Klopp has something of a mercurial reputation in the game. He was the man who improbably toppled the domination of Bayern Munich in his seven years at Dortmund.
But he also oversaw a catastrophic and inexplicable demise toward the end of his tenure. If he hadn’t decided to leave the club he may well have been sacked.
And his quotes after the Leicester defeat on Monday evening imply that he doesn’t necessarily know what is going wrong.
Klopp is quoted by British media outlet Sky Sports as saying:
“It’s getting more serious now. We all play for our future, myself included. We get judged every day, especially on match days.
“It doesn’t get better. It was not good enough in the beginning, not good enough in the middle and in the end. It was 100 per cent clear what happened with Leicester tonight. Back to their roots, their line-up was clear.”
“We could have done much better. We let them be the Leicester of last year – that’s our fault. We should get criticised. This inconsistency makes absolutely no sense.
The fact that he can’t make sense of the defeats makes worrying reading for Liverpool fans. This is a team who was scoring goals for fun before the turn of the year. Their loss of form has been remarkable.
TFF thinks that a confident team has solid foundations and Klopp has consistently failed to bring in the defensive reinforcements required to mount a serious title challenge. The goalkeeping situation is laughable yet January came and went without a new stopper arriving.
Klopp also said:
“It was clear how emotional the game was because if Leicester didn’t show emotion it would be really strange. It wasn’t that intense but we weren’t ready for this,”
It’s a worrying admission given that Liverpool haven’t played for 16 days – a rare length of time off in the modern game.
And, from their commanding position in the Premier League they are in serious danger of losing more ground on the top four this weekend with a tough game at Anfield against an Arsenal team with similar concerns.
A home win will go a long way to turning the corner but this situation needs to change and fast.