KLOPP’S FLOPS
A disastrous transfer window. A lack of leaders. And teams have worked them out. The future looks bleak for...
TEN weeks: That’s how long they went between appearances on Monday Night Football and that’s how long it has taken for the season to change.
Go back 70 days to when Sadio Mane popped up in the nick of time to win the Merseyside derby. Liverpool had moved to within six points of leaders Chelsea and there was a sense that they would throw down the sternest challenge to Antonio Conte’s pacesetters.
Now look at them. In the time since that trip to Goodison Park, title talk has gone, two further chances to win a trophy have been thrown away and Jurgen Klopp is now dealing with the first major issue of his reign.
Sportsmail looks at what has gone wrong.
JANUARY BLUES
THIS has nothing to do with results. This is all about the failure to invest during the transfer window and the potential ramifications of not spending money. They missed a gilt-edged opportunity to build on the foundations they had laid.
January, of course, is a notoriously difficult time to do business but that never stopped Liverpool in the past with Luis Suarez, Daniel Agger, Javier Mascherano and Martin Skrtel notable purchases in that month. Klopp needed someone like that to come in.
There were targets. Julian Brandt, the Bayer Leverkusen winger, is held in high regard by Klopp and will be pursued in the summer. If Klopp felt he was going to be the difference in ensuring a top-four finish this year, why not push the boat out? The Liverpool bench at Leicester was threadbare.
Klopp considered signing Juliann Draxler but was put off by the 23-year-old’s wage demands. The Germany midfielder instead went to Paris Saint-Germain and scored on his first starts in Ligue 1, the French Cup and the Champions League.
WHERE’S THE VERVE?
ONLY once since January 1 have Liverpool looked like cutting loose and that was against a Tottenham team who, on February 11, played into Klopp’s hands, giving Liverpool’s forwards time and acres of space.
The perception that teams have worked out Liverpool — and that Klopp’s team are easily stifled — is growing. What’s more, the attacking trio of Roberto Firmino, Mane and Philippe Coutinho have lost their influence. Only six of 37 goals they have been involved in have come since the turn of the year.
Do not buy into the theory that they are floundering because the players are burnt out. Nothing is further from the truth. Liverpool do not have the workload of some of their rivals yet the numbers they are producing have not dropped. No team has covered more collectively than the 3,050km they accrued in 26 games. PRESSURE PILES UP EVERYONE knew there would be a response from Leicester on Monday but this was the kind of game Liverpool needed to win to show that their challenge for a top-four place is credible. Captain Jordan Henderson was injured — and he will miss Saturday’s clash with Arsenal — but where were the leaders? Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool’s owners, regard being in the Champions League as imperative for the next stage of the club’s development and Klopp will have transfer targets who he can lure if he can offer them a place in Europe’s biggest competition. But the way Liverpool have crumbled against Hull and Leicester in recent weeks does not bode well for bigger tests ahead.
The stakes could be measured in the dressing room at half-time of the 2-0 loss at Hull on February 4. Klopp did not hold back with his criticism and was said to be angrier than at any point during his 18 months at the club. PLAYING FOR FUTURES EYEBROWS may have been raised when Klopp said that was the case as he digested the Leicester loss. This is going to be another summer of change and many of the squad have questions to answer.
Emre Can, for instance, has yet to sign a new contract. Mamadou Sakho and Lazar Markovic will be moved on if a buyer can be found; Lucas Leiva and Alberto Moreno are expected to move on, and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet still has doubters. Then, of course, there is Daniel Sturridge, whose influence continues to fade. Some of his performances in training have, according to observers, been sensational but a parting of the ways seems inevitable.
‘We have to bring him back to the best shape and then bring this season to an end as successfully as possible,’ said Klopp. ‘Then we will make decisions. A lot of things will influence this.’