Jurgen Klopp can often sound prophetic, but not when he was discussing the appointment of another evangelist for the pressing game. “Not good news for other teams,” said Klopp when Ralf Rangnick became Manchester United’s interim manager. The eventual verdict, should either clinch a Champions League place at United’s expense, might actually be that it proved rather good news for Tottenham or Arsenal.
Klopp could praise from a position of strength. Liverpool had helped expose the incoherence of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s management, surging into a 5-0 lead after 50 minutes at Old Trafford. Klopp argued on Monday that Rangnick has made a difference. “You can see the changes he made, the parts he improved,” he said. Yet the caveat underlined the sense that this is not a Rangnick team, not one defined by intensity or fluency. “He took a difficult job, with no time to get there,” Klopp added.
