Jurgen Klopp will need two years to begin to turn Liverpool’s fortunes around. That is the damning verdict of Kop legend and former Reds manager Graeme Souness, who insists the current squad is miles away from being serious contenders.
Klopp was seen as the Anfield club’s messiah, but Souness fears even he cannot work miracles and will need to do major transfer business to make any sort of progress.
Souness said: “It will take at least three or four transfer windows just to improve things. There’s not many clubs where you will get the luxury of getting time and understanding to get things right.
“Klopp has got a huge job on his hands, possibly bigger than he first thought when he took over.
"But the truth is that you don’t get a job like Liverpool, a really top job, is things are going well and at the moment they are a long way off.”
Legendary hardman Souness delivered a damning verdict on Liverpool. Souness was as brutal as one of his infamous challenges as he pulled apart the club's existing playing staff, and revealed his fears that Klopp has inherited a “very weak” squad.
The Scot believes Klopp will need to be some sort of miracle worker to turn the club around - and predicted they could still end up missing out on a place at Wembley in the Capital One Cup.
Souness said: “The biggest problem that Klopp has is that he does not know which team is going to turn up from one game to the next.
“I’m not sure whether the manager knows what sort of performance he will get whenever the team goes out on the pitch to play. They really are that unpredictable. They do not have any free-scoring midfielders, they are defensively very weak and that’s an extremely dangerous combination. Make no mistake about that. That’s why you are seeing Liverpool concede bad goals and you can’t expect to win games playing like that. It’s no wonder that Jurgen Klopp is frustrated. He is losing games, conceding goals and the defending is shocking.”
Souness has built a reputation as one of the hardest-hitting pundits in football and is well qualified on Liverpool, having managed the club and enjoyed a glorious playing career at Anfield. But those days are long gone and, even though Souness believes Klopp was a “perfect fit”, he says the German has a huge job on his hands.
Liverpool can give themselves a boost if they can reach Wembley in the Capital One Cup by completing the job after winning at Stoke by the first leg's only goal. But Souness insists there are no guarantees they will do it. He said: “Stoke have a good record away from home. It’s still very tight and it’s far from being a forgone conclusion. “Liverpool could win 3-0, but a stuttering Liverpool could also lose. The simple fact is that Mark Hughes has a better idea of what he will get from his team than Jurgen Klopp.”
Liverpool are clearly producing great drama, having been involved in a nine-goal thriller at Norwich on Saturday that will go down as one of the games of the season. But Souness can understand why Klopp would have been shocked and angry by the performance as he insists the problems predate his reign.
Souness pulled no punches about previous boss Brendan Rodgers, and insist the Northern Irishman should look closer to home rather than blame the club’s transfer committee for bad signings.
Souness said: “I’m sure that Klopp will get a lot of support from the American owners. They were very supportive of the previous manager as well. “But I must say I find it very hard to understand Brendan Rodgers’ comments. He got himself into a position of power, nearly won the league, got a new contract and in management that’s when you must insist on total control.
Comments
Post a Comment