When Jürgen Klopp dropped the bombshell news that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, it took a while for most Reds fans to come to terms with the announcement. Now with six matches remaining — and only two at Anfield — it is starting to feel a little more real.
It remains to be seen who his successor will be — Rúben Amorim, of course, is under consideration, but he isn’t the only one — and there is still time to work all of that out, but the gaping hole that the German will leave behind is vast. In many ways, Klopp is irreplaceable.
Whatever happens before the end of the season, though, one narrative that is beginning to seep out in some quarters needs to be quashed. If Liverpool ends this season with ‘only’ the Carabao Cup, it will not be Klopp’s January statement of his intention to leave that is the reason behind that.
READ MORE: Liverpool $64m transfer could ‘accelerate’ for Rúben Amorim as summer priority should be clear
READ MORE: Liverpool transfer truth clear to Jürgen Klopp successor as Harvey Elliott helps make history
Richard Keys is one person to have made that suggestion and there are some among the Liverpool fanbase who would agree. The pressure of giving Klopp the send-off he deserves being too much is, for some, an irresistible explanation.
What that theory overlooks, however, are some important factors. Firstly, Klopp had no other option but to make his decision public. If he hadn’t, someone would have got the story.
Before the summer, Liverpool will need to speak with possible targets and might even be talking about new contracts for some key men. But it would have had to lie about Klopp’s future to avoid the news leaking out, and that wouldn’t help anyone.
Aside from the practicalities, though, there is actually no proof that Klopp’s decision has made things harder for Liverpool. The Reds have struggled with conceding the opening goal all year and not just since the announcement. While that pattern has continued since, it is not something that correlates to suggestions that the pressure is getting to Liverpool.
More important even than that is the impact of injuries. Liverpool has dealt very well with an extraordinary number of issues that have mounted across the course of the campaign, but eventually, the knock-on effects have taken their toll.
It is not so much the players who have been missing — and someone like Mohamed Salah, even now he is back, is not truly back — but the increased number of minutes that others have been forced into. Joe Gomez and Wataru Endō, for instance, have been overplayed and in recent showings, it has shown.
Had Liverpool not been missing Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones for so long, Gomez and Endō would still have the energy left in reserve to help push the Reds over the line. Instead, that resource was used up in previous months.
All of those factors, rather than the pressure of Klopp leaving, appear most likely as explanations for why Liverpool has dropped off in recent weeks. And of course, there is still time for the Premier League to have one last twist; it isn’t quite gone yet, though a swift upturn in form will be required to get maximum points from here.
What should be remembered above all else, though, is actually this: if Liverpool wins a trophy and finishes in the top three this season (essentially the worst-case scenario from this point on, with Champions League football nearly secured), it will have overachieved compared to what most people expected last summer.
Klopp leaving might have brought the narrative that Liverpool needs to win the league this year more than anyone else, but whether that has had an impact or not, it isn’t based on the reality of where this version of the Reds is up to in their development. The biggest change since Klopp’s exit was confirmed is not in the pressure itself, but the narrative of what constitutes success.
Had anyone said at the start of the season that Liverpool would comfortably qualifying for the Champions League and also win a trophy, given what happened in 2022/23, then the Reds would have lapped that up. The fact that Klopp is leaving shouldn’t change that: Liverpool is still ahead of schedule in comparison to what almost everyone expected.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email [email protected] Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
