Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool are in the Premier League at rock bottom
jYou may feel sorry for the Organ Club. Liverpool were largely embarrassing themselves in a Saturday afternoon game away at Brighton when the manager stood resignedly in front of his seat and put two fingers to his lips as if trying to refrain from shouting furiously. The in-form Brighton & Hove Albion side dominated the game in all respects, winning more possession and getting nearly three times as many shots on goal; Liverpool On the other hand, he followed her headless and sometimes heartless. At the final whistle, it was 3-0 to the hosts from the south coast of England, and Liverpool had to say thank you that things didn’t get any worse.
After the match, Klopp spoke about Tassels in the media. “I really don’t remember a worse match. Not just in Liverpool,” said the coach, who worked with Borussia Dortmund and Mainz 05 before moving to England in autumn 2015. Bogged down by mediocrity, European Cup places are increasingly out of reach. Liverpool have been bad. As it is now at this point in the season yourgen club He was not there as a coach. “Of course we are very concerned,” Klopp said when asked about the situation. “How can I not watch a match like this?”
Critics complain about the lack of development under Klopp
It crushes in all parts of the team, also due to the increasing number of injuries to important players. In attack, there was once again a lack of penetrating power against Brighton: the team felt the absence of Sadio Mane, who moved to Bayern Munich in the summer after six years at Liverpool. The few chances Liverpool created on Saturday were woefully wasted by attacking players around Cody Gakow, their only winter signing so far. Klopp relied on the experienced trio in midfield Jordan Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho, which were repeatedly played dizzy by the spirited Brightoners. Captain Henderson took charge heroically after that, but he didn’t show much confidence: “We have a little bit of self-confidence and the energy level is low. We have to keep fighting.”
As before in the 2-2 win at Wolverhampton and 1-3 at Brentford, it was mainly the defense that lacked organization without injured defender Virgil van Dijk. The full-back four of Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip In the center of the defence, Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold seemed mired in the flanks; Brighton repeatedly used Liverpool’s usual high defensive line to deliver deep passes because the wings in particular were not secured enough. Added to this were unnecessary mistakes, as in 1-0, when Brighton counter-pressing – in fact a Liverpool specialty – forced Matip to make a fatal pass in the build-up of the match. The score came 3-0 from a throw-in, after which Brighton’s Danny Welbeck smashed the ball across the Liverpool penalty area and fired it in from close range. With 20 minutes left, Klopp tried to give his team a new boost with a four-way substitution, but that didn’t change anything.
Just a few months ago there was no England match report, no Liverpool analysis without the word ‘quadruple’. Because last season Liverpool had a chance to win four trophies at once: the League Cup, the FA Cup, the Championship and the Champions League. In the end, it was just enough for national cup competitions, but the fall from a near-historic season to what Klopp described as a “low point” was swift.
Since arriving in England, Klopp has groomed the squad for the much-vaunted ‘heavy metal football’ that won Liverpool the Champions League in 2019 and their first trophy in 30 years the following year. Many of the players who took to the field in those victories are still key players today. So critics complain that apart from smaller tactical experiments there has been no further development. Until the end of January, it was clubs Premier League He committed himself to the newcomers, but even before the game against Brighton, Klopp reacted angrily when asked about it: “The transfer market is not the answer for us.”
Is Klopp’s job in danger? He’s still popular with fans: Just a few months ago a huge mural of Klopp in a jubilant pose was unveiled — and it’s not the first of its kind in town. With his merits over the past seven years, he still has some credit with the American owners. Klopp’s contract runs until the summer of 2026, and last April he prematurely extended the contract for another two years. His previous stops in Mainz and Dortmund ended after some seven years. At that time, BVB had fallen into the relegation zone with its former champion team. Klopp still didn’t want to know anything about the seven-year cycle when he faced it against the backdrop of Liverpool’s false start to the season: “It’s completely different.”
Klopp switched from his usual 4-3-3 to 4-1-4-1 against Brighton. In a television interview after the defeat, he said with a tormented laugh that he came up with this idea “but to help the team, to be honest.” The plan didn’t work, “we totally played them into their hands.”
The coach doesn’t have much time to work on better ideas. On Tuesday, Liverpool will meet Wolverhampton in the second leg of the FA Cup, and on Saturday, Chelsea, who also has problems, will visit Anfield. After all, Klopp finally saw a good thing about the embarrassment at Brighton: “It shouldn’t be too difficult to improve us.”