Jurgen Klopp had declared after Liverpool’s Napoli drubbing in the Champions League that he will have to “reinvent” his team, only to be standing on the sidelines, watching his them lose to a rejuvenated Arsenal side. Former Reds’ midfielder Didi Hamann has now expressed his shocking disbelief over Klopp’s failure to turn around things at the club. Liverpool have endured a very dismantling start to the new season, winning just 4 games out of 12 in all competitions. Their recent defeat at Arsenal in the Premier League further pushed them down to 10th in the table, and has all but ended their title challenge.
While three Premier League sides have already given their managers the axe, with Chelsea, Wolves and Bournemouth parting ways with their respective coaches, many have placed their bets on Jurgen Klopp now. However, the club’s owners Fenway Sports Group currently have no plans of sacking the German and fully trust him to bring a change in the results. But Hamann has insisted sooner or later this season Klopp could be sent packing.
Little signs that people have little problems with the manager – Hamann on Jurgen Klopp
A respected former player of the Reds, Hamann plied his trade for the club between 1999 to 2006 making 283 appearances. He was a key member for Liverpool in his spell, helping them to a massive 8 trophies in 7 years, which included a Champions League and Europa League triumph. Talking about the club’ current scenario, where they are struggling to get back on the track, Hamann told talkSPORT:
“At some stage, I think we will have that discussion about the manager and I’m not sure how far we are off that. He [Jurgen Klopp] said that he still feels that he’s the right man to do it, but I see little things like Jordan Henderson midweek seeing his number going up and reluctantly taking his armband off and coming off, shaking his head.
‘This is something that we haven’t seen at Liverpool for five years. Maybe these are little signs that people have little problems with the team or even the manager. The dynamics at Liverpool are no different to anywhere else and if the results aren’t there then the manager will come under pressure.”
The German further admits that while the club is in transition, they are far off from their form from last season, where they fought for the quadruple with all the strength. Hamann continued:
“As a big team, you’re always in transition but they’ve been at the top of their capacities for the last three or four years. What they achieved and what they did last year was second to none. I don’t think that will be achieved again, to be within seven days of winning all four trophies and I think that psychologically, it was always going to be tough this season.”
On the Reds’ dull defeat against Arsenal, who have been rampant this season collecting 8 wins from 9 league games, the midfielder said:
“If you look at Arsenal in the second half, they were everything that Liverpool were four or five years ago. They were breath-taking going forward. Every time that they did go forward you felt that something was going to happen. This Liverpool team looks tired, they look pedestrian and they just look flat. I’m not sure where the spark is going to come from because they’ve won games in the past.
“They beat Rangers a few days ago but they’re obviously far superior to Rangers. I trust that they’ll know where the spark is going to come from but whether it’s the end of an era? I wouldn’t write them off, but my imagination doesn’t let me see where the spark is going to come from in the next few weeks.”
Klopp and co next face Rangers in the Champions League as they will look to emulate their performance from the two sides’ last meeting. However, the 55-year-old will once again have a lot of injury issues to deal with since Luis Diaz has now been ruled out for 6-8 weeks following his knee injury against Arsenal, and Trent Alexander-Arnold too twisted his ankle in the same fixture and was forced-off at half-time.