anticipated the turnaround in fortunes that Jurgen Klopp has engineered
in the eight weeks since his appointment as manager.
A team who had won only three of their first 11 games have now won
seven of the last eight, including superb away victories over Premier
League champions Chelsea and current leaders Manchester City.
Wednesday’s 6-1 demolition of Southampton yielded a League Cup
semi-final spot and having risen to within four points of the top four, the
chase for Champions League qualification — if not the title itself — is
back on.
Perhaps equally importantly, as former captain Steven Gerrard observed
recently, “the smiles are back”, six months on from the nadir of Brendan
Rodgers’s reign, a 6-1 drubbing at Stoke City on last season’s final day.
“He has lifted all of the fans, he has lifted all of the staff and you can see
that he has lifted all of the players as well,” said Gerrard, who has been
training with his old club.
Liverpool’s fans grew weary of false dawns under Rodgers, who took the
club to within touching distance of the league title in 2014, but the
evidence produced by recent displays is incontrovertible.
Where Liverpool were ponderous and fragile in the season’s early
weeks, their play now crackles with energy and invention.
According to The Guardian, Klopp has restored “all the vim and verve
that, only two seasons ago, almost propelled Liverpool to the Premier
League title”.
Klopp promised “full throttle” football and he has been true to his word,
with Liverpool’s aggressive high press central to their recent
transformation.
Opponents have been quick to catch on and it was noticeable that
Southampton looked to hit frontman Graziano Pelle at the earliest
opportunity at St Mary’s in a bid to negate the effects of the Liverpool
press.
Lucas Leiva, Emre Can, Alberto Moreno and Adam Lallana are among
the players who are thriving under Klopp, whose tactile man-
management style is characterised by effusive bearhugs.
– ‘Fighting for the team’ –
After a slow start following his £29 million ($43.3 million, 41.1 million
euros) move from Hoffenheim, Roberto Firmino is flourishing, while the
previously maligned Divock Origi opened his account for the club with a
hat-trick at Southampton.
“You can see what a difference he (Klopp) has made,” centre-back
Martin Skrtel told the Liverpool Echo.
“He’s very good tactically and he gives players belief. You see his
emotion on the touchline. He’s a winner. He shows that every day in
training and when it comes to the games.
“We wants us all to be the same, to be fighting for the team and fighting
for the club, and that’s what we’re all doing.”
Klopp hailed Anfield’s “incredible atmosphere” when he took up the
job, but results away from home have been better so far, with the
statement victories over Chelsea, City and Southampton all coming on
the road.
Liverpool have spluttered at home — losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace,
drawing with Rubin Kazan and Southampton, and narrowly beating
Bournemouth, Bordeaux and Swansea City — and Klopp must find a
way to replicate his side’s blitzkrieg’s tactics when teams are not willing
to come out and engage them.
Another challenge concerns how to incorporate the fit-again pair of
captain Jordan Henderson and striker Daniel Sturridge, who marked his
first start under Klopp with a brace at Southampton.
Christian Benteke, the £32.5 million recruit from Aston Villa, is also a
candidate for a striking berth, while Firmino led the line to devastating
effect at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium, dovetailing elusively
with Brazilian countryman Philippe Coutinho.
Liverpool fans will be mindful that their team were unable to sustain
surges of form under Rodgers, whose tenure was a blend of feast and
famine.
It is much too early to judge Klopp a success, but with each dazzling
win, each press conference wisecrack and each open-mouthed cackle,
Liverpool’s fans fall deeper under his spell
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dickieponga
Oworen25
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