With European football in turmoil and leading clubs out of sorts, the knockout stages offer some welcome unpredictabilityWhen the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League is made before Christmas, the warning always comes: wait till February. What can look a straightforward tie as the group stage ends may appear very different a couple of months down the line as form fluctuates and injuries, managerial changes and January signings take effect.Recently that has tended to mean the superclubs asserting themselves, financial muscle powering through whatever blips may have occurred in the autumn. But as the Champions League knockout stage begins on Tuesday, very little has settled down and the competition looks more open than it has done for...
The Liverpool manager is left trying to build a new era while continuing to win – it is possible if he is given timeWith 11 minutes left in this FA Cup fourth-round tie and the score 1-1 Jürgen Klopp could be seen racing out to the touchline, yanking the snood from his face and performing a series of furious scything gestures with his right arm, as though trying to break free from some invisible set of manacles.Klopp shrieked. He threw his head back. Just as quickly he stopped, crouched, and mooched back towards his seat. Nothing was really happening. Klopp was reacting to the shapes in his head, seeing danger, slackness, loose stitching in Cody Gakpo’s off-the-ball positioning during a...
Arsenal reap the rewards of an old-school striker, Thiago Silva turns back the clock and Ten Hag’s tactics hit a snagFast-paced, tactically intricate and dramatic to the last, Arsenal v Manchester United was a heavyweight clash that lived up to its billing. It also showcased two models of centre-forward that were meant to be extinct: the old-fashioned target man and the old-fashioned poacher. Spearheading United’s attack, Wout Weghorst pressed with zeal and offered a focal point for United’s free-roaming wide men. It was his peeling run, drawing Gabriel to his left, that afforded Marcus Rashford the angle to blast home the opener. Nketiah pressed with similar intelligence but dropped deep when required to link with his midfield. Both his goals...
Jürgen Klopp’s inability to reinforce their exhausted midfield was once again exposed in defeat at BrightonIt was at the very end of Jürgen Klopp’s post-match press conference at the Amex Stadium on Saturday that he was then asked the question most people in the room were probably thinking about asking themselves: was his decision to take off Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Joël Matip as part of a quadruple substitution midway through the second half symbolic of this Liverpool team being past it?“It’s our fault you can ask this question, I understand it, but the changes have nothing to do with that,” Klopp said with characteristic defiance, but ultimately his demeanour gave him away. Head bowed, voice lowered, concern etched across...
Mistakes on the pitch could spell bigger worries as not reaching the Champions League would hit the transfer budget hardIf football really was the simple game of cliche, it would be easy for Liverpool to identify a single issue, work out a solution and put it right. This, after all, is the team that have, for five years, been consistently the second-best side in England. Yet, after a shambolic defeat at Brentford, they lie 15 points behind the leaders, Arsenal, and, more pertinently, four points off Manchester United in fourth, having played a game more. What must be most troubling is the sense of plates across the stage stopping spinning as Jürgen Klopp dashes frantically between them.Klopp, addressing rumoured interest...