As the much shared and retweeted Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher Super Sunday Vine on social media proved, despite Liverpool enduring a tough series of games, it was still a rather sudden shock that Brendan Rodgers was relieved of his duties as Liverpool manager yesterday evening.
The only Reds boss not to win a single honour in his first three seasons in charge, the Northern Irishman will now be looking for another job with his last game coming in yesterday’s 1-1 Merseyside Derby with Everton.
Simply drawing too many games in all competitions this season while again investing huge money into a squad with no immediate returns on that investment, Rodgers has now paid the price for Liverpool’s mediocrity.
At the same time, we mustn’t forget that Rodgers almost led Liverpool to their first ever Premier League title in the modern era back in 2013/14 but losing Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge to injury has hit both he and Liverpool hard and you can see why many think the time for change is justified.
Rodgers will undoubtedly get another job given the fact he’s a good coach but you just feel Liverpool need somebody of greater worldwide repute to truly haul the Anfield club back into the upper echelons of not only English football but European competition to boot given the fact they still reside as one of the world’s biggest clubs.
The favourite to replace Rodgers right now is former Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp who is 2/7 with several bookmakers to succeed the Northern Irishman.
The outstanding candidate on the unemployed list right now alongside the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, today we’ve devised five reasons why it simply has to be #Klopp4TheKop and no, just because his surname rhymes with the Kop, this isn’t a reason!
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Click on the image below to reveal the five reasons why Jurgen Klopp is simply perfect for Liverpool.
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He’s already proved he’s more shrewd than most in the transfer market
Having spent another whopping £80 million this summer, Liverpool still don’t look like a squad that is firing on all cylinders as a direct consequence of that cash injection and far from it if the truth be told.
The club’s two biggest signings in Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino haven’t had the impact of £32.5 million and £29 million players respectively and unfortunately for the Reds, this has been a similar tale during Rodgers’ tenure.
Outside Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, many of Liverpool’s signings have been too middle of the road such as Adam Lallana or alternatively, downright useless such as Lazar Markovic and Mario Balotelli and this hasn’t helped Reds supporters get on side.
One man who has negotiated transfer windows with far more success however is Jurgen Klopp who much like Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, made his name for buying players for modest fees before turning them into superstars during his time at Signal Iduna Park.
The likes of Shinji Kagawa, Mats Hummels, Robert Lewandowski, Ilkay Gundogan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were transformed into world beaters under the stewardship of Klopp and it’s this eye for talent ahead of developing them that really appeals to Reds supporters right now.
He’s an advocate of an attacking style of play
Say what you want about Brendan Rodgers’ tenure at Anfield but one thing that must be said of his teams ahead of perhaps this season was the fact that they were usually incredibly good to watch on the eye.
Especially back in the 2013/14 campaign of course, the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho linked up to devastating effect and there’s no doubting this attacking style is something Kopites would love to retain under their next manager.
The one request these same fans have however is that the defence is concentrated upon with the same care and attention because all in all, it has become a problem far too often of late that Liverpool have shipped goals and as a result, slipped away from battling at the very summit alongside the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City and even Arsenal and Manchester United last season.
In Klopp, the German boss is somebody who has also advocated an attacking style of play in his time at Dortmund and lets not forget, the goal machine that is Robert Lewandowsi further developed under the tutelage of the manager before defecting to Bayern Munich of course.
His appointment may persuade former players of his to sign
Having already mentioned Liverpool’s shortcomings in the transfer market in recent seasons, one other dimension a potential Klopp appointment could yield is the fact that many of his former Dortmund players may be tempted to link up with him again at Anfield.
While Borussia lost their way a tad during a testing Bundesliga campaign that proved to be Klopp’s final one last season, he was an incredibly successful coach in the main, delivering two back-to-back Bundesliga titles to break the dominance of Bavarian giants Bayern Munich.
A mark of his success in his time at Signal Iduna Park was his charismatic bond with his players and we’re all familiar with the Vines of Klopp happy slapping members of his team but it’s this infectious nature that really underpinned his success.
Liverpool have struggled to land truly world class marquee names in the transfer market in recent seasons losing out on the likes of potential game-changers such as Alexis Sanchez but if Klopp was appointed, perhaps this could prove the key to the likes of Marco Reus, Ilkay Gundogan or Mats Hummels signing in the near future.
These players are most definitely upgrades on Adam Lallana, Lucas Leiva and Dejan Lovren and Klopp’s bond with those aforementioned Dortmund trio may make the difference in signing them, although this can’t be considered a guarantee.
He has good pedigree in European competition
Although what Liverpool fans crave in the main is another tilt at the Premier League title considering they’ve never won it in the modern era, Reds supporters also want their club back in the Champions League rather than the inferior Thursday night Europa League which they find themselves in at present.
Despite only qualifying for the Europa League for this season courtesy of a season that started off terribly for Dortmund in 2014/15, Klopp has proved his credentials in the superior Champions League beforehand, taking Borussia to the Wembley Final back in 2013 when they went all the way, only to fall to arch-rivals Bayern Munich in the end.
So in this respect, Klopp has proved he can negotiate his way through to the very latter stages of Europe’s elite club competition and the same can’t be said of Rodgers’ Reds team last season who embarrassingly failed to qualify from a group containing Ludogorets and FC Basel with Real Madrid the favourites of course.
He’s a cult character for one of the great cult clubs
One thing that sets Jurgen Klopp apart from other managerial candidates is his charismatic and colourful personality.
Admired from afar by most fans and the media during his rise to prominence over in the Bundesliga, he’s always been endorsed as one of the managers supporters would most like to see in the English game and in this way, perhaps Liverpool would win over a lot of admirers.
While Reds supporters won’t care about that of course and rather what happens on the pitch, Klopp’s style of management will represent something different and altogether more intriguing than the Rodgers regime.
Considering the fact Dortmund were always a big cult club in Germany, yet were going through a forgettable period in their history prior to Klopp’s revolution, don’t Liverpool also similarly fit that category right now?
One of the great cult clubs of world football, quite simply, Klopp and the Kop seem to be a match made in heaven.
Reds supporters will just hope the club’s hierarchy can pull the appointment off sooner rather than later!
