It is astonishing how Jurgen Klopp continues to walk a free man both in Liverpool and in the media. The German still hoisting around the ‘Klopp effect’, which has been eviscerated to the point where Jet Li’s stunts are more believable. Despite the weak argument many of his disciples (which I was part of) blindly offered last season- that this wasn’t his team, a vile attempt to excuse the man from the perceptible shortcomings of the team, which was no better than exonerating a barber from a bad haircut. We like the idea of a special person especially in sport and sometimes it clouds our judgement and shift us farther from reality. Klopp’s charisma and charm fits the bill and it was easy to fall for his style not just on the pitch but outside it.
Illusion and reality is a thin line in football, and Jurgen Klopp blurred it to full effect. Despite finishing seventh in his final season at Dortmund as well as losing more league games (14) than he won (13), Jurgen Klopp’s arrival was could easily have been mistaken as the second coming of Jesus. He was supposed to become an obvious upgrade to Brendan Rodgers, who was close to leading Liverpool to their first Premier League title in 2013 but the village people of Steven Gerrard would not allow.
Here came the illusion; Brendan Rodgers left Liverpool in 10th place and his ‘obvious ‘upgrade’, Klopp, lifted the team two places up, finishing the season 8th on the table. This was marked as positive and evidence that the team had hit an upward trajectory in the hands of Klopp. An illusion that was far from reality. The reality was, Jurgen Klopp had just finished the season lower than what Brendan Rodgers managed in all three seasons before being sacked. The upgrade had carried the team lower than the man he was supposed to better but nonetheless Liverpool were a cloud of optimism for seeing more entertainment from their manager instead of actual results from the team.
Jurgen Klopp’s charisma and demeanor on the side lines have often been seen as a reflection of his team; full of passion, energy and swagger. It is hard to argue with that because Liverpool do play some of the most entertaining football in the Premier League. But they have raised Liverpool to a level of porn compared to the rest, which is as false as Nigeria ever losing a match to India and the ball turned into all sorts of wild animals. The media are most certainly guilty of this, despite Liverpool scoring the same amount of goals as Chelsea (55) so far. They attack with ‘reckless abandon’ is used instead of ‘irresponsible defending’. Liverpool do not attack any more than the top four sides in the league but what the others possess is the ability to defend as well as attack; maybe except Manchester City, who should be excused from anything called defending. Liverpool have conceded more goals than any of the top eight sides in the league and clearly Jurgen Klopp has no fix to it- not today, not tomorrow or when Santa starts granting wishes.
Brendan Rodgers probably realized all that, so he loaded every ounce of his title push on attacking and it nearly paid off. Brendan Rodgers’ title push was summarized by an inconceivable number of goals as 101 league goals were scored; the third highest in Premier League history. Jurgen Klopp’s team is as close to such tally as a pig is to flying and the problems are without fix under him.
Another illusion was that Jurgen Klopp was going to win the Premier League title for Liverpool, but for a manager who has won just 3 trophies in 16 years- isn’t that pushing the limits of hope and faith especially in a club where their league trophy cabinet has been spotted as the next best location for Scooby-Doo. At this same stage in his second season, Brendan Roger’s Liverpool was clear favorite to win the league but Jurgen Klopp in his, are fighting a losing battle of qualifying for the Champions League.
Sadly for Liverpool, their biggest illusion is that things are better now under Jurgen Klopp than the time of Brendan Rodgers because the latter didn’t possess beards, wore nerd glass to exude divine intelligence and run on the touchline.
Written by Joseph Bassey- follow on Twitter @akajoebass
The post The ‘Klopp effect’ is the biggest illusion in football appeared first on Soccer Nation.
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