Should Gunners gamble on a No 2?
WHEN Georginio Wijnaldum scored in Rome he ran straight to a figure on the Liverpool bench. Andreas Kornmayer is the Liverpool fitness coach who has been picking up many of the duties of Zeljko Buvac (below), surprisingly stood down as Klopp’s assistant — maybe for good. It is doubtful Wijnaldum was making a political point but clearly he credits Kornmayer with something. Meanwhile, a newspaper in Bosnia — the same one that first reported Klopp and Buvac’s appointment at Anfield in detail — are saying Liverpool’s No 2 is lined up as the next Arsenal manager. There is some logic to this, and not just the reliable Bosnian source. Arsenal’s new head of recruitment is Sven Mislintat, formerly of Borussia Dortmund, who has spent a lot of time getting the band back together, as the Blues Brothers had it. Henrik Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were both with Mislintat — and Klopp and Buvac — at Dortmund. Buvac will be well known to him, too. Maybe a whiff of Arsenal-related disloyalty is what caused the sudden fracture in Buvac’s long-standing relationship with Klopp. It would be considered very poor form to be distracted by Arsenal with Liverpool motoring towards the Champions League final. Maybe, too, Mislintat has bought into one of football’s favourite mythologies — the No 2 as the real brains of the operation. Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall at Everton. Ray Harford and Kenny Dalglish at Blackburn. ‘What have you learned from Carlo Ancelotti?’ Paul Clement was once asked. ‘Maybe Carlo’s learned something from me,’ he replied. Although as Ancelotti had won two Champions Leagues, Serie A, the Club World Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana before meeting Clement at Chelsea, maybe just stick with the question as asked? Even Peter Taylor, who was plainly a giant part of the success of Derby County and Nottingham Forest, was never the same away from Brian Clough. No 1 is No 1 for a reason. Buvac’s brain may be enviable, but his front-of-house experience amounts to three years with SC Neukirchen in Germany’s tier three, one of which ended in relegation to tier four. That does not mean he is a bad manager, but it does explain why his relationship with Klopp developed as it did. The Liverpool manager has always insisted on giving credit to his staff but is undoubtedly the main man. If Arsenal have been persuaded otherwise, they are taking a huge gamble.