What’s strange is how quickly the feeling has grown that Liverpool might be entering the Jürgen Klopp endgame. Even a month ago it seemed all but unthinkable. Liverpool had not played well this season, but the victory over Leicester City at the end of December made it four wins in a row in the league and the sense was that form was improving, just as it had in 2020-21 when Liverpool, after a midseason slump, recovered to take fourth place.
But since the turn of the year, Liverpool has taken one point from four Premier League games and gone out of the FA Cup at Brighton, having made it through a tie against Wolves only after a replay. Klopp, who once could be relied upon to defend his side come what may, blaming referees or external factors for defeats, has passed to a state of sadness or resignation, interspersed with occasion snaps at journalists. Angry Klopp has always existed behind jolly Klopp, but now it has become the default mode with Liverpool in 10th place.
Liverpool did recover in 2020-21 and last season came within two games of an unprecedented quadruple, so there is historical evidence to suggest Klopp can turn this sort of dip around. And football clubs often act in haste, sacrificing a manager because it’s the easiest way to send a jolt through a club only later to repent of their haste. There’s no sense that the Liverpool board is thinking of any such precipitate action; they know as well as anybody what Klopp has given the club, that without his energy and organizational and motivational skills, Liverpool would not have been able to stay so close to City and its vast resources. One league title won offers a false impression of how good Liverpool has been.
