The timing of Liverpool’s heavy defeat at Napoli was not lost on many a football fan.
With a below-par nine points from their opening six Premier League games, and some lacklustre performances to boot, there was a hope among Liverpool supporters that the Champions League would offer them a reprieve, but that proved to be emphatically not the case in their first group game in Naples.
And the fact this 4-1 loss came on the day Thomas Tuchel was sacked by Chelsea, who sit one point and one place above Liverpool domestically but also lost away in Europe this week, has a few out there whispering… could they?
The question will linger so long as Liverpool’s slump continues, although over the years owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) have displayed a quality that Chelsea’s hierarchy – both old and now evidently new – have not. Patience.
More from Football
How Klopp can 'reinvent' Liverpool after 'end of cycle', 'suicide football' display08 September, 2022
'Harry Maguire needs to prove he's No 1 if he wants to succeed at Man Utd', says Jaap Stam08 September, 2022
What Chelsea fans can expect if Graham Potter takes charge, from tactics to potential XI08 September, 2022And Klopp knows it too. “Not really, but who knows?” he replied on Wednesday night when asked if he is worried about getting sacked like Tuchel.
“The difference is we have different kind of owners. Ours are calm and expect me to sort it and not think someone else will. That’s how they see it. The day they change their thoughts they might tell me.”
Klopp has sat in the Liverpool dugout during a time where five permanent Chelsea managers have held the hotseat (quite literally, it would seem) at Stamford Bridge.
The German arrived when Jose Mourinho was at Chelsea, and since that December 2015 departure, Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard and now Tuchel have come and gone as well.
This is also not the first time Liverpool have stumbled under Klopp, either. Between 4 January and 7 March 2021, they lost eight of their 12 Premier League games and then exited the Champions League a month later.
Liverpool’s 2021 Premier League run under Klopp
- 4 January – Southampton 1-0 Liverpool
- 17 January – Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd
- 21 January – Liverpool 0-1 Burnley
- 28 January – Tottenham 1-3 Liverpool
- 31 January – West Ham 1-3 Liverpool
- 3 February – Liverpool 0-1 Brighton
- 7 February – Liverpool 1-4 Man City
- 13 February – Leicester 3-1 Liverpool
- 20 February – Liverpool 0-2 Everton
- 28 February – Sheff Utd 0-2 Liverpool
- 3 March – Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea
- 7 March – Liverpool 0-1 Fulham
Already out of the FA Cup, and having lost in the fourth round of the EFL Cup, Klopp and Liverpool suffered a trophyless season the campaign after they finally ended their wait for a Premier League title.
Arguably, that league triumph was the money in the bank Klopp needed to stay on, and he rewarded FSG’s faith with an upturn in results, not only at the end of that campaign, but the season later, where a quadruple remained possible until the final league game.
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) September 7, 2022
"The problems were obvious"
Jurgen Klopp addresses the media after Liverpool were outclassed by a sensational Napoli side in their #UCL opener.pic.twitter.com/O2HVzZ16WX
And so it is time to find out whether FSG are still patient and whether they still believe Klopp is the right man to turn this team around. They may well ask Klopp, too, whether he believes in the cause as well.
Not like he is giving anything away in press conferences, mind.
“There is a job to do, my responsibility and I need time to think about it. There are a few obvious things and we have to reset and go,” Klopp added.
“In football there are always solutions. We don’t play good enough, that is obvious and that is why we lose games. We play in the strongest league in the world and have a pretty good Champions League group.
“Everything is obvious but why it happened, I cannot answer now, let me think about it. It is a really tough cookie to take, but I have to take it.”
from Football | News and analysis from the Premier League and beyond | iNews https://ift.tt/JR7u1KQ
Post a Comment