‘Disloyal’ Liverpool fan insists Klopp lacks ‘ruthless streak’ and has left star ‘cruelly exposed’

One Liverpool fan in the Mailbox wants Reds fans to have a serious conversation about Jurgen Klopp’s future. Plus, Tyrell Malacia, Arsenal being set up to fail and more…

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Liverpool fans need to talk about Klopp
I’m sorry, but I’m just not buying it, and we Liverpool fans need to talk about Klopp. My love for the man knows no bounds. I’ve only ever read about us winning the league yet this man made it a reality for me and I will always be grateful for that, but I’ve got to play devils advocate here and stick a great big pointy finger into this constant lovefest we have for him that I believe is blinding us to reality.

For the first time in his career, he’s had a team he can keep. His team that’s not going to get cherry picked by bigger clubs. A team crammed full of talent and by far the best, I at least, have seen at Anfield in my lifetime (not a high bar, I know). He’s utilised this incredible team by playing a high press, high intensity game, literally rinsed every last ounce of it, and achieved just one league in seven and a European Cup. Of course, this doesn’t take into account an equally incredible City team but facts are facts. Guardiola has managed to beat an incredible Liverpool side bar once. He had what it takes to win, and Klopp hasn’t. Not only that, but now it’s clear to everyone that his system isn’t working anymore, what is he doing about it? I personally can’t see any change in style to adapt and overcome, just the usual high press, high intensity that is no longer working, and has left Trent cruelly exposed to criticism to the point he’s been pulled from the team (not buying the injury excuse) and lost his England place in a World Cup year. Our midfield has been allowed to age while we’ve banked on a clear run at Bellingham next year. Never going to happen now given our form and (surprise surprise) other teams wanting him. Mane going was a massive blow, but so to was giving Salah a massive contract before playing him out wide to accommodate Nunez, a position that completely wastes his talent and is tough to watch. We should have let him go last season when his stock was high but Klopp has been too loyal to players and completely lacks the ruthless streak needed to win.

I need to stop here as I’m feeling disloyal to a man that has brought me so much joy. Once. I could rant on about VVD, Melo etc, use phrases like one trick pony and lack of adaptability, lack of forward planning, but it’s clear to me, at least, if we want to continue to be a top club, not just competing for the big trophies, but actually winning them, we need to talk about Klopp.
BO, Londonderry

Liverpool’s explosive players are suffering…
In a response to Culk’s mail on Liverpool players not giving their all due to World Cup dreamin’, I have had a mail published to that end yet it seems odd only being noticeable in one team.

What I thought might be a factor is how physically shattering it appears to be to play , say a hundred and fifty games of hyper pressing. You could argue that this knackers  players in new ways. The Liverpool players with most explosive ,sprints hard pressed games in their legs are , to some extent , the ones suffering.

Robertson , Henderson , TAA, Van Dyke and Salah . Bobby had a long dip but was also playing a lot less over recent seasons. Gini left and hasn’t  gone higher. Mane , well the jury is still out. If this is partly true then like the battery in an electric car , once it’s done it’s done,  an expensive transplant is needed. Replace Salah , Van Dyke Robbo , ZanderArnold and Henderson with a new geggenpress gang.

Other coaches who choose a wildly manic press will see the same outcomes after say 180 games like this. Salah’s expensive new contract is looking, well , let’s say, less than optimal due to his geggenpress years. Perhaps a rest from now till February could help Salah.

Even so, LFC have a great number of young talented players. Van Dyke is the main one to replace. Phil Thompson told Klopp he thought VVD “is a Rolls Royce of a defender’ , to which Jurgen retorted ‘ Oh dear ‘ and a Teutonic grin.
I don’t run a Rolls but it’s clear why not. Who then , would LIverpool fans wish for as the preferred centre back alongside Konate?
Peter. ( now starts ‘metatarsal season’ ) Andalucia.

Are Arsenal being set up to fail?
Quick one to Rob, Worthing. If Arsenal got to 98 points and didn’t win the league I would be absolutely f*****g fuming. For me, it’s a testament to Klopp that he was able to lift largely the same group to go again and win the title the following season. As a fan, I’d think that would be the chance gone – how you’d motivate the team to try and reach that level again is unreal coaching, in my opinion.

But let’s be real – we are a long, long way away from that. It’s nine games. I know we live in a world where everything has to be the best thing you’ve ever seen, or the worst and most disgraceful piece of uselessness imaginable, but Arsenal really are just a well put together team and one who’ll hopefully be occupying one of those top positions come May. And that’s not a dig at Rob, more a general point regarding the hyperbolic coverage since Sunday. To me, it just feels like we’re being set up to fail and be the new ‘bottlers’ when it all crumbles a bit after Christmas and we ‘only finish third’.

We’ve made a really nice start, beaten some good sides and are top for now. It’s way more fun than things have been in previous recent seasons. And we’ve got a nice little run now, Chelsea aside, going into the World Cup, but even then it’ll only be 14 games played.

It’s October 12th!!
Joe, AFC, East Sussex

I remember when…
I remember when…

Arteta signed Aaron Rasmdale and the people said “He’s been relegated twice, why are we signing him?”

I remember when Arteta signed Ben White and the people said “He’s only had one season in the Premier League.  £50m is way too much.”

I remember when Arteta sent William Saliba on loan and the people said “Why doesn’t Arteta just play him?”

I remember when Arteta signed Takehiro Tomiyasu and the people said “Who?”

I remember when Arteta signed Martin Odegaard and the people said “James Maddison would be better.”

I remember when Arteta built bridges and stuck by Granit Xhaka and the people said “Why?  He should be sold.”

I remember when Arteta said we had to be patient with Gabriel Martinelli and the people said “Why are you not playing him already?”

I remember when Arteta was playing Eddie Nketiah and the people said “Why are you playing him when he won’t sign a new contract.”

I remember when Arteta ostracised Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and the people said “Arteta is on an ego trip and can’t handle big name players.”
Naz, Gooner.

Fun season
From the outset this season was always likely to throw up some curious results, performances and possibly even a changing of the top four. Put simply, a WC slap bang in the middle of the season is destined to cause some mischief. That said, aside from Liverpool’s current plight, which could just as easily be a blip, the top five positions are held by five of the usual suspects.

There are destined to be some players looking to get themselves on the plane to the WC playing out of their skins,  whilst others might coast knowing they’re all but guaranteed a squad number. Again, that said, there seem few who are staking a claim which is injury induced (Ben White in place of Walker for example), and fewer still who are playing so well that they really do warrant inclusion (I’d love to see Eze go to the WC but the England squad seems fairly set).

For a league so entrenched in it’s own hype, perhaps this is all the evidence needed to prove that the dross are just that, and the usual suspects are so far beyond that even when playing within themselves, Tottenham spring to mind, they are still able to post a points tally which would see them finish on 80 points, there really isn’t much competition at all.

Maybe, with the avalanche of matches incoming, along with a post WC hangover for some players, anomalies will be thrown up but the current evidence would say it’s unlikely.
Dan M

Malacia > Walker
Has Will Ford got a bee in his bonnet today? His swipe at Malacia is as uncharacteristic as it is unwarranted. It seems a little misguided, in an article bemoaning the early positive reaction to Malacia as short-sighted, to express “He’s a good defensive full-back but that’s it…” after a grand total of 668 minutes of competitive football for United.

The way Will portrays it the lad was a vital +£50m transfer intended to take United to the next level, like all our attacking threat rests on his diminutive frame. He was signed as a squad player for £15m, as a much better back up than Telles, and as competition for Shaw. Given the latter’s return to form after seeing the new guy take his starting spot I’d say Tyrell’s fulfilling his role admirably.

As for damning him with attacking stats, in the league Malacia is averaging 0.20 goal attempts and 0.59 penalty box touches per 90. Kyle Walker playing for one of the most attacking sides in the world averages 0.16 and 0.32 respectively.
Dave, Manchester

Celebrating in front of opposition fans…
Re Geraints e mail , the first answer that came to mind was players being booked for celebrating in front of opposition fans. This has never really bothered me as if fans give it out they should be able to take it, maybe just don’t need to go full Adebayor. But now as I think more about it have I made this rule up as it never seems to happen?

Also the only penalty I have ever taken in a game I hit the bar and messed up a teammate scoring the rebound as I went to hit it, remembered I couldn’t and got in his way. Fairly sure we lost 7-1 that day as well.
Sam, Newtownabbey

Total exoneration?
Couple of things Richard.  With regards to the emails, what was actually stated in the CAS report is as follows:

‘Mr Pearce may have tried to implement the arrangements discussed in the leaked emails, but in the view of the majority of the panel there is no evidence on file establishing that he actually went ahead with or succeeded in such attempt.’

Or, to put it another way, Mr Pearce stated that he was going to enable the disguising of equity funding as sponsorship in internal emails but as ADUG didn’t provide us with access to their accounts we can’t prove it.

Not quite the TOTAL EXONERATION you crow about.

Your point about problems FFP was purported to prevent is absolute nonsense.  Of course City aren’t in debt and unable to pay wages right now because your owner is still in place. The purpose behind FFP is so that a club isn’t entirely reliant on the largesse of an owner to survive.  Sustainability in the form of living within the means of income and expenditure generated by the club.  The fact is that even after 14 years of ownership, if Abu Dhabi were no longer in charge of your club then it would be unsustainable in its current form because so much income is tied to the owner.

How are City meant to compete without spending billions of unearned income?  Same as every other team in the league, through hard work on the training ground and clever player acquisitions as well as smart commercial decisions.  If some clubs are more successful than others due to hard work and astute management 30/40/50 years ago, why shouldn’t they reap the benefits of that success in the form of larger fan bases and therefore higher sponsorship opportunities?

In terms of ‘big clubs demanding more of the pie’ and the system being rigged you’re obviously talking about prize money for finishing positions but that doesn’t account for the fact that TV money is split equitably throughout the league and far more equitably than, for example, Spain where the two most popular teams get the lion’s share of TV money.  Could it be done more fairly?  Of course, and I’m not opposed to that.  They could do away with the tiered prize money (which isn’t huge, there’s £14m difference between finishing 1st and 11th) for finishing positions but then there’s no difference between finishing 7th and 17th so how fair is that?  I don’t know what the answer is but the current situation isn’t as nearly skewed as you try to make out to justify your position.

Does the current distribution of finances prevent any other teams from breaking through the glass ceiling?  Absolutely not.  Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal have all shown in the past decade or so that shrewd management, patience and effort can raise the team up from mid table doldrums.  Yes, you’ll point to them being ‘big clubs’ but look at what other clubs have spent in that time (Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton spring to mind), so it’s not that they’ve outspent everyone due to some sort of self-perpetuating monopoly.  Abu Dhabi just didn’t want to go through the team building process where transfer mistakes can be costly, where they might have to sell their best players to fund other squad needs, where progress might not be linear so they pumped billions of pounds into the club and circumvented the rules that the other clubs were adhering to, to do so.

Bang on about ‘the old order’ all you want, the fact of the matter is that your club has maneuvered itself into a position of dominance through systematic malfeasance so fill your boots with justifications about local investments (that have priced locals out of being able to afford flats there) and shady pie based deals (despite the last placed team in the league receiving £98m in TV income last season). I will sit in judgment of the tainted achievements of the Manchester based club that was formed in 2008.
James Outram, Wirral