19 Oct 2021 14:57:55
I am beginning to chuckle at folk who yearn for "the united way" So many years have passed since SAF retired. That now is nostalgia.

The United way nowadays as confirmed by several managers and passing years is sideways passing. This is I only aspired to by those players who are confident enough to not pass backwards.
Timidity is the order of the day - any team coming to OT stand a good chance of taking points away with them and they know it.
Our way is non reactive, repetitive boredom.
This is now well ingrained as the United Way and I for one am sick and tired of it.
Time to get real chaps.

{Ed0666's Note - this squad would be champions with klopp at the helm

1.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 15:01:09
Agreed Ed. That is what makes it so annoying.

{Ed0666's Note - you need a leader someone the players respect. At the moment you have a very talented motley crew. The de-facto leader is Ronaldo then Pogba. Ole & McGuire can’t handle them so it needs an Alegri, Biesla someone with character and fortitude to discipline them. Ole is to afraid to scold them because he scared of a mutiny which is on the periphery with every draw or loss.

2.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 15:10:10
I don’t buy that Ed, Klopp became competitive with Liverpool once the issues in the first team were sorted. He’d struggle to win anything without a natural holding midfielder.

{Ed0666's Note - And what about the two Bundesliga’s with underdogs Dortmund? They weren’t half as talented as the United squad now but he got them as a team which is the point I’m making. So what you’re saying is klopp wouldn’t make United champions without a Fabinho type player?

3.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 16:00:53
Klopp would make a holding midfielder top priority in his first transfer window. So he would play with a holding midfielder to start with.

{Ed0666's Note - klopp would make Fred & Mctomanay better players so the need for another player may not arise.

4.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 16:10:16
Klopp made Mane, Henderson, Salah, Firminho, Robertson, TAA world class.
He is a class above other managers and genuinely improves players at his helm.

5.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 16:39:37
LovelyLudwigVan

Liverpools success is pretty much all down to Klopp. Yes he fixed some of the problems with the squad. But he also did a lot more than that.

6.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 17:47:27
Klopp had some of the best young players in the Bundesliga when he won with Dortmund. Hummels, Subotic, Piszczek, Schmelzer, Gundogan, Sahin, Bender, Kagawa, Gotze, Reus, Lewandowski.

Some of the best young players in the world at the time.

Sahin went to Real Madrid, Gundogan to City, Hummels, Gotze and Lewandowski to Bayern, Kagawa to us.

He had a very good team back then and it's a disservice to those players to suggest he won with a rag tag bunch of journeymen and average players.

That said he brought them together as a team and made a good group of players play better as a collective than the sum of its parts.

You also probably need to appreciate that in the Bundesliga you only have to finish above Bayern to win the league. While that is still a tough achievement, it isn't the same as the EPL where there are generally 2-3 sides that will always be challenging for the title, and you need to lift you side above ALL of them to win the league.

He has done the same at Liverpool. They have managed to bring together a very talented bunch of players, in Alisson, TAA, VvD, Robertson, Fabinho, Salah and Mane they have some of the best players in the world in their positions. However, it also had players like Gomez, Henderson, Wijnaldum and Firmino good players, but not world class elite level. He made a great team play like the best team in the world, he made them play greater than the sum of their parts.

That's not to say players like Henderson and Firmino aren't great players. They are just as important to make the whole team tick as any of the others. But on an individual level they would not get into the first team at clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich etc.

Klopp is one of the best 5 managers in the world, probably in the top 3, and an argument could be made that he was No.1 when Liverpool won their first league title in 30 years.

He has done a first class job at Liverpool, and people need to appreciate the magnitude of the task. He didn't have to make a minor correction to a winning side that had lost their way over the past season or so. He had to take a side that over the 5 years before hand finished 8th, 6th, 2nd, 7th, and 8th. A team that wasn't even a top 6 side, a club that has to sell its best players like Torres, Suarez and Coutinho in order to rebuild the side.

He then made them the best side in England, the best side in Europe and arguably the best side in the world for 2-3 season's.

People call Tuchel world class after he took a very good Chelsea side and won the UCL with them. Klopp won it with a side that only qualified for the competition once in the 5 years before he took over.

7.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 18:07:06
I wouldn't call Tuchel world class although I disagree with the squad Dortmund had. Some players were realy good like Lewa, Gundogan or Reus. But most of others were good because of Klopp, not instead. They made them play better.

8.) 19 Oct 2021
19 Oct 2021 18:19:22
Before we start focusing on whether a manager is world class, we need to first find a manager who is “competent”.