Uruguayan ruffled Tottenham with a mesmersising display of power and energy to earn Jürgen Klopp’s side a vital winAt times in the first half of this thrilling, occasionally messy Premier League fixture, there was a sense of two games taking place simultaneously. In the foreground the feature pretension: a tight, bruising affair, and a meeting of two depleted teams who have spent much of the season trying to bolt their own wheels back on while speeding through the weekly chicanes. A 2-1 victory here was Liverpool’s first away league win this season.Behind this was the other game, the one taking place in the Darwin Núñez universe. This was a looser, chancier affair, a place where the physical rules are a...
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...
Jürgen Klopp’s team shook off recent troubles to cruise to a 7-1 victory that should boost their confidenceJürgen Klopp had never experienced Ibrox before but thought it best, having watched enough Old Firm games down the years, to remind his players that Rangers would be a different proposition with a ferocious support at their backs to the team that walked meekly to defeat at Anfield. And so it proved, at least for 45 minutes, until a reminder of the brilliance of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino ensured the only sound heard from those home fans left inside the stadium at the final whistle were boos.The pair led a rout that was condensed into 32 second-half minutes – the time it...
Jürgen Klopp’s malfunctioning side were exposed by Arsenal’s pace and youth to continue a surprising poor start to the seasonIt’s never just one thing. Football, whatever the cliche may say, is not a simple game. A team is a hugely complex organism: a malfunction in one area can have profound consequences elsewhere. Everything is connected and contingent; nothing is independent. Jürgen Klopp must feel at the moment as though he is engaged in a game of Whac-a-Mole, bashing at problems here and there, and yet also knowing that these moles are related, that a mole in one corner is breeding moles elsewhere.But let’s begin with the most obvious issue, the great culture war of our time: the Trent Alexander-Arnold Conundrum....