Klopp announcement ‘helped rather than hindered’ Liverpool; Chelsea star is ‘pretending to be a footballer’

Did Jurgen Klopp’s announcement that he would be leaving Liverpool help or hinder? Plus, Nicolas Jackson is ‘pretending to be a footballer’, Trossard’s finish, Michael Oliver and much more…

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com…

Klopp’s announcement effect
Klopp announced he was leaving on 26 January 2024. It’s easy for me to remember because it was right before the FA Cup 4th round tie vs Norwich City, which I had turned down tickets for. Needless to say the tickets were no longer available after the announcement.

Since then, Liverpool have won a cup final. Prior to the Atalanta tie, They had won 12, drawn 2 and lost 2, and were on track to potentially add the EL and a league title. Since Atalanta 10 days ago (3 whole games of football!), Liverpool have been terrible in terms of both results and performances. I can understand holding Klopp responsible overall for those results, especially how Klopp seemed to have no viable answer for Gasparini’s tactics, but I find it really implausible that his announcement took ~2.5 months to take effect. Playing devil’s advocate, the pressure from the announcement would certainly grow as the season went on, but there was huge pressure immediately following the announcement as well. If anything, the number of wins and late goals suggests that the announcement may have even helped rather than hindered, papering over the cracks, helping a flawed/transitional team stay in contention on all fronts. Who knows.

Tangential point I was not expecting to make when I started writing this: if anything, I’d say the docuseries the club announced they are filming as part of Klopp’s departure is more likely to be a hindrance and distraction than the Klopp announcement itself.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

Hypocrisy from Liverpool fans…
In response to Oliver, yes I do think Liverpool have made more than one transfer mistake under Klopp, but overall have a fantastic record. I wanted to point out the hypocrisy of Liverpool fans saying there is no jeopardy in a City signing and ‘City can just replace anyone that fails’, which as I explained is wrong and very rarely happens respectively, and that Liverpool have done more of this than City.

I did write an email that was published previously, where I went through why I believe City have only made three transfer mistakes under Pep. The ones you listed are mostly what I would call Squad Turnover, where players come in, help the team, but are then mostly moved on for profit and/or better players, which includes Danilo, Cancelo, Nolito and Torres. They aren’t failures in my opinion.

City couldn’t get a work permit for Douglas Luiz so ended up loaning and selling him, without him playing for City. Similar for Porro who also never made an appearance for City and instead was bought and loaned like Angelino and then sold for profit. Hardly a failure if you make money on three players you bought. And it’s too soon on Nunes and Kovacic as they are in their first season. Sergio Gomez is trending in the wrong direction to be fair, but was only £10M.

And Doku isn’t a replacement for Grealish. Doku is a replacement for Mahrez. No idea why this is being said as it makes no sense.

And in Will’s email it’s a bit of a stretch to include a 2nd choice keeper signed for £5.5M as a failure. He was never going to usurp Ederson and was an ok backup. Much happier with Ortega now though, although he may leave as he’s too good to be a number 2 – more Squad Turnover, and not a failure for the record.
Andy D. Manchester. MCFC.

Was Trossard’s finish intentional? Of course it was…
Just a quick one on Arsenal and Trossard. I’m really surprised at the amount of discourse on whether Trossard’s finish against Wolves was intentional or not. Obviously anyone questioning that doesn’t watch Arsenal and Leandro regularly. He has scored several goals this season by slicing across the ball to the far post – his goals against Estonia (for Belgium) and against Everton come to mind. Also keep in mind his hattrick against Liverpool last season (for Brighton) and his disallowed goal against Leicester last season, which was a screamer from outside the box, Leo is (in my opinion) the best finisher at Arsenal – cool as a cucumber (chipped one-on-one finish at Brighton the other week), very two-footed and his positional awareness is very high-class.
Andrew M, AFC, Australia

Early exit announcements 
Badwolf asked “Has there ever been a case where announcing a departure prematurely has worked out well?”

Bayern Munich, trophyless for two seasons announced on the 16th of January 2013, that Heynckes would be replaced by Pep the following season and they went on to win the treble.

And that’s just the first example that came to my head. I’m pretty sure there’s been plenty of midtable managers that have announced they’ll be going with no real drop off.

Liverpool’s results are the way they are because a few of their players are starting to look their age and a few of their recent signings haven’t been of the level of the players they replaced.
Sean (we should all be so lucky to have the wheels come off our season given where Liverpool will likely finish)

I’m sorry Mrs Jackson 
Nicolas Jackson is a track sprinter pretending to be a footballer.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen such a gulf between price and quality of player (who had scored 8 career goals before dumb dumb bought him for £35,000,000. 35. Million. Pounds).

I joke. Most of the players bought under Boehly are worth less than half of what they were bought for. Caicedo? Worth maybe £10M now? Same for Fernandez?
Will (Genuinely think I could finish the chances Jackson misses)

Quantum entanglement
Ever think that sometimes you you can predict the future? Ever think that somehow you have insight into what will happen in football and somehow it immediately happens?

You know the story, you’re watching some game on TV and you say in your head or to you partner: this player is pretty shit – then they score shortly afterwards.

On Saturday I said “Bernardo’s powers are waning aren’t they” and within 10 seconds he scores.

It happens to me all the time and I bet it happens to others so what I want to know on this relaxed Sunday morning is “are we all quantum entangled”?

Are we all predisposed to predict football incorrectly and subconsciously?

Happy Sunday
Fat Man

16 Conclusions
Having seen the semi final match it’s easier to say that Chelsea bottled it and to a certain extent I do agree. However the fact we didn’t get a penalty is a legitimate grievance something your 16 conclusions barely gives a mention to. If any other team had been in that position for example Liverpool, the tone would have been more sympathetic.

How that wasn’t a penalty as judged by VAR is something that has to be explained. It was a clear contact, with the hand in an unnatural position. To not get a corner is even more insult to injury.
Scout (Pakistan)

Michael Oliver
I’ve never seen a more pro-city ref. Over the years he’s proved his loyalty. I assume peps gonna apply for him to do fa Cup final, two lads be doing lines together later under the arch.
Anthony, united fan, been watching the prick for years

Asking the real questions 
If Aston Villa end up securing 4th place and the Champions League spot that comes with it, as well as win the Europa Conference League, will we finally see the return of the mythical Conor Byrne?
Sanjit (he’s that flute player, isn’t he?) Randhawa, Kuala Lumpur.