The Hunt for Klopp’s Successor

Maybe that’s what we need - to play ugly football. We’ve been the ‘nice guys’ of the PL and everyone including the officials take advantage of that.

So Klopp has only had 2 successful seasons since joining us? :man_shrugging:

The difficulty for me with that comparison is that Paisley and the coaching staff were already at the club so there was less of a transition than we will see this summer.

3 Likes

I think the big difference between Shankly and Paisley was that Paisley had a ruthless streak that Shankly lacked. It pained Shankly to move on his 60s team when they weren’t performing, whereas Paisley, regardless of his genial demeanour, absolutely knew when a player was declining and wouldn’t think twice about moving them on.

I’m not worried about the “head coach” designation. To my mind it makes the manager’s job easier because he isn’t the one that has to break it to a player that they are on the decline and need to look at a lucrative contract in the elephant’s graveyard leagues. Klopp, like Shankly, has seemed to put his loyalty and personal friendships above hard business. I don’t regard that as a personal weakness but I think it helps if those kind of decisions are taken out of the coach’s hands.

We aren’t moving back to the situation of the board members picking the team. Matt Busby in 1945 and Shankly in 1951 turned down coaching positions because, as Shankly said in 1951, “What am I supposed to be managing?” What I am hoping is that Slot can concentrate on putting together a winning team, and the sporting director and other backroom boys can worry about the donkey-work of identifying players and dealing with agents.

2 Likes

Seriously expect this team to perform well for the new boss. This team is way better than the one Klopp inherited. He is leaving us in a very good club position.

2 Likes

The whole manager vs head coach thing is not black and white.

There are roles, role title and how the thing works from decision to decision.

If Klopp is officially a manager, he certainly isn’t or wasn’t the old school type. He did have more to do in the last year or so and that obviously wasn’t good overall, it “killed” him and 1 League Cup in two seasons post-2022 certainly isn’t what we aspired to do. But he certainly wasn’t acting alone.

To say “dictators” are a thing of past is absolutely nothing new. But Klopp wasn’t that. I imagine it’s only a change of role title and perhaps a little bit how we work, too. But not much.

If Slot’s official title is head coach now, I doubt it will change much from how we worked with Klopp. Nobody said so far that he won’t have a say in transfers. He should, hopefully, whoever is our coach.

Klopp did say at the start that he wants the first and last word on transfers and in between that, there can be talks. Perhaps Slot won’t have the first and last, but he surely must be on that table and involved.

Reports are saying that Edwards isn’t satisfied (understandably) with what the club did especially in terms of some big incoming transfers lately. Obviously he will want to fix that, having a bit more power this time. But it cannot sway towards the other side and forget about the coach.

Transfers and how you train or use the squad goes together, it must be connected.

Plus, not to mention that not all transfers happen in the same way. From deal to deal, there can be a different combination of influences that lead to a general agreement.

2 Likes

So we’ve only had 3 successful seasons in the last 34 years?

No top 4 and no trophies should be automatic sackable offence (unless you have credit in the bank). This club must not allow itself to go back to those periods of darkness.

Absolute minimum is 4th, but success is and will always = trophies so a carbon copy of this season next will be fine.

Having never heard of “Arne Slot” before this month and considering he does not posses experience of the highest level (any of top 5 european leagues), I am going to keep my expectations low for the next season.
For me personally, top 4 and knockout stages of the CL will be enough. Anything less , and Klopp will available next summer again :rofl:

However, I would also like to see the some improvements over the season;

  • Make us harder to beat, add some steel in that midfield. We seem to be getting bullied across the park. Mac, Endo and Dom is too lightweight for this league , I am afraid.

  • I am not keen on selling Salah and would much rather hope Slot keeps his best player. For me, Slot needs to hook Mo in the Centre , take him away from the right wing position. Mo has been completely sacrificed , to accomodate the other front 2/3.For most of the games, his spaces/position was taken over by Darwin or Harvey or Dom and Mo was isolated at the byline, with no cutting edge making it so easy for the opposition. Get a young right forward to play alongside Mo, instead of selling Mo and let him flourish.

  • Get back our tactical gameplay and play the ball on the floor please. We need to stop constantly bombarding cross blindly or keep hoofing balls hoping somebody will get at the end of it.This makes us constantly loose possession in the final third and obviously open to attacks. And, also defensively, we need to get into some sort of shape, the moment we lose the ball, we are very open.

With all the good things, the social media articles praising Slot and articles circulating by the thought of his directness and playing style, I somehow still feel a bit underwhelmed by his acquisition. I dunno why , I am not fully convinced by this whole direction we are taking as a club. I don’t wish to start a debate here and want to sound negative, but, this is just my feeling.
Hughes itself for me was a very underwhelming signing, I don’t know if he has ever worked in a top club or has dealt with any huge talents. I felt with our stature of club, we should be going for a may be top professional with experience of big clubs. It’s a bit of similar feeling with the hiring of Slot. I hate to say it, but this whole process seems like a lot of “Yes” men being hired.
The only problem will be when things go bad, who will take the accountability, the coach or the people involved in acquiring the players ? Somewhere down the line, if it came to a situation where players are given to a coach which weren’t his preference, I dunno which way will it end. I am not saying that Slot will not have a say, but I still feel his veto power will be less in this coach role, otherwise, why not go for established managers, because they will be willing to question the thought of data/what the experience of watching a player play may be, hard for Edwards to convince, I dunno.

It looks from the outside that Edwards, probably doesn’t want to deal with big personalities like Klopp and would much rather prefer , people with low profile who will not argue. I am sorry , Edwards is not God for me , and this whole charade of returning only when Klopp was going, just doesn’t fill complete confidence yet in me.

Hence, I am still reserved on this whole way of working. Alot of my reservations may sound negative or plain made up stuff, but I am entitled to them and just want to hold off and see how this model works instead of blindly praising the second coming of Christ i.e. Edwards.

The flip side is ,they all pull in the same direction and it works out well and the club going places. I would be the first one to come here and say I am so pleased that my reservations around this whole new way of working across the club were wrong and Trust me, I would love to post that. This club is bigger than anyone else. I am keeping my fingers crossed , and hoping for nothing but the best outcome.

Let’s start the new revolution, Slot Machine is coming …YNWA

5 Likes

Which big personalities would those be?
There is a dearth of good proven managers that are currently available. Two that are - Tuchel and Mourinho have provded to be somewhat toxic.

4 Likes

Ironically in the last few days Hoeneß has managed to do what only Bayern bosses are able to do - make Tuchel look like less of a twat by publicly outtwatting him.

3 Likes

This is spot on for me. Other than Alonso there is no other obvious choice. So looking at somonetgat follows similar footballing philosophies to Klopp is absolutely sensible.

That’s one spin on it.

Another is that if you are responsible for the football operation (which Edwards is) you can’t have people working under you (which the manager would) pulling in a different direction, and with power to undermine the strategy.

“Edwards is not God” - true, and neither is a manager, although it seems some people would be more comfortable having all power seated in the hands of someone like Tuchel.

This isn’t about giving Edwards God-like power, this is about having a clear seperation of roles and responsibilities.

2 Likes

Edwards has a new role now, this is the first time Liverpool will have such structure from top to bottom.

I share the opinion that it’s difficult for us outside to fully judge Edwards’ work, when we all agree that it’s not a one-man show. Not Klopp’s (even if he was the key figure of his era here), not Edwards’.

So it was kind of easy to present and imagine Edwards as an absolute “God” in what he does. He was obviously not a small part in decision making at the time, but we don’t see the full scale of it, details, mistakes, what was good but could’ve been better, etc.

People are not robots. We can have clarity in roles, but the reality of day to day can vary from decision to decision. Your main guy for on the pitch stuff will have to be involved in some capacity for everything to make sense. We were one of the best in Europe at that for a while.

1 Like

It is a new structure, so it won’t be exactly the same, but I think Mike Gordon is the closest to Edwards new role. He is FSGs football man. He is focussed on their whole football portfolio, not just Liverpool.

Personally, I’m excited to see this put into practice. It’s the structure I’ve been hoping for Liverpool to adopt for years.

1 Like

We need to know if mbappe is a big fan of slot, or does this put a spanner in the works of him joining :joy:

That’s a better way of saying it!

Repots that Assistant manager Sipke Hulshoff, Head of performance Ruben Peeters (equivalent of Andreas Kronmayer), and Etienne Reijnen, analyst and technical advisor will follow Slot to Anfield - essentially filling the slots of Ljinders, Kronmayer and Krawietz.

All official media from the club excluded the names of Mona Nemmer and Andreas Kronmayer as those leaving with Klopp, but it may well be that we lose Andreas now - shame, but understandable that Slot would want his own head of performance.

Our head of performance is Schlumberger not Kornmeyer btw, and his departure was already announced as well.

Kornmayer is head of fitness and conditioning

Its a bit confusing imo, so we will see.

2 Likes