Brendan or Rafa back at the club.
Fact of the matter is neither are good enough.
Rafa is in a sharp decline. His last 3 clubs have been Everton, some Chinese team and Newcastle.
I wouldn’t really class him an elite manager any longer.
Brendan is doing a decent job at Leicester and will probably go onto bigger things in the future.
If I had to pick one of the 2 it would have to be Brendan.
I know we are Liverpool and therefore close to Rafas heart but I couldn’t see it happening except as an interim style thing like he did at Chelsea. The controls he demanded at Everton and Newcastle before taking those jobs he wouldn’t have here. Even if FSG decided to approach him (they wouldn’t, they haven’t 2/3 times now when they could have) he’d have to take the job on their terms. They aren’t desperate like when they hired Rodgers and then he threw their structure plans under the bus on his introductory press conference, they’d be in a position of strength appointing a manager now. And one of the important points of having a competent director of football type is to have some joined up thinking on succession planning. Rafa from a tactical blueprint and playing style point makes zero sense as a follow on from Klopp.
Rafa ultimately left because the team stopped playing winning football under him. Since he left, he’s hardly set the world on fire at other clubs. He’s good, was brilliant but we’re now used to world class. I think he’s now at a club that matches him well, sadly. His Liverpool boat sailed many years ago.
In the very near future we will see has Rafa still got it or is he like mourinho yesterday’s man.
Football goes through cycles like fashion.
When Rafa/Mourinho came to the PL they brought a European intelligence and details focus, that aimed to suffocate/nullify the opposition. This was superseded by Tika Taka where it was all about possession. From Liverpool to Swansea teams tried to emulate Barcelona/Spain. Finally we are in an era of high pressure, controlling space (pressing without the ball) capitalising on opposition mistakes.
In time teams will increasingly figure out how to counter and a new cycle/style of football will emerge.
Rafa is still a top manager, but he needs to be complimented by a team that supports him to evolve. (That’s not Duncan Ferguson). That means we will probably see the trusted 4231.
It’s to Klopps credit we have seen his football already evolve after Buvač left.
I not certain what Rafa would do if he replaced Klopp. I do know that it’s going to be incredibly difficult for who ever it is. I would not rule out a scenario where Rafa steady the ship after Klopps replacement (or replacement, replacement) struggles.
I never want to see Rafa as Liverpool manager again.
I get it he is a legend, but his time at the club has been and gone and it should remain in the past.
Nothing to do with the Everton thing I just think that he has been left behind a little bit - similar to Jose and Wenger and that era of manager.
There are plenty of managers out there to succeed Klopp, let’s hope though that isn’t for a very very long time.
4:40
“I was at dortmund, i can’t go to schalke. I’m at liverpool, i can’t go to everton“
If you’ve become passionately connected to something you can’t passionately connect to its opposite. Dortmund rules out Schelke and Bayern and Liverpool should rule out Everton and Manchester United. There is zero question of Rafa being a good, compassionate man who emotionally connected to the city/area and the Hillsborough campaign. But maybe the level of passionate connection to LFC specifically was overstated? Don’t blame him if so. With all the shit at the club at the time what was he supposed to be connected to? The club as an administrative entity was at war with at any time was with or against him, ownership was either incompetent, criminal or both. Even current ownership was ushered in by Broughton which was a relationship that got off to a bad start as he was leaving and hasn’t hired him back several times when they’ve had opportunity. The fan base? Half disliked or even hated him towards the end, it was certainly a split fanbase with many trying to take his biggest accomplishment off him by saying it was Houlliers side that won the CL. Maybe we’ve expected too much from Rafa? It’s understandable if it’s the City of Liverpool (and wider Merseyside area) not the club Liverpool that he loves and is passionately connected to. But Shanks, Paisley, Kenny, Klopp? No fucking way any of them would ever even consider an Everton job in a million years. Rafa may have been in that camp if as a club and fanbase we hadn’t let him down in ways that would have hurt him.
Not sure about Shanks. When he got banned from Melwood, he went “training” at Bellefield. He just might have taken the job to spite Liverpool.
@AnfieldRdDreamer
Wouldn’t rule out Klopp taking the Bayern job in the future. Having a Dortmund past doesn’t rule out anything.
Mats Hummels recently played for both. Ottmar Hitzfeld won Bundesliga and CL as Manager with both clubs.
Klopps best friend David Wagner worked at Dortmund and took the Schalke job.
I doubt Klopp would, he’s been very vocal about being firmly on one side of the rivalry.
Could see Klopp managing Ajax in the future,
A club with a rich history, of winning trophies and bring player through from the youth system to the first team
I think Klopp may go the international manager route.
Klopp is conscious of the toll football takes on his life. But also has an innate competitiveness and desire to connect with fans. He might see international football as effectively being a part time job, while fulfilling his needs.
But then again I always thought Rafa would make a perfect international manager. Tournament football suits him.
I’ll bet Rafa would’ve gone for the England job, had it been offered, and the English might have had another trophy.
If we go back to the famous Shanks quote, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death…”, Rafa bought into that idea; Klopp doesn’t, and you see it in the way he treats his players, or even the way he approaches the transfer window.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Rafa. But there’s an obsessive, almost self-destructive element. Klopp feels more human.
I see that as the major difference between the two.