Amorim is perfect fit to replace Klopp as Liverpool manager

Xabi Alonso is staying at Bayer Leverkusen next season – we look at who Liverpool should turn to next

The battle for Xabi Alonso seems to be over before it ever really began. Instead of deciding between Liverpool and Bayern Munich, the Bayer Leverkusen manager will opt for the third way – remaining at Leverkusen for what will, barring a remarkable lateseason collapse, be a title defence and a Champions League run next season.

It's a brave and perhaps surprising decision. Few managers would turn away the attentions of two of Europe’s super clubs, especially when they were so closely linked to both of them through their playing career.

It leaves Liverpool with a problem, albeit one they will be prepared for. They knew they were in a tug of war to sign Alonso, even if they didn’t anticipate their former midfielder deciding to ignore the scrap for his services, and they have got both Brighton & Hove Albion’s Roberto de Zerbi and Sporting’s Rúben Amorim on their shortlist. There may be others, of course, and most likely will be, but those remain the leading candidates.

Of the two, Amorim seems like the more natural fit, simply because his playing style in many ways already mirrors the tactics in use under Jürgen Klopp. Amorim’s Sporting – the current leaders of La Liga Portugal with a one point lead over Benfica and a game in hand – press high and with intensity, use aggressive wing-backs to stretch the pitch, and play with a fluid, pacey front three who look to switch positions to drag defenders around and create space. You don’t have to have watched all that much of Klopp’s Liverpool to see how the current squad could slide right into Amorim’s set-up.

It might be a stretch to say that Liverpool’s squad is tailor-made for the Portuguese head coach’s methods, but there is a great deal of overlap – more, perhaps, than there would be for De Zerbi, who likewise plays a back three and has a philosophy which relies on deep passing link-ups between defence and midfield. It’s Amorim who has more ticks in more boxes, more success on his CV – he already has a Portuguese championship to his name – and a playing style which shouldn’t be too hard to impose on the players already at Anfield.

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