I know many will be thinking after reading that title.
“You cynical bastard. The transfer window has only just shut and you’re already putting a negative spin on it. Passing judgement before Klopp’s even had the chance to field his strongest XI“.
And to those who are thinking that – you’re probably right. It may be premature but Klopp has – to put it politely – made a few head-scratching decisions this summer. Don’t get me wrong, the early business was some of the best the club have done in a long time.
Loris Karius is an upgrade on Simon Mignolet in every possible imaginable way. The Reds will look immeasurably better when trying to build from the back with the German between the sticks. Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan are improvements on Martin Skrtel and Kolo Toure are better suited to a Jurgen Klopp defence. Sadio Mane arrived for £30 Million and immediately added another dimension to the attack. Gini Wijnaldum arrived from Newcastle and immediately gave the team another player who could break the oppositions lines with dribbling and his off the ball movement.
The positives are there for all to see but then it came to an abrupt end as soon as pre-season started.Â
Over reliance on Emre Can.
Liverpool have taken 4 points from trips to White Hart Lane and The Emirates without Emre Can so some fans are downplaying the importance of the German. Liverpool struggled against Burnley despite having 80% of the ball and it highlighted just how limited captain Jordan Henderson is in that withdrawn midfield role when he’s expected to be the creative one.
The alternatives to Can, other than Henderson, are Lucas Leiva and Kevin Stewart. Quite the step-down in class if you think about it. Not for a moment am I suggesting Liverpool should have gone out and bought a £45 Million midfielder to rival Emre Can but a midfielder with a similar profile to the no.23 wouldn’t have gone amiss so that if he’s unfortunate enough to pick up another injury the team doesn’t suffer.
No cover for Sadio Mane.
It’s massively encouraging that Mane has joined the team and from the off has transformed the Liverpool attack. In the games he’s featured in Liverpool have looked electric in attack. His arrival was like an adrenaline shot. Last season the Liverpool side desperately lacked pace and Mane has it in abundance. Not only does he bring pace to the side he’s constantly on the move and it creates space for the other attackers.
On the flip side to that it’s worrying to think that, like with Emre, there are no players in the squad similar to Mane. In the only game Liverpool have played without the influential no.19 this season the attack looked blunt. It’s risky making players integral to you system if you don’t have back-ups.
No left-back to challenge Alberto Moreno.
In theory Alberto Moreno is the perfect Jurgen Klopp full-back on paper. He offers width, he’s decent on the ball and has great recovery pace. He would be key for teams looking to transition from defence to attack at quick speed but for him to be as effective as he can be he needs someone to cover these sorts of runs. Klopp and co have failed to balance the side to enable Moreno to make those runs forward and have gone completely the opposite way and started using James Milner there. The limitations of such a move are kind of obvious and although he’s not bad there Liverpool are far from effectively utilising their left flank.
Mamadou Sakho 6th choice centre-back.Â
Cards on the table here, in my mind Mamadou Sakho is the best centre-back Liverpool currently have. No I’m not in training and no I don’t know what goes on behind the scenes but in terms of suitability he surpasses Dejan Lovren, Ragnar Klavan and Joel Matip. Klopp likes his centre-backs to be able to assist in building from the back and you’d be hard pressed to find a centre-back with the ability on the ball that Mamadou Sakho has. Many times last season he’d play the ball straight to Coutinho’s feet and Liverpool would’ve turned defence into attack in an instant.
Loaning him makes very little sense in my mind but if Klopp wants him to work on his fitness/attitude/form then so be it. However, not replacing him in the squad is negligent. Lovren, Matip, Klavan and Lucas are hardly the most reliable.
People will cite Leicester winning the league with Robert Huth and Wes Morgan as a centre-back pairing as proof you don’t need ‘world class’ defenders but it’s incomparable. Leicester protected their centre-backs with Daniel Drinkwater and N’golo Kante shielding them and defensive minded full-backs. Liverpool defenders aren’t afforded such a luxury.
The Daniel Sturridge conundrum.Â
Liverpool currently use a system which doesn’t suit arguably their only world class player. I’m all for building a team instead of relying on individuals but it’s odd to see Daniel Sturridge sitting on the bench till the 87th minute against Spurs when the game is there to be won. If he’s going to be used then surely selling him and buying a better suited player would have been the best choice for all parties involved?
I don’t even know what is going on in this transfer window before it shout down yesterday night…. Liverpool did not make any attempt of making a move for some defensive area which we are lacking off since this premiership started. Now with all this injuries we have for now and I don’t think Liverpool will be in top 4 of the season….God help this club to rise up and let move to the next European championship….
Apart from the left back situation which I agree is baffling, I can only guess that he could see gomez going in there, I think its been a solid transfer window. We have managed to bring in several starters in mane, wijnaldium, matip and possibly karius, get rid of players from the edge of the squad which klopp stressed was a priority and made a profit while doing this. Nobody would have guessed how important mane would be to the team already so it is difficult to say why haven’t we got someone to back him up, personally I would rather see what ojo has in the cup games etc than buy someone else more established to sit on the bench behind mane. I am a fan of sakho also, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him and matip starting at some point this season.
I am lost for words as the Manager can’t see and won’t see what was going on around his team. But I tell you one thing he must not sell Sturridge if he want to keep his job. All this kamikazzuu stuffs he should address now and now.I have never realised that LFC has so many Players littered all over the damn places and we are suffering.These players were bought to play for LFC but instead we sent them on stupid LOAN period which makes no contribution to LFC betterness.
Its now Klopps team, I love the guy but he really needs to show his class now. Last season was bitterly disappointing (Europa League) and we really missed our opportunity to cement our CL place. Now we are shopping in a different market for players. I am no expert but I’ve been watching football for 35 years and its so obvious we needed a DM, a total bastard in midfield to protect the defence. Instead we , IMO, wasted money on Wijnaldum where we could have spent 25 million on a really classy DM. No effort was made at all to fill this position which suggests Klippity is satisfied in this area. I really hope I’m wrong but I must admit I fear for our top 4 hopes now. Lets just hope it all clicks, we have an injury free season and this time next year we are once again in the CL.
I have seen so many posts about Mane not having a back up, but we do in the shape of the academy player Ojo. People forget how electric this young man is. He is a perfect understudy for Mane.
Please let Klopp be the manager and not second guess what he is building.
Your best article mate. More people should be angry at what happened this summer. Some people rate it an 8/10. To me it’s a failure. Klopp KNOWS he needs a LB and couldn’t sign one. He KNOWS the team’s balance largely depends on Emre Can’s fitness, and didn’t react..He gave up once he couldn’t get his top transfer targets done (Chilwell and Dahoud), didn’t bother at least getting some cover on loan. I believe FSG are very responsibly of this as well.
Sakho and Sturridge are probably my 2 favorites in the squad, so you could tell how angry I am when it comes to their involvement. 🙂
Klopp massively failed this summer and if we don’t get top 4 this season, FSG and Klopp have to leave in my opinion.
It’s a shame that some people want the manager to sell sturridge and the rest without any significant player out there. I suspected that these people are the enemies within. Why can’t them call the manager and tell him to line up all the players except those players that Klopp bought himself, and sell the lot. Nonsense. Mr Klopp must be told not to tamper with our best players like it or not.Premier Clubs are not Sunday clubs, the toughest in the world,there is no excuse for Klopp if he fail again as he did last season blaming all sort of shits.
Your post ignores that in klopp’s only 2 previous managerial posts he built something special and both teams were sorry to see him go. Prematurely calling for his head is like putting a shotgun to Liverpool’s long term future under klopp. I like the responsible attitude to transfers this year. No wasting money on players you don’t really want. Driving a harder bargain on players sold and not overpaying as badly on purchases. Okay, we didn’t get dahoud or Chilwell but we still have the money to either try again with these players at a later date or spend a longer period of time scouting alternatives or even for one of the youth players to emerge further. Give klopp time and history suggests there is a strong possibility that he will get it right. It just may take a little longer as he is adapting to the football of the premier league which is far more competitive at the top than any of the other bigger leagues in Europe.
Look Mr LFC has been going backward for a long time and I still believe that Klopp could do a good job but not the way things are heading.What Klopp done for other teams got nothing to do with us, those are his CV. LFC needs sound results beating other teams up day in day out. I am sick and tired of some people blaming one individual player this I see it like running round and round the block without any objective. Klopp should start realising this.
You genuinely just called for Klopp to be sacked? I’m genuinely calling for the fan base to reject you as anything resembling a supporter. You want an all-you-can buy players buffet? Go support city or united for christ sakes. ‘fans’ like you are a joke and I don’t recognise your support.
Why are yelling for L/B? does this mean’t that all the bloody goals scored against us came through L/B? please do me a favour tell the Manager to wake up and do what managers do best. Sounding TACTICS for winning games. Period!!
Klopp likes the false 9 approach and uses it when he deems it appropriate – which seems like often. I’m not sure we know how to play with a real striker up front. Studge has admittedly had a slow start, but it doesn’t matter. Strikers are flighty. They need game time and they need to get the ball in the net. Play him or trade him. He’s with us now until January at least. Let’s see how the next few months go.
Moreno? If someone can help him control his emotions and mentality, maybe he can be a bit more stable at the back. But even if that miracle happens, his deliveries in the final third are wanting. He gets forward well, but does almost nothing else. His crossing is really poor so what’s the point.
But here we are. We know what Klopp has done in his past. I do respect the guy and am happy to give him time. This is our squad. Let’s get behind him and the boys now and root them on. YNWA
How come that he left sturridge on the Bench until 87 minutes?. What Klopp done in the past means nothing to what we want now and now. Already we are 5 points behind others 11th positions in the table, and -1 goal difference can some one explain how are we going to over take them.My little son is very depressed already about it.
As per with Liverpool, we enter the market knowing what has to be addressed and don’t address it! It was very simple this window; get rid of moreno (as he’s not even squad worthy) sign a solid lb, and probably get rid of mignolet. It was as simple as that for me, then start to sign what we need.
Mane has surprised me because I genuinely didn’t see this touch of class he has at Southampton, in terms of his assists and the Arsenal goal. But you wouldn’t have said Mane was a necessity prior to signing him, looks so now already though.
Chelsea, United, Arsenal to an extent, have all looked at their first 11s and said “we need; x, y, z”. And they’ve gone an bought exactly what’s required. simple.
As per Liverpool, look to re-invent the wheel don’t they. This is why we have 4 points from 9 so far.
Transition transition transition again , year after year after year . Yes already five points behind three games in a new season . When are we going to reach fruition after planting all these crops . I was very impressed with the young academy lads in the friendliest , but then I think how old will they be and I when they arrive . I would love to see two or three scousers playing weekly, me being a woolly back but neyermind. Klopp done good things in Germany but this is the premier league world class players in most teams aspecially top four ney top half . I blamed David Moores originally selling to those two thieves from the US while we could have have a Arab owner rivalling Man City . Yes we do need a lb . Goalie and maybe a centre back , we don’t have them so let’s hope we see a lot of good clean aggressive football with what we have and it ain’t that bad ,it’s just me having a moan
All these comments are nothing more than self pitting. Why are some people so good in rubbishing one particular player, “one player does not make eleven players. It is the job of the so call Manager to train and to adopt sound tactics in winning games, and if he fails to do that we can’t blame any player. He bought a new Goalkeeper I wondered where he is Injured! or on Loan some where.
It looks like that Klopp would need more time to get us back to CL because I can see Chelsea, Man City, Man United and Arsenal, who were all better than us last time, have improved their teams. Everton, West Ham and Spurs have also added quality signings and got better.