Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool are struggling at the moment and in order to fix his problems, the Liverpool manager should look to copy Sir Alex Ferguson’s methods.
As Jürgen Klopp summarized succinctly in his post-match press conference, there are no excuses for Liverpool’s performance against Wolves on Saturday afternoon.
The Reds were simply beaten in every department by a side who should never have had it as comfortable as they did, despite playing at home.
“I have no explanation, I’m sorry,” Klopp admitted in his press conference. “It needs to change.” He concluded cutting a frustrated figure in front of the cameras.
Klopp’s Liverpool team was miles off the level required, and this is not just an anomaly for the Reds: it’s been the theme all season. Slowly but surely, Liverpool has teetered towards a crisis, and now they are at a precipice where the return is narrow and perilous.
Klopp has to be decisive in moments like this, and crucially he needs to learn to be ruthless. He’s been accused of being perhaps a little too loyal to the old guard that got him and Liverpool, where they wanted to be. The likes of James Milner and Jordan Henderson have gotten contract extensions even when their performances didn’t necessarily merit such rewards.
The best teams are those that rotate. It’s now been over seven years of Klopp building this cycle of Liverpool players, and it seems like he is approaching its use-by date.
Sooner or later, Klopp and his recruitment team must decide to be ruthless if they want to get Liverpool back to the pinnacle of the game. It’s why the club’s arch-rivals, Manchester United, were able to dominate English football for so many years.
Under Sir Alex Ferguson, things were brutal. The Scotsman let legends like Roy Keane and Steve Bruce depart early on in their career, rather than waiting for them to decline in form. And he kept doing that over and over again, replacing the old with the new so effectively and so seamlessly that Manchester United hardly ever felt the changes.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Ferguson admitted to that much saying saying ‘ruthless’ at Manchester United. His ‘hairdryer’ treatment was a notorious feature of his coaching technique, and Klopp may benefit from incorporating an element of that into his own methodology.
Right now, Liverpool has one of the oldest squads in the Premier League. There is uncertainty at the club from top to bottom, and at a time like this Liverpool needs a manager who is ruthless and who is not afraid to take tough decisions and make risks.
It’s clear, if FSG is not going to sell the club, Liverpool is going to have to operate on a sell-to-buy basis and the best way to raise funds is to sell some of Liverpool’s players entering their 30s when they still have some value left.
After all, in order to build a new house sometimes you have to knock down the old one, keeping only the foundations, and start from scratch. That is what Klopp may just have to do, especially if his Liverpool team continues to perform in the same way they have since the start of the year.
