Moving Mohamed Salah to the centre proved to revive Liverpool in a thrilling spectacle made all the more wild by the manager’s late sending offTowards the end of this thrilling, slightly wild afternoon at Anfield, Jürgen Klopp could be seen with his arms outspread, a tableau of pathos, disbelief, astonishment, bewildered to find himself handed a red card by Anthony Taylor and sent from his touchline.As Klopp whirled away, almost sprinting from pitchside, air‑guitaring wildly, still barking and yelping and pointing, it was hard to disagree with his look of stunned surprise. This made no sense at all. How exactly had Klopp managed to last 85 minutes out there? Continue reading...
Manchester City’s financial invincibility raises the bar still higher but last season’s quadruple chasers aren’t quite doneEven Jürgen Klopp seemed a little mannered and grave in his pre-match press conference, unwilling to offer up barbs or jokes or amusingly exuberant swear words. There was some headline-grabbing stuff about the limits of being able to compete long-term with clubs owned by nation states, remarks that, while undeniably true and worthy of debate, will still rile the more biddable foot soldiers of the Etihad public relations department.Mainly Klopp sat at his desk talking without hyperbole about Manchester City as the best team in the world and Erling Haaland as the best striker in the world. Nobody disagreed (they shouldn’t: they are; he...
As the manager begins to forge a new Anfield team, it’s clear they cannot overwhelm sides as they did at their peakFootball never stops. Brian Clough despaired of the exhausting churn, the sense you could never enjoy a win because there was always another game – and that was before European group stages, Covid-afflicted calendars and winter World Cups. And it never stops changing: there are always new ideas or ways to thwart the old ideas. Standing still, as Peter Reid observed, is moving backwards.That’s why the Hungarian double European Cup-winner Béla Guttmann spoke of the third year as being fatal for a coach. Your players get used to you, so your words lose their impact and minor irritations can...
The manager’s tactical changes for the win against Rangers showed how his side can kickstart their troubled seasonIt is plain for all to see that Liverpool are too good a team to be ninth in the Premier League, but however great a team is, they can not be expected to maintain their ferociously high standards week in week out, season after season. Jürgen Klopp is also too good a manager to let standards slip for a prolonged period.He has identified the reasons behind their relative struggles and started to correct them, beginning with the win over Rangers. Liverpool have kept two clean sheets in the league this season – Manchester City have double that. Klopp has looked at where the...
As the latest campaign ends, we nominate some manager of the season contenders – and invite you to have your sayJürgen Klopp is happy to call his rival the world’s best coach, and few would deny that Guardiola has revolutionised the game in Spain, Germany and now England. With Erling Haaland signed up for next season, this may be recalled as the season Guardiola captured the Premier League title without a recognised striker, often using the only one within his squad, Gabriel Jesus, as a shuttler down the flanks. Continue reading...