Liverpool have to find some consistency as City are closing in fast
I’VE been privileged to get a closer look at Jurgen Klopp than most coaches, so I know what he’ll be saying to his team right now.
I’ve seen him close- up while working for Liverpool as a mentor and an ambassador. He is as honest as they come – which isn’t always the case in football management – so I know just what they’ll be hearing from him right now.
He knows more than anyone that they’re not playing well and he will be telling them that.
He may come across as funny and cuddly on the telly (which he is, believe me), but when harsh words need to be said, he’ll say them with perfect English expletives!
But I know this, too. He’ll be looking at the table, and saying to them, “We’re still the team to beat, even though we’ve been crap, so imagine the position we can be in, when we start playing well again”.
And that’s the point with Liverpool I’d make as the Premier League season hits its most important period and we reach the halfway stage – and we see who really are contenders and who are pretenders.
The truth is that since they drew at Everton they’ve not been good enough away – that astonishing win at Palace apart.
And, actually, they’ve not been consistent enough at home either.
Yet here they are, one game away from the halfway point of the season, still top of the table… at least until Manchester United play on Tuesday night.
You know what, with all the European games, with the injury to Virgil van Dijk and all the others they’ve suffered, they’d take that. Klopp will be emphasising that. I’ve heard him speak to the players during training sessions and he believes in positive reinforcement, no question.
As a coach, he is a brilliant man-manager – because he cares about his players and believes in them.
But he is also one of the best managers in the world and he knows this is the period where Liverpool MUST find a consistency they have lacked this season.
Because Manchester City are coming – and coming hard.
I’ve said it since the start of the season and even when City hit a bad patch that they will be in the title argument. And it will be between City and Liverpool. And I still stand by that.
City have won their last five games and are unbeaten in 12. They have gone under the radar a bit because of their games in hand, but they have already hit that consistent run you need to win titles. And we know they are capable of maintaining it. Liv Liverpool know it, too. They’ve experienced the hard end of it twice in recent years. In 2014, people said Steven Gerrard’s slip cost the title, but the truth is that City’s run at the end of that season won it – they were magnificent. And, under Pep Guardiola, two seasons ago their run-in was incredible, impossible. I can see them hitting a run like that this season because they almost seem to have started slowly to ensure they get stronger at the business end. So Liverpool have to sort themselves out. They have had a bad spell, it can’t continue. If City win their games in hand, they’ll be two points ahead. You can’t keep losing or drawing games and stay in the title race. Klopp spoke about their big problem. He said playing with so many different centre-backs has changed their whole protection and the way they set up. I can see that. He’s using band-aid players to put sticking plasters on problems, but that has a domino effect. You take players from one position to fix a problem in another, and suddenly you have a weakness elsewhere. They’re great players, but taking Fabinho and Jordan Henderson out of midfield is causing problems. That’s why I’d be amazed if they don’t sign a centre-half, even though Klopp said it’s unlikely – and I know they are searching desperately. If he signs an experienced player there, then Fabinho and Henderson can put their strength back into midfield, Liverpool can play as they played last season and they can rediscover their form and style of last season. And Klopp will want that to happen quickly – I know that for a fact.
Klopp knows they well, are not playing but when harsh be words need to said, he will say them with perfect English expletives!