Give thanks Jurgen, ruthless owners know Reds fans still love you
JOHN W HENRY sacked his manager a couple of days ago, the manager of the prized asset in Fenway Sports Group’s portfolio.
John Farrell paid the penalty for an early exit in Major League Baseball’s play-offs and was fired from his job with the Boston Red Sox.
The president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, made the decision but it must have been rubber-stamped from the top.
Farrell won a World Series for the Red Sox in 2013 and, this year, they were American League East champions, winning 93 of their 162 regular-season games.
Henry and FSG can be ruthless. Among other things, what did for Farrell was hostility from the Red Sox support base.
Over at another of FSG’s interests, a similar thing is unlikely to happen to Jurgen Klopp, who, after two years in which he has taken Liverpool to two cup finals and into the Champions League, remains immensely popular.
Among fans, the backing seems pretty universal and the owners realise they could not have attracted a more respected European coach.
His position is bombproof, not remotely weakened by a record of one win in seven matches – although in that 3-2 victory at Leicester, Jamie Vardy missed a penalty that would have levelled the scores with 20 minutes remaining. Yet tomorrow’s meeting with Manchester United and next weekend’s trip to face Spurs feel like defining matches.
On a practical level, Liverpool can ill-afford to lose further ground on those setting the pace in the Premier League. A 10-point gap to United, and most probably Manchester City, after eight matches is unlikely to be surmounted.
Lose to United and Tottenham and, realistically, title hopes are over although, again realistically, it’s hard to imagine the owners had serious ones in the first place, given the level of investment.
On a personal level, the job Klopp is doing will come under the most critical scrutiny since he arrived here. Against Romelu Lukaku and the threats posed by Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial – most likely from the bench, Klopp’s central defensive policy will be in the spotlight again. He fell out with a good one in Mamadou Sakho and failed to sign a good one after Virgil van Dijk proved unobtainable. Simon Mignolet will presumably be behind the defence before Loris Karius takes over against Maribor on Tuesday. Klopp is not unique in this but it can surely have confidence ramifications for both. Further up the field, Klopp has been unfortunate with the injury to Sadio Mane but that situation will put more focus on the expensive signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
This seems an opportunity for the Ox to make his first Premier League start for Liverpool.
But if he doesn’t, Klopp’s judgement in this particular transfer case will already look emphatically flawed.
Klopp’s record against other Big Six clubs is mightily impressive but so was Louis van Gaal’s.
If Liverpool lose to United, they will have the same number of points from eight games as they did when Brendan Rodgers got the sack after his start to the 2015/16 season.
Rodgers, though, had finished sixth the previous season and the steady decline was palpable and had to be halted.
Klopp did that and his team continues to play thrilling football.
But he insisted from the start he was no messiah. He was the normal one, he said. Lose to their bitterest rivals and Liverpool fans might just start thinking he was right.