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Football News: Assessing The Klopp Era

Assessing The Klopp Era
Image from: sofascore.com

It is difficult to put aside my natural bias when discussing Jurgen Klopp, as I can't help loving him, so analysing his spell so far with Liverpool is not an easy task for me. Hence why I have decided not to do this as a chronological examination, but to split it into pros and cons, as I then have to examine his mistakes, rather than glossing them over with the good bits! In fact, to that end, I am going to look at all the Cons first:

Cons:

Injuries - it started from the moment Klopp arrived, as the players simply were not fit enough, so he pushed them hard to get them fit. Early on there were severe injury problems, but the short term pain has led to a long term gain after the initial injuries cleared up. However, at the end of last season it did cause a lot of hassle trying to get through with lots of players missing out through injury. For large portions, players like Jordan Henderson were having to play through the pain barrier.

January transfer window - non of the team weaknesses were addressed in the first window. Worse was the one senior player to arrive, who was not just utterly hopeless as a player, but far more interested in going out on the lash than trying to win a place in the side, Steven Caulker. Luckily he was only taken on loan, but it was still a terrible signing on a very high wage. It is a black mark against both Klopp and Alex Inglethorpe, who recommended him.

League Cup final v Manchester City - while there is no shame in losing to the insanely expensive Citeh side in a cup final, even less so losing on penalties, but it was a defeat that should never have happened. Man City were a team for the taking, and yet Liverpool failed to take them.

 

Prioritising the Europa League over the Premier League - there was a chance of qualifying for Europe this season which was thrown away by putting out reserve sides in the Prem and concentrating solely on the Europa League. Finishing 8th was simply not good enough, not when the team was fully capable of doing better.

Europa League final v Sevilla - after putting all his eggs in one basket, Klopp dropped the basket at the final hurdle. We failed miserably in the final, failing to turn up when it mattered. It is not the defeat, so much as the manner of it that was the issue. It was simply not good enough.

The Burnley game - the 2-0 defeat was probably the lowpoint of the entire Klopp reign. It showed up all the issues the team had been having, as the defence was a shambles and the attack could not hit the side of a barn. A complete disaster, at the time.

 

Pros:

A proven winner - Jurgen Klopp has proven himself to have what it takes to win the league against the odds, taking Borussia Dortmund to the title on more than one occasion.

Charisma - if there is one thing Klopp has it is charisma. In spades. Bucketloads of it. I loved him when he was managing Dortmund, he always impressed and came across as a great guy. Now I am getting to see him at closer quarters, with the constant media focus, I love him all the more.

Improvement - the one thing that is obvious about Liverpool is how much better the same players are performing for Klopp than they were for Brendan Rodgers. They have upped their game to a whole new level.

Two cup finals - he may not have won either, as I mentioned in the cons section, but he got Liverpool to two cup finals despite taking over a shattered shell of a team. He brought them together and made them play like a team, after months of them slowly looking more and more lost.

The football - it has been scintillating at times. Truly breathtaking and entertaining football that leaves you applauding at the sheer brilliance, at times. It has been a long time since I enjoyed watching Liverpool play as much as I have been this season.

 

Top of the league! - could anyone but Klopp have put Liverpool top of the table at this point of the season? Personally I doubt it. They may not stay there until the bitter end and lift the trophy, but no one truly (the legendary Ron Keague aside) expected the title before the season kicked off. Klopp has made believers of many more since then.

Conclusion:

I am a believer. I can fully see why Jurgen Klopp is so beloved by Mainz 05 and Dortmund fans. He is a special manager who works wonders with the resources at his disposal. There is a feel about the club right now, the same feel that was described to me many times as a youngster about the arrival of the legendary Bill Shankly. It feels like the club is on the brink of trophies. There is an expectation that it is when Klopp's first trophy arrives, rather than if he will win something. The fans are behind him, the club feels united once more.

Written by Tris Burke November 15 2016 13:44:12