Mails: Klopp not Jordan in Space Jam

Matt Stead

We’ve had a raft of mails countering the optimism of Klopp to Liverpool. The red half of Merseyside is still very much enamoured, of course…

If you have anything to say on any subject, mail us at theeditor@football365.com

 

Best boss since Sir Bob
This might be seen as controversial in some quarters but this is, in my humble opinion, the first decent manager we’ve appointed since Sir Bob Paisley. That may do a disservice to Joe Fagan but frankly speaking the team Sir Bob left was so dominant you could have put a European novice like Wenger in charge and even he might have bagged a European Cup or two. As indeed, did Joe Fagan the very next year.

King Kenny was a successful gaffer first time out but fell down, for me Clive, by leaving an ageing squad in need of major overhaul. Souness rightly gets dogs abuse for the poor job he did (let us not mention the Beardsley debacle) but he had to perform major surgery on the squad. I have to say I was never a Rafa acolyte. Whilst he delivered number5 and some titanic battles against Mourinho etc I always felt he put Europe ahead of domestic affairs and as Sir Bob said “the league is our bread and butter”. Just reel of the gaffers since 1983 and it’s a veritable who’s who of mediocrity. Charlatans, bullsh*tters and people who got the gig on one good season with small clubs. The absolute nadir being London FC’s current manager who can rightly be proud of boasting the lowest win percentage of any permanent Liverpool FC manager since Don Welsh. Top work Hodgson!

Loving the bitterness of the those two cockneys in this mornings mailbox. The best bit was the goon who said we’d had a golden decade (it was two) a while ago. Willfully ignoring Art Deco was en vouge the last time Arsenal were a big noise. And the Spud Tom Pellizzaro can hush now, the big clubs are talking. Spurs fans, eh? I imagine Tom avoids the lasagne at lunchtime, the mug.

A proper world class coach coming to Liverpool!!! I am old enough to have seen first hand all of the gaffers listed here (not Don Welsh) and have not been this excited since we finally bagged Sean Dundee from beneath the noses of RM / Barca and the like. As a sidenote I read with incredulity that the charlatan was extremely disappointed at losing the Liverpool job. Looking at the pictures of his unveiling he’s lost loads of weight and got new teeth out of us… There really is no pleasing some people, is there!?

Best Fans In The World (TM) have finally got a manager befitting the most successful club in English football. 18 + 5 beats 20 + 3 as the European Cup is harder to win; just ask Alex Ferguson.
Gregory Whitehead, LFC

 

Klopp and Rodgers: Not twins
Does anyone see the similarities between Klopp and Rodgers?

No, no I don’t.

Klopp as won multiple titles and trophies, at an under-resourced (level they’re competing at vs transfer clout) club.

Brendan has won no league titles and trophies, at an over resourced club.

BVB went from 13th, to 6th, 5th and then 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd under Klopp. He has got to a major cup final in each of the last 4 seasons. He pulled them up by their bootstraps, and then kept them up there competing with the big boys. That’s sustained success, not a one season runners-up blip like Brendan.

BVB have lost key players, but have continually been competitive.

Liverpool have lost key players, but Rodgers has used it as an excuse, talking about a team in transition.

During their period of success, 2010-2014, BVB spent 68 million (and MADE a transfer profit of 1.3 million net), delivering those 2 league titles in the process.

During Brendan’s tenure, he’s spent 192m (92m net), and has delivered nowt but a near miss.

And as for BVB’s “slide” – this one I’m happy to draw parallels with if Klopp delivers us 2 league titles, a few pots and a fair stab at the Champions league, before we “slide” back down to 7th.

James (LFC) Manchester
James (LFC) Manchester

 

The worry
If anything, Clive, he’s handled that presser almost too well.
Andy, (not Townsend) London

 

Reality check(s)
I, like everyone, is delighted that Klopp has joined our league. His quotes alone will be worth it.

I just wanted everyone to slow down a bit though. Liverpools upcoming fixtures:

Tottenham (A)
Southampton (H)
Bournemouth (H)
Chelsea (A)
Palace (H)
City (A)

While you would expect them to get 3 points at home to Bournemouth (no offence but that will be a tough away match), none of the other matches are easy. There is potential for a huge boost with Klopps arrival but a loss to Tottenham and/or Southampton would grind that hope down.

If all the big games were at home I would think differently but Klopp has his work cut out in the first two months. I suggest exercising cautious optimism…
Rob A (I wish Aguero could have a full season without injury) AFC

 

Let me first say that whilst I would love to have Klopp managing Spurs as he is a fantastic manager, I’m incredibly happy with Pochettino and our current squad (Dier and Alderweireld being particular highlights).

But what is slightly annoying me and some may call it petty jealousy and other may say I’m bitter, is the hysteria that is already surrounding Klopp’s appointment. I’m pretty sure someone had a tag on him from the minute Brendan was sacked!

There is NO doubt that this is a fantastic appointment for Liverpool, truly an accomplishment by FSG. However he isn’t a miracle worker and it may take some time to correct the defensive frailties that they’re suffering from. I said during the summer that it was either stick or twist with Brendan and I stand by my opinion that he should’ve gone. Imagine a pre-season with Klopp at the helm, bringing in players he needs and instilling his style to the squad.

I just hope that Liverpool fans really just enjoy this victory and don’t tarnish it with stupid predictions of trebles and titles. They may come in the future but for this season it could prove to be too much hope too soon. He is hopefully going to prove an asset to the Premier League because we’re severely lacking managers we actually enjoy on the sideline, but this is a plea to all Liverpool fans, enjoy the ride but don’t expect the World just yet.
Albert (Tracking his plane was a little OTT), THFC

 

A bright young manager who has taken his slightly unfashionable team to dizzying heights in the league and a tremendous run in Europe using nothing but tactical genius and not having to fall back on a reputation as a world beating player. Despite being only his 2nd job in football management (Ed – poor Mainz), all of Europe’s top clubs are linked with him, whether they have a manager or not, as he is the man to lead whichever club he chooses to unprecedented glory.

Jurgen Klopp? Nah, that was Paul Le Guen and Andre Villas Boas
Iain MacDonald (RFC, not that the Le Guen one still stings…)

 

I think Liverpool fans are forgetting one major issue with the appointment of Klopp – their team is absolute f*cking p*ss compared to the Dortmund team he managed, just compare his Dortmund team that got to the Champions League final to the tripe that he has agreed to take over.

Mignolet / Weidenfeller

Clyne / Piszczek

Skrtel / Hummels

Sakho (or Lovren) / Subotic

Moreno / Schmelzer

Milner / Bender

Henderson / Gundogan

Coutinho / Gotze

Ibe / Blaszczykowski

Benteke / Lewandowski

Fimino (?) / Reus

I think it’s fair to say not one Liverpool player would get into that team, and we all seen last season how well the Klopp-meister can do without a below average team. Anyway, I can think of 7million reasons why he agreed to take over a mid-table Premiership club instead of waiting on one of the bigger clubs to come in.
Conor, Dublin

 

Have I missed something? Klopp was appointed yesterday wasn’t he, yet he seems to have already nailed down 4th place.. odd. I knew this would happen, the inevitable outpouring from fans who are universally hated due to their incessant whining, demanding nature and general deluded points of view. If ever there is an incident within the world of Liverpudlian football, no matter how small, there is an outcry of on all platforms of social media and within this very mailbox. You are showered with views that are often ridiculous or that nobody really gives a sh*t about. Here’s a couple of things that have irked me.

1. Just because the guy has said a number of positive things about the club, demanded passion and also spoken about the ‘rich history’of the club, it doesn’t immediately mean that he or the club is destined for success under his leadership.

2. “Arsenal, United and Chelsea supporters.. You. Are. Gutted.” I really don’t think we are, as much as you would like to think we are. I imagine that the majority of Liverpool fans think that they have gotten one over on their rivals with this managerial coup, I bet its the talk of the town.

Ironically, if you guys weren’t such perennial under-achievers then you wouldn’t get overly emotional when a decent coach wants to manage your club and make such ridiculous comments, thus proving your shrinking importance to modern football.

People have said that its going to be difficult to hate Liverpool anymore with such a lovely, kind-faced manager now at the helm. With all the exaggeration and misguided optimism they will be more difficult to stomach than ever before.
Leon, Basel.

 

Hiring a world class manager (and Klopp is, I suspect) was a great move by Liverpool.

But I’m not worried about LFC from a United perspective. Their team is still sh*t. He is not Michael Jordan and this is not Space Jam.
Jonny, MUFC. More worried about our back four, to be honest

 

So Klopp wins a couple of Bundesliga titles at a time when Bayern are at a low ebb and he has the comfortably the best squad in the league. Bayern buy all of his good players and team performance drops off a cliff as Dortmund limp to seventh place leading to him moving on

Rodgers should have won a far more competitive league with a team that hadn’t come higher than sixth in any of the previous four seasons but his team bottle it at the end (there is only so much a manager can do before the players have to take responsibility and do the job). Suarez goes, Sterling follows, Sturridge crocked and performance falls off a cliff and leads to his sacking.

I readily concede that Liverpool’s deterioration since coming second must be hard to swallow for fans but surely Rodgers is more a victim of circumstance than anything else? Anyone towing the ‘but he spent loads of cash’ line, A) it’s borderline impossible to replace someone like Suarez regardless of how much dough you got for him (see Spurs squandering much the Bale cash for reference), and B) Rodgers was obliged to take punts on risky, ‘diamond in the rough’-esque players (like Suarez at Ajax) because he couldn’t compete with bigger clubs for established stars (and yet was expected to finish above them in the league). There are plenty of clubs who have p*ssed more money away without taking the flak Rodgers did. Also, for anyone bemoaning the ‘lack of style / identity’ towards the end with Rodgers, go and ask a Dortmund fan what they thought of their team’s ‘style’ for the best part of last season…

Prediction time – Jurgen is not a magician who will be able to stroll in and turn an average group of players into superstars, can’t see Liverpool getting top 4 this year as Chelsea will rebound. Beyond that, it will depend on who can be lured to the club but nothing has really changed in that respect – Liverpool are still perennial Europa-leaguers who won’t dole out £300k p/w and so they will still be forced to sign B-listers and rogues in the hope they can develop into stars
James, MUFC, Bolton 

 

Before I amble towards my point I do actually like Jurgen Klopp (despite the Bevarian circle jerk that the media have over him) I think he’s a decent manager.

That said, with all the smug Liverpool fans at the moment, isn’t it going to be really f*cking hilarious when the 5th best manager in the league with the 5th best squad in the league comes 5th or lower in the table and actually everyone realises that nothing at all has changed.

The good news is Liverpool might actually bring through some decent young players from their academy now instead of boring us to death with how good they could be… Danny Pacheco anyone?
Luca James AFC

 

It’ll be fun either way
Well, at last some competition for Jose in the coveted ‘arch soundbite most likely to make the tabloids attempt to crawl inside you’ award.

‘I’m the normal one’? Shots fired.

Also, I’m a little bit in love. The man, on his first day, more or less told Liverpool fans- Liverpool fans –to stop living in the past. Not because it’s irrelevant, but because the future is brighter. And we only sodding believe him. Whatever happens next, this is going to be fun.
Matt (We all worship Jurgen’s Red Machine, Jurgen’s Red Machine, Jurgen’s Red Machine) LFC

 

Fine lines
“It’s our job to make them forget their problems for 90 minutes. That’s how I would want to live if I wasn’t manager”

“I want to see it, feel it, smell it. It’s a great place, this is the most special place I’ve been. This is the most historical place.”

Inspirational from Klopp.

Cringeworthy had it come from Brendan.
Michael, MUFC

 

Spare a thought
Somewhere, in leafy, suburban Liverpool, there is an Ulsterman not giddy with glee at Northern Irelands qualification for Euro 2016. Whilst the rest of the football world is praising the Liverpool manager to the hilt, our man is staring up at a portrait of himself, ferociously polishing his teeth, muttering to himself about Adam Lallana in ‘that seven and a half role’.

Cheer up, mate. You’re the same manager that nearly won the league, but better
Matt, EFC, London

 

Poor Spurs
I am probably being a bit paranoid but spare a thought for Spurs.

We seem to have an alarming knack of playing teams when they are either in their hottest-of-hot streaks or when they have just appointed a new manager.

Thanks Klopp. No really.
Steve (why is it always Spurs?)

 

Ancelotti? No thanks
Whatever the merits of Ancelotti, who is a fine manager, the idea of getting rid of LvG now is insane. The guy has spent hundreds of millions shaping a team the way he wants it, and Sunday’s result aside has got us into a real title challenge. He’s quietly grooming Giggs to be a potential successor so we could have some nice continuity when he retires. Whilst Ancelotti might well be a good manager, do we really need another upheaval, another manager wanting to bring in a host of new players? Just think, in a few seasons it could be Giggs at United, Klopp at Liverpool and Guardiola at City all fighting to take their teams to the title. Wenger’s transition from revolutionary to dinosaur will be complete, and Chelsea will likely be 5 managers on from where they are now, with Mourinho being tipped for another comeback.

Kind Regards
Mike Christie

 

What a line
As a long suffering Aston Villa fan I just wanted to echo what Luigi said in the previous mailbox and say thanks for Nick Miller’s excellent piece on Tactics Tim – not only for the article itself, but ‘freelance striker whisperer’ is quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever read on this fine site. Give him the job!
Dave Horgan, AVFC

 

Optimism
I agree with Tom Pellizzaro. Football really isn’t a place for optimism. What is there to be gained from hoping your team will win games and achieve something over the season. Its much more fun to be pessimistic and expect nothing but bad things. After all if you actually start to think something good might happen and it doesn’t, then everyone will say how stupid you are.

Alternatively, you could just enjoy football for what it is. Get carried away. Get caught up in the excitement. Say your going to win the league. If you don’t, you’ve not lost anything. Least you were excited about something. Least you had fun. Give me a football ground full of blindly optimistic fans over a negative told you so’s any day. I know which is more fun and I also know which one is more likely to help the fellas on the grass run about that little bit harder.

Liverpool scored over 100 goals a couple of years back and it was the best season a lot of Liverpool fans lives. But Tom is right, they didn’t win the league so what’s the point in getting excited about it.
David, Liverpool, Red

 

Lookalikes
I can’t believe no one’s noticed this but Anthony Martial is Urkel

Martial Urkel Football365
Edward Mak, Shanghai