The Hunt for Klopp’s Successor

Also, from Alonso’s point of view, he has had a successful 18 months or so at Leverkusen. If he was to move to a big club now and it doesn’t work out, it would tarnish his reputation.

Dortmund are a legitimately big club (stadium capacity of 80,000+). Sure, in terms of pecking order there are bigger clubs, but it’s not that wild, especially 15 years ago, for someone would have success there and want to stay. Leverkusen simply arent that

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Maybe. But I think Alonso reckons he’s got a good thing going there and doesn’t quite want to take the next step just immediately.

It also struck my mind that he doesn’t want to be " first guy who follows after Klopp". Maybe the guy after the next.

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Always a bit of a risk that the next guy does well, but as someone pointed out he’s delivering beyond the Bayern performance last season as well

They are a good team regardless.

I am not afraid to be the next guy …

Just saying

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Sporting one step closer to title. 4 nil win today.

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Is it Amorim the most likely guy coming in or has that news cooled?

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Still the favourite, but obviously now there can be a difference between his agent working/agreeing on general terms with us and the deal being done (nobody said it was fully done). Amorim has a league and domestic cup to win, so it’s expected that he absolutely doesn’t want to talk about it, but put all focus on his remaining games.

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Here’s a new name. Who’s this guy?

Former Bayern Munich , Monaco and Wolfsburg coach Niko Kovac is emerging as a surprise name under consideration to succeed Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss. (Mail)

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It’s the Daily Mail, so it’s almost certainly utter shite.

Kovac isn’t even quoted on Oddschecker.

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I remember him from Eintracht Frankfurt, he did quite well but wasn’t great at Bayern.

I am sure the German contingent of TAN know more about him, if he would be a good fit for Liverpool or not.

Over to you guys and gals in Deutschland :slightly_smiling_face:

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Nah, this is absolutely rubbish.

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Would you go with Amorim? Do you value him as highly as the PR experts on the internet who seem to think that there is no-one apart from him who can take over at LFC? You know that I value your footballing views, so it’s a serious question.

Also, I’d like to know why you think that Emery isn’t a valuable candidate. I still see him as a serious option for us, but somehow, it seems that I’m alone on this.

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Emery seems better suited to be the coach of a side occassionally punching above their weight. Just not sure he’s upto handling Liverpool.

And Amorim is up to it? :thinking:

I just wonder why everyone is so confident about seeing this guy coming in? I can’t for the life of me understand where it comes from, apart some dumb PR stunts on internet trying to sell him to us as if he was the best thing since sliced bread. Meanwhile, there is a competent guy with an impressive European record and with numerous trophies won in different European leagues, who is now quietly leading Aston freaking Villa near the top four, and no one seems to take notice?

I have no clue if Amorim is suited for us or not, and who else is available and suitable, but I find the general bias in here stunning to be honest. I wonder if it reflects what LFC supporters think in general.

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Well on board the Emery boat but in truth I’d be happy with most the guys we’ve been linked with (except Kovac which probably has no truth in it anyway)

Won the Europa with substandard sides multiple times
Taken Villarreal to a CL semi
Improved Arsenal in a season from a 6th place finish to 5th (2 points behind 3rd) with limited backing (2 biggest signings were Leno and Torreira for £25m)
Job he’s now doing at Villa is remarkable. Proven he can beat the biggest sides in the league.
Some might bring up his PSG stint…well he had the same time in charge as 1 Carlo Ancelotti, won more than him in that time and had a much higher win %
Plus he’s just a nice guy which probably doesn’t get you far at the start, but it certainly can over time.

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It is difficult to not see the improvement in Arsenal since they made their change and have that count against him.

The big caveat is that Arsenal were a mess behind the scenes at that time. They were stuck in the same mode of thinking as Utd, too interested in appearances of attracting and retaining high profile players than actually winning, and had a comical revolving door of hirings and firings resulting in no continuity. But Arteta forced them to face up to that reality in a way that Emery didn’t seem willing or capable to.

The question as to his suitability is whether that is even relevant to a club like Liverpool who have their shit together and wont put him in that sort of position to begin with. There is certainly worse we could do. But I will also say my obligatory statement about their performances this season - Villa have a much better group of players than they are given credit for, even now while on the verge of a 4th placed finish. I dont think it’s a big stretch to suggest that if you sold their entire first team you’d be likely to raise more money for those player than Utd would get for their players, which puts into perspective a bit the sense of “over achievement” they are having.

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I can imagine possible candidates being in two minds about the job. Obviously, we’re a top four club in the PL with expectations of CL participation and challenging for every trophy. We have good owners, a great stadium and fans, a strong squad with a good crop of youngsters coming through. There’s a lot to attract an ambitious coach.
However, he’d be succeeding an absolute legend, revered by fans and players, loved by all. It would be almost impossible to reach those levels of adulation. The team has a mixture of wonderful and underperforming players, a couple of lynchpins who are approaching the latter part of their careers and who will be very difficult to replace. How do you follow Salah, Van Dijk, Becker? There will be some major challenges for the next trainer, and the risk of failure is high.
You’d think that any ambitious trainer would jump at the opportunity, but it may not be as attractive as we’d like to think.

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Established managers wont care because they’ll see the potential for trophies, good money, and an understanding they already have a reputation they can lean back on if the pressure of succeeding such a figure becomes too much and they get given the hook.

Up and coming managers might be more careful, thinking that a failure here might be the “gerrard with Villa” period that becomes difficult for them to pick themselves up from and what to be more prepared to deal with a job with such risk even with the upside it has.

The problem is we’re more likely interested in managers in the first category

EDIT: Moron alret - I meant latter category, but kept the original text to not make Craig look like he’s talking nonsense.

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Are we though?

Established managers come with baggage, Mourinho, Tuchel etc. I can’t see us going for someone like that.
We’ve been linked with Alonso, Amorim, De Zerbi. All younger up and coming trainers.

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