Nasty case of déjà vu... let’s hope Klopp can sort it this time

JURGEN KLOPP can be forgiven his sense of déjà vu.

As he sat in the bowels of the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Wednesday night, scratching his head at his side’s collapse, the thought must have crossed his mind.

‘I’ve been here before’. Conceding four goals inside the opening 50 minutes of a Champions League group fixture against spirited opponents had given him plenty of food for thought.

In the press conference afterwards, he attempted to pinpoint the issues.

Blurred

Using phrases such as, “basic things weren’t there”, and asking if the club had to “reinvent” itself, suggesting the bigger picture is far more blurred. And hints that changes are afoot.

Klopp isn’t averse to shaking up his club, if he feels it is warranted and the team will profit. For example, in his last season at Borussia Dortmund, he resigned before the end of the campaign as he looked to elicit a positive response – he got one.

But there are worrying signs that lightning might be striking twice.

The German is facing many of the same problems at Liverpool as he had done in his country’s industrial heartland.

And it didn’t end well. In fact, much like this campaign it didn’t start well, either.

The catalyst for the fall was the exit of arch-goal-getter

Robert Lewandowski

(right with Klopp) to Bayern Munich.

The Poland international went on to score at the rate of one every game for his new club. That would leave a big hole in any team.

As great as the defection of Sadio

Mane – ironically also to the Bavarian club – has done to him on Merseyside? Maybe not, but it has undoubtedly had an effect.

All of a sudden, there’s more pressure on everyone else to find the net. Mo Salah doesn’t look the same player. And the statistics bear that out.

Back in Dortmund, it didn’t help that Adrian Ramos, Lewandowski’s replacement, flopped. It’s too early to call similar over Darwin Nunez – but it’s fair to say the Uruguayan hasn’t hit the ground running.

Back in Germany, other mistakes were made in the transfer market.

Ciro Immobile was brought in and farmed out inside 12 months.

Mario Gotze followed Lewandowski to Bayern Munich.

All of a sudden, without warning, there had been a dilution of the squad that had reached such heights.

Powerless

And Klopp proved powerless to stop the rot.

At one stage, Dortmund propped up the rest of the Bundesliga as the head coach desperately sought answers.

The fact is that James Milner’s getting older, Gini Wijnaldum’s absence has always been underplayed and the players who have turned out with such intensity for him cannot always be expected to do so. Liverpool are far from broken. Far, far from broken but the lessons of history are there.

Klopp may have a sense of déjà vu. Whether he has come up with any answers in the meantime is now the outstanding £64,000 question.