When Jurgen Klopp signed his latest contract extension with Liverpool last April, committing his future to the Reds until 2026, speculative talk of potential successors to the German at Anfield was thankfully put on hold.
Klopp’s side were on the verge of what would have been an unprecedented quadruple when he put pen to paper on his two-year extension. And while Liverpool have struggled on the pitch this season, there has never been any desire to see the German, who has won every major trophy on offer with the Reds, leave the club.
When speaking about Liverpool’s woes earlier this month, and comparing the Reds’ situation with his final season at Borussia Dortmund, Klopp would confirm he had no intention of leaving Anfield anytime soon.
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“At Dortmund it was clear when I left I said: 'Something has to change here’,” he told reporters. “It was a different situation but if you want it's similar.
“Either I go, the manager position changes or a lot of other things change. As far as I know, from what I hear, if nobody tells me, I will not go. So that means maybe there's a point where we have to change other stuff. And we will see that.”
As the manager who led Liverpool to their first league title for 30 years, and oversaw them being crowned champions of England, Europe and the world, Klopp has plenty of credit in the bank. Even if the Reds missed out on next season’s Champions League, things would have to get a lot worse at Anfield for anyone to even consider starting to call for the German’s head.
Kopites know how good they’ve got it with Klopp, with FSG striking gold when they appointed the German as manager in October 2015 and watched him transform Liverpool’s fortunes. As a result, in all likelihood, he will exit on his own terms in the distant future when he feels the time is right.
Whenever the day comes for him to depart the club, be it at the end of his contract in 2026 or beyond, he will leave the biggest of shoes to follow. And while such an exit is a long way off yet, there remains no clear successor waiting in the wings.
Steven Gerrard and Reds assistant manager Pep Lijnders have been the two candidates touted most as potential Klopp successors. Yet, in truth, such hopes seem to have dwindled since the German signed his extension.
Having led Rangers to a first Scottish Premiership title for a decade in 2021, and seen his 'Gers repeatedly catch the eye in Europe, Gerrard was handed his first Premier League position with Aston Villa in November 2021. Yet he was dismissed after just 11 months as the Villans won just two of their opening 12 league games in 2022/23.
Recently linked with Poland job, the Liverpool legend remains unemployed with his hopes of one day becoming Reds manager having taken a battering over the past year. Previously tipped to succeed Klopp, it’s clear Gerrard will need to prove himself all over again if he is to ever re-establish himself as a future contender again.
Meanwhile, Lijnders has confirmed that when Klopp’s Anfield reign comes to an end, he intends to go on his own as a manager rather than serve as an assistant again. Yet, while highly-rated at Liverpool, critics have pointed the finger at the Dutchman for the Reds’ struggles this season, suggesting he has become more hands-on without much success.
Admittedly 2026 remains a long way off and any discussion over a potential Klopp successor now is going to be very different to one in three years’ time. But while Gerrard and Lijnders aren’t being touted as strongly as they would have been 12 months ago, one former Red could be starting to stake his own claim elsewhere.
Xabi Alonso is currently impressing in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, having been appointed as the Bundesliga outfit’s head coach last October. He’d previously started his managerial career with Real Madrid Under-14s, before enjoying three seasons in charge of Real Sociedad B.
In the Spaniard’s second season with the club, they won promotion to the Segunda Division following a play-off win against Algeciras, to return to the second tier for the first time since 1961/61. However, they would be relegated straight back to Segunda Division B and Alonso would depart at the end of last season in search of new opportunities.
He did not have to wait long as Leverkusen came calling less than five months later. Having reportedly turned down Borussia Monchengladbach in March 2021, this time a return to the Bundesliga was too good to resist.
Leverkusen would start Alonso’s reign in style, thrashing newly-promoted Schalke 4-0 at home. However, this was followed by a six-game winless run which included a 3-0 loss to FC Porto and heavy 5-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt.
But with the last game of that run a 0-0 draw with Club Brugge in the final match of the Champions League group-stages in early-November, Leverkusen haven’t looked back since. Now unbeaten in six, they have won their last five Bundesliga matches with the mid-season World Cup and winter break doing little to disrupt their rhythm.
Leverkusen would thrash Union Berlin 5-0, win 2-1 away at Koln and beat Stuttgart 2-0 in their final matches before the break. Returning to action last weekend, they won 3-2 away at Borussia Monchengladbach before running out 2-0 winners at home to VfL Bochum on Wednesday night.
Currently eighth in the Bundesliga, two places and seven points off the European spots, a home clash with Borussia Dortmund is next up for Leverkusen. Meanwhile, they have a Europa League knockout play-off with Monaco to look forward to next month as Alonso’s side look to maintain their current form.
Having only picked up five points from their first eight Bundesliga matches of the season, while also suffering a first round DFB-Pokal exit and losing two of their first three Champions League group games, a total of 19 points from their last nine games shows how fortunes have certainly picked up under the former Liverpool man.
Alonso has utilised a 3-4-3 formation for the majority of his reign so far, with inverted wingers, a false number nine and his wing-backs encouraged to get forward. Such a system has gotten the best out of Jeremie Frimpong at right wing back and winger Moussa Diaby in particular, with the Dutchman returning three goals and an assist since the Spaniard took over, and the Frenchman boasting seven goals and three assists.
Leverkusen’s answer to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, perhaps? With Alonso’s side also implementing a high press, while not an identical system to Klopp’s Liverpool, there are similarities.
However, having welcomed back the highly-rated Florian Witz from an ACL injury during the World Cup/winter break, Alonso also showed his managerial versatility as Leverkusen switched to 4-2-3-1 against Bochum, with the 19-year-old getting an assist as the number 10 when making his first start of the season.
Enjoying great success with Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Spain, Alonso played for a number of great managers including Rafa Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola, Manuel Pellegrini, Luis Aragones, and Vicente del Bosque. It appears between them they have rubbed off on the Reds legend.
“If I had smart people around me, and the right coaching team behind me, I like to think I could succeed as a manager,” Steven Gerrard wrote in his 2015 autobiography. “It’s still quite fun to fantasise a little. If, totally hypothetically, I was going to become Liverpool manager one day I know who I'd love to have as my assistant: Xabi Alonso or Jamie Carragher.
"They are very intelligent, have a deep knowledge of football and are special men. The players would respect them, the fans would like them and I think we would work really well together. I’ve never mentioned it to either Xabi or Jamie, so I think they’ll be surprised if they read about it. Xabi might go on to be a great manager himself - and so I feel a bit embarrassed admitting that a managerial fantasy would be him working alongside me.”
While Gerrard is perhaps back to square one when it comes to staking his claims to be a future Liverpool manager, it appears he was spot on when it came to Alonso’s own credentials.
And while it’s still only early days in the Spaniard’s senior managerial career, having already enjoyed coaching stints back with Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, who’s to say he couldn’t return to Liverpool one day in the future?
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