Jurgen Klopp Is Facing The Biggest Challenge Of His Liverpool Career

Many, including Jurgen Klopp, have struggled to explain Liverpool’s disappointing start to the season. The German coach appeared short of answers to explain his team’s 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday with the Anfield side a lowly eighth in the PremierPINC
League table. Klopp ultimately put it down to set pieces.

Liverpool certainly created opportunities to score from set pieces, but that didn’t account for the lack of intensity and creativity in their performance at the City Ground. Klopp’s team had plenty of the ball, yet created next to nothing with it. They had chances to score from set pieces, but only because they couldn’t get close to goal any other way.

Injuries have been a factor in Liverpool’s inconsistent form this season and they certainly missed Thiago Alcantara and Darwin Nunez against Forest. Both players had impressed in recent wins over Rangers, Manchester City and West Ham and might have changed the dynamic of the match at the City Ground had they been available.

Even when Liverpool have had the majority of their squad available, though, they have underwhelmed this season. Much of Klopp’s team are now 30 or older, raising the possibility that the Reds have simply grown too old to play the way their German manager wants them to play. Liverpool are in need of rejuvenation.

This is where Klopp faces the biggest challenge of his Liverpool career, and maybe even of his entire career as a manager, to date. He must rebuild his team to compete with Manchester City again at the top of the English and European game. Klopp must repeat the trick of aligning Liverpool’s recruitment with his own coaching ability.

Klopp faced a similar decline during this time at Borussia Dortmund, but he left the Bundesliga club before he could build them back up again. For all his success at the elite level of the sport as a manager, the 55-year-old hasn’t rebuilt a team from the ground following the end of a cycle. This is the task he faces at Liverpool now.

“The confidence level now is not extraordinarily high,” Klopp recently admitted with regards to Liverpool’s current situation and their poor start to the 2022/23 season with has them well outside the top four in the Premier League table. “In difficult moments like this you have to fight so hard that step by step you get momentum and confidence back. The boys can play much better. My job is to create a situation where they can deliver. For that you need stability and consistency.”

Fenway Sports Group might have to spend more than ever before as Liverpool owners to push the club back to the top of the food chain. Speculation is already swirling around a potential move for Jude Bellingham who could cost somewhere in the region of €100m, if recent reports are to be believed.

In Klopp, Liverpool boast one of the best managers in the world. More than this, the German is one of the best managers of his generation, so the Reds are in good hands even if this season has raised concerns. Truly great managers are capable of building more than one great team. Klopp must prove himself.