JURGEN KLOPP described himself as ‘The Normal One’ the day he became manager of Liverpool.
The Anfield fans loved it and every home game you will see a banner depicting the phrase in praise of the German. Liverpool’s hierarchy were so taken by it that an official application was made to copyright the phrase under European Law. Yet what has happened in the near-two years since Klopp swept in like a footballing evangelist is anything but normal. Certainly not for someone who, when he arrived with such a brilliant Borussia Dortmund CV, was seen as a true Kop coup. And who, remarkably, not only has a worse winning record than Brendan Rodgers achieved during the first 73 Premier League games of his Anfield reign but inferior to the one David Moyes managed in his season at Manchester United. The argument could now be made that Klopp copped out of doing what a top boss would normally do when confronted by a defence not fit for purpose. That would be to rip it up, start again, and make sure that for all your exciting gegenpressing you make sure that the back door stays tightly shut. Instead he either ignored it or was so intent on keeping his promise of providing “emotional football” that he thought he could handle it.
Now it is Klopp who is getting emotional. After yet another defensive nightmare in this week’s 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Leicester, Klopp laid bare his heat over yet more goals conceded to set-pieces. He said: “That we concede like this, this makes me really sick.” Yet the Anfield faithful have been sick of such defences lapses for years. Worse still from Klopp came another admission — one that suggests he has known and done nothing about a problem that is only getting worse. In words that any defensive strategist would see as a self–written obituary he declared: “Defending set-pieces is a thing, not the first ball obviously.
“We always have problems with this — now it’s the second and even third.” And with a big sigh he added: “And the throw-in . . . ”
So he knows. But the reality is he has done next to nothing about it and the open door policy at the back has opened the door to growing criticism from within the Kop and not just outside it. Klopp has spent £145million in the four transfer windows since he succeeded Brendan Rodgers. Of that only £3.5m has been spent on a centre back — Ragnar Klavan. Anyone would have told him that Simon Mignolet was a cat on a hot tin roof when he arrived. In those windows he brought in only Loris Karius for £4.7m and Alex Manniger for free. Yet this season’s goalkeeper stats are that between them Mignolet and Karius average a goal for every save they make. The defensive situation when Klopp took over was bad enough. Now it is a mess. And the Liverpool boss admits it.
Little wonder that he is taking hits from supporters who at first thrilled to his explosive style but now close their eyes every time the opposition get in Liverpool’s final third.
In their last three games Liverpool have had 80 shots.
Their opponents had just 19 — yet between them Leicester, Burney and Sevilla have scored five times. Clearly going forward Klopp’s side remain a threat even if they lack a natural goal scorer.
But under him they have been that way from the start.
From The Sun
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