Jurgen Klopp's roller-coaster ride at Liverpool takes another plunge
With Dejan Lovren still starting for Liverpool, Steve Nicol doubts Jurgen Klopp knows what it takes to be a good defender. With rumours that Liverpool are ready to sell Coutinho, Steve Nicol urges the club to invest in a new defence instead.
When Jurgen Klopp first arrived at Anfield, he was asked what style the fans could expect.
"A wild one!" he roared, followed by his trademark cackle.
That's exactly what Liverpool supporters have got.
This season started so well: six goals in two legs helped the Reds qualify for the Champions League group stage and a 4-0 thumping of Arsenal left everyone in good humour. But things have been a little different since. Should anyone be surprised? Feast or famine is the hallmark of Klopp's reign so far.
Without a full season in charge initially, he took Brendan Rodgers' team into two cup finals, but finished eighth in the league. By the midpoint of his first full season, the situation looked mightily impressive. Liverpool snugly settled into second place, six points behind a relentless Chelsea side and a league cup semifinal was secured.
But The opening 12 games of 2017 were dreadful: two wins, four draws, six defeats, including ignominious departures from both domestic cup competitions. The rest of that season, allied to this one's impressive start, was another stark contrast. Twelve wins in 17 games and a top-four spot got supporters back on board with Klopp's wild style.
So there might have been some who greeted Sunday's wretched 4-1 defeat to Tottenham with a shrug, as they expected nothing else. It did feel, however, that this defeat was more of a blow than any of the far more worrying results of January and February.
Perhaps fans had got used to the adage that Liverpool saved their best for the best. Heavy defeats to the top two sides in the country have taken away the one thing they thought indicated their team was on the rise.
After a 7-0 midweek Champions League win, Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool plunged again with a 4-1 defeat to Tottenham.
The Reds are now in their second big slump of 2017. What are the major factors in both? There's the absence of Sadio Mane, first for international duty and secondly for injury. That still doesn't explain how Liverpool won numerous matches at the end of last season when Mane was injured.
The obvious coincidental factor is when Liverpool regularly play two games a week. One wretched month -- January -- derailed the 2016-17 season. It featured nine games. Apart from a decent start to this season despite five games in 15 days, this campaign has already begun to unravel. This merely emphasises the problems widely predicted in the summer about rotation, squad depth and fitness -- three things that have plagued Klopp throughout his two-year tenure.
Losing Adam Lallana and Mane, along with Philippe Coutinho being unsettled by links to Barcelona, certainly haven't helped, but there's been more to it than that.
It's bizarre Andrew Robertson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner have largely kicked their heels on the bench when they might have expected more game time with such a punishing schedule.
Klopp has expressed distaste for rotation before and seemed a little irritable during the transfer window, sometimes claiming he'd be glad when it was over. This might become an issue for any club that wants to genuinely compete at the highest level, where two games a week are the norm, not the exception.
It's more of a problem when the wild Klopp style depends strongly upon physical effort. When was the last time anyone discussed or even mentioned gegenpress? It seems to have slipped off the radar.
At the beginning of last season, with no European football distracting them or sapping their strength, Liverpool were ruthless in their pursuit of the ball whenever they lost possession. By small degrees each time, that pursuit seems to drop off.
On Sunday, Tottenham looked fresher despite also having to play in Europe. One may have thought their exertions against mighty Real Madrid would leave them more tired than Liverpool were after beating Maribor. Not so.
Not that rotation could have helped Liverpool at the back. Dejan Lovren was terrible, and when hauled off after 30 minutes, the natural replacement -- Ragnar Klavan -- remained on the bench. Emre Can ended up at right-back. It all felt rather desperate and scattergun.
With 10 weeks left before the next transfer window, there seems little left for Liverpool to do but hunker down and hope for the best. Not exactly the most fool-proof of schemes.
Until such time as they can prove they're capable of handling European and domestic football, fans will now doubt any progress made whenever Liverpool only feature in the latter.
Their only defeats thus far have been to exceptional opponents and a Carabao Cup loss against Leicester was no real hardship. Given the slightly easier run of fixtures through the coming weeks, it's a big chance to get the season back on track.
Failure to do so would only confirm that Liverpool face huge obstacles blocking their return to the very top.
Steven Kelly is one of ESPN FC's Liverpool bloggers. Follow him on Twitter @SteKelly198586.
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Source: espn.co.uk
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