With pre-season in full swing and the Premier League fast approaching, all eyes are on the new managers and what they can achieve with their respective teams.
The likes of Antonio Conte, Jose Mourinho, and Pep Guardiola are but a few of the world class managers currently at the helm of top clubs around England.
However within all the excitement, Jurgen Klopp seems to have gone under the radar a little as he enters his first full season as Liverpool manager. With the chance to have a full pre-season and make his own signings, I believe Klopp may have the edge.
For starters, Liverpool have no European football. Klopp made it clear last season that he struggled to implement his own ideas due to lack of time on the training ground. With a 63 game season, there was little room to work on tactical plays with at most three days between matches.
By being in only three competitions, however, Liverpool can mount a serious challenge for those Champions League spots.
There are obviously comparisons to 13/14 when the Reds finished second, playing 20 games less than last season, in the hope we can replicate something similar.
Of course, it’s not as simple as that – having Luis Suarez destroying teams every week certainly helps – but it’s not entirely wishful thinking.
All our rivals, bar Chelsea, have to balance playing in Europe and in the league. With a week between matches for most of the season, Klopp will have the chance to rest players, go over tactical work, and be ready to go again fully charged for the next league game.
There’s no escaping the fact that we finished 8th in the league last season and for a club with such high ambitions, that is simply unacceptable. On the face of it we haven’t improved, but in reality we’ve made massive progress.
In these eight months in charge, Klopp gained two invaluable things; knowledge of his squad and experience in the Premier League.
Conte says, as reported by The Evening Standard before the Liverpool v Chelsea pre-season match:
Liverpool are one of the best teams in the League and I’m sure can fight to win the title. Jurgen Klopp worked already for nine months with this team and it’s very important for him and Liverpool to understand each other. The players know Klopp and he knows the players. It’s important to transfer your idea of football and to have the identity of the player.
For all the brilliance of Guardiola, he has no Premier League experience. For all the tactical know-how of Mourinho, he doesn’t fully know his squad yet.
These things take time and Klopp is in a position where he can kick on straight from the word go.
There is still competition from the likes of Claudio Ranieri, Mauricio Pochettino, and Arsène Wenger, who have all established themselves in the league. However, with the loss of N’golo Kante for Leicester and having to juggle Champions League football, time will tell on how they fare up to this new challenge.
There’s no reason to suggest that Klopp can’t take this Liverpool team to new heights as soon as the new season gets underway. We have a world class manager in charge who’s already given us special moments in such a short space of time.
He’s already taken us to two cup finals, just imagine what he can achieve this time round.
