Mails: Klopp and Guardiola don’t need a Plan B

Mails: Klopp and Guardiola don’t need a Plan B

Get it off your chest to theeditor@football365.com.

No problem with no Plan B
Ah yes, when a possession team loses, it comes back to the need for a Plan B. This is one of my most disliked comments in football, as I simply think it is a nebulous concept. For those who suggest it, perhaps one of the mailboxers or the Editor could give me an example of a top team that has consistently and successfully used a plan B, beyond putting another good player on as a sub?

And for those people that say, ‘oh why doesn’t Klopp/Guardiola just stick ten men behind the ball against a team like Leicester with a striker like Vardy. Why do we play the same way every game?!’

These managers are setting their teams up to play a certain way in every game, a way in which most of the best and most consistently successful teams have played in the last decade. The analogy used in The Anfield Wrap’s match review yesterday was that the way Liverpool play is a high wire tightrope act. So when it goes right and everyone has faith and buys in to the way of working, it’s glorious and spectacular and much better than walking on a lower and thicker rope, with a safety net

Whether or not you believe in or agree with them, Klopp and Guardiola don’t want to set up their teams to play with a safety net, as despite the team being less likely to fall (to a 3-1 or 4-0 defeat as happens to a Klopp or Guardiola team every now and then) with a safety net, being set up with a safety net means they are incapable of the same heights. Why don’t they just strap on a safety net when you’re playing against a striker like Vardy who is just physically faster than your centre backs? It comes back to faith in the high wire act, if you don’t have faith in the system for every game, how can you expect your players to in four years time in the league decider or Champions League final? And the players still lost faith yesterday when they saw how up for it Leicester were, and when they couldn’t make breakthroughs against Burnley and Swansea, and that is the problem, the players get the yips as they sometimes remember they’re not good enough to make this system work.

The issue then, is whether we have the quality of players to achieve the heights of our tightrope. On last night’s display, we clearly do not, so why didn’t we sign players in January? I wish we had, but i think to understand why Klopp is reluctant to go for a short term solution, it comes back to the importance of faith and buy-in to stay on the tightrope. For Klopp to demand faith from his players he needs to have them feel like they have his faith for the whole season, hence why he talks about 12 month contracts for all of his players.

When a manager starts compromising at what they believe in and are good at, that’s when problems arise. See Rafa during 2009-10, sticking Carra in midfield and playing 442, and Rodgers’ attempts to tighten up and be solid with the 343 in 2014-15, and then signing Benteke and co, cue the endless run of 1-1s. These measures both got the odd good result, but the managers were clearly just scrambling around on a game by game basis and eventually it all came apart more spectacularly than before.

If we want Jürgen Klopp to be Liverpool manager, and I for one do, we can’t be expecting him to compromise on his methods, because that way disaster lies for Liverpool managers.
I’m not saying I 100% agree with everything he does, and it would be reassuring if we’d spent a bit of money in January, or sat behind the ball last night, but Jürgen, like Guardiola, clearly wants to persevere with his way of working, because he believes that long term, and short term, that is the best chance of success.
Matthew, Belfast

Rafa is not the answer
Liverpool FC; The ultimate game raisers. Just watch them beat Arsenal now.

I did wonder how long it would take Liverpool fans to begin the call for Rafa to return. Would this be the same Rafa Benitez who besides fluking a Champions League trophy in 2005 and admittedly, admirably driving them to the final again in 2007 achieved the grand total of diddly squat in the Premier League in five full seasons other than finishing second once? Would this be the same Rafa Benitez who couldn’t handle the pressure of a title race and cracked up? Would this be the same Rafa Benitez who had a rather rotten transfer record bar a few hits (Torres, Alonso, Reina, Kuyt, Mascherano)? Would this be the same Rafa Benitez whose bizarre tactics and substitutions alienated his own captain and best player?

I saw a rather interesting post on a forum last night which stated; “I’ve said this before, possibly in this thread, but their support has had a problem since Benitez was in charge. Hodgson notwithstanding, they deify their managers before they’ve even done anything for them. It’s one thing to support a new manager, but they go to extremes and it means any rational criticism of whoever’s in charge is drowned out by the hordes screaming about how the glory days are just around the corner.

Benitez, despite doing bugger all for the best part of five years was lauded as the best manager in the world, and treated as a martyr that had fallen on his sword to oust the pernicious owners. Hodgson got the immediate backlash to that and was unfortunate in the timing of when he got the job, and after being given no money to spend on improving a mid-table squad was sacked and replaced with Dalglish, and thus the deification started again. The King had returned to take Liverpool back to the top. That didn’t quite pan out so the brightest and best young manager in world football was brought in with fresh ideas and a new outlook, but that didn’t work either, so now they’re with Klopp, who again is the world’s best manager, motivator and all-round top guy, and that’ll last until the next poor sod takes the job and he’s put on a pedestal.”

Sums it up perfectly.

Rafa wasn’t the answer seven years ago and most certainly isn’t now. Who is, I have no idea? It will take more than a managerial change to bring Liverpool back to the glory days of yesteryear.
Christopher, Perth

All so predictable
Should (as I fully expect) we beat Arsenal with a certain aplomb in the next game after such a dire showing last night I shall be entirely convinced that the owners and those behind the scenes at Anfield are massive fans of M.I.B. I have that scene in my head where they get out that neuralyzer and tell whomever to “Look right here” on loop. For me, Clive, that’s a bit what it feels being a Liverpool fan. Grumblings of discontent at poor showings and results against the lesser lights of the PL are immediately forgiven and forgotten when a so called ‘rival’ rolls into town or we go to theirs and come out on top.

I don’t mind losing against Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Tottenham and the other upper mid-table teams if it means we don’t get so regularly shafted by your Burnleys and your Bournemouths of this world. Not necessarily as a cut out and keep but here’s my predictions (daresay Degsy will sleep easy at how inaccurate my tips are but here goes): Assuming we keep playing ‘The Liverpool Way’ this should be the run-in [or should that be limp-in?] to 5th:

Arsenal (H) Home win
Burnley (H) Draw
City (A) Away win
Everton (H) Home win
Bournemouth (H) Away win
Stoke (A) Home win
WBA (A) Draw
Palace (H) Away win
Watford (A) Draw
Southampton (H) Home win
West Ham (A) Home win
Middlesborough (H) Draw

The draws or defeats I can live with. It’ll be the roll-over-and-have-our-tummys-tickled manner of the surrender that always rankles me the most! 16 points from 36 on offer but performances in the next four (10 from 12) will calm the unrest building since the New Year and when the players march around Anfield with families in tow out will come the neuralyzer to make us forget the sight of Benteke slamming in a hat-trick and the sight of Fat Sam doing the Truffle Shuffle right in front of the KloppMeister.
Gregory Whitehead, LFC

Lucas: love him or hate him?
Can I ask a genuine question? Do Liverpool fans like Lucas or not? This morning’s mailbox was full of people saying he is crap. Normally any comments about him are very positive from Liverpool fans on here. I feel a bit confused?

Personally I think he is woeful player, always have done. He fouls his way round the pitch and doesn’t really offer anything. I will never understand the weird cult hero status he seems to have obtained. Then again many people don’t get how Balotelli was a cult hero for City.
So each to their own I guess.

Finally just throwing it out there, but maybe it wasn’t the Leicester players downing tools and trying to get a manger sacked. Maybe it was the manager who failed to adapt and evolve the team in the correct way. Not sure if I believe that in all honesty, just thought I’d try to give a different view than the usual, all the players are snakes and Judases opinion.

The one that normally accompanies a sacking of popular manger, because it could never be the fault of a likeable media friendly manager.
Danny B, MCR, MCFC (Do yourselves a favour F365 friends, watch Stranger Things)

Klopp out
Klopp is a one dimensional manager, like Wenger. Its as simple as that.

Tactically I’d rather have Simeone, Mourinho or even Rafa back (which was the last time we could actually defend).

Gary pointed out on MNF that we have shipped 50 odd goals every season for the last four. When will someone at LFC wake the f*** up and address that??

Anyone who continues to play Lucas at CB and Can in the first team, I seriously question their judgement, so Klopp needs to get his tactical mind on if he has one, motivate players the right way (not a hug for everything) and get serious about sorting the defensive problem. If FSG don’t want to spend money then he can raise by selling Sturridge, Moreno, Clyne, Can, Mignolet and few other dross. Other than Coutinho, Mane and maybe Firmino (though all were abject yday), our players are just not good enough for the Top 4.

Reality check needed and a wholesale squad change with quality not freebies and clumsy b*******
Ash, LFC

Address the attack, not defence
Any mail I sent last night would have been filled with rage and I would, like many others do here, spout words that are premature. I hated every Liverpool player at 10 pm last night but having calmed down, two things have become clear. The defence is obviously a problem. No two ways about it. But the other is more interesting because we have scored a hell of a lot of goals this season. Nonetheless, please Jurgen buy a striker.

Costa. Kane. Ibrahimovic. Sanchez. Aguero. Lukaku. Yes they score goals. But the great thing about having a striker (a really good one) is that they can do the thing that’s most important – even on a bad day when things aren’t going well and the team is struggling – they get one chance and put the ball in the net. When we were flying high in the 1st part of this season, Lallana, Coutinho, Firmino and Mané were playing in this wonderful way, all chipping in with goals and assists, terrorising defences with their movement. The problem is, when the going gets tough and we have to break down a side sitting back, the movement slows and the lads look at one another wondering ‘what now?’. So then Milner, Clyne and co revert to crossing the ball. And we all now how that goes.

Divock Origi came into the team when Coutinho got injured and although he wasn’t playing well, he was doing what a striker does and finishing chances. What we need is a a new Origi, a really good Origi. Firmino, Coutinho, Mané and Lallana are good attacking players but none of them will ever be our Torres or our Suarez.
Damo, Dublin

Player power
Been reading the mails in response to Leicester’s victory over Liverpool in light of Ranieri’s sacking and I think the whole thing raises some interesting questions.

It’s been discussed a lot, but what does this mean or represent in terms of player/manager relations in years to come? We’ve now seen two consecutive seasons where the reigning Champion players have decided, for whatever reason, they don’t like their manager any more and have effectively got rid of him by refusing to perform their job to the level they’re expected to. While it’s still early to tell with Leicester, in the case of Chelsea it was clearly related to manager as performances markedly improved upon Mourinho’s sacking, and now we’re seeing what’s happening this year with basically the same group of players.

On one side you have the ‘players should just do the job they are paid lots of money to do’ argument and on the other you have the ‘if a manager can’t motivate his players he shouldn’t be there’ argument. I’m just curious what people feel this will lead to in the future. We now have two examples of precendent that players of any club can look to that essentially say, ‘if you don’t like your manager, just play like sh*t and you’ll get your way.’ Is that OK? What about hierarchy? When does it switch from simple lack of motivation to actively not wanting to play well? What steps can a club take to discourage players from this kind of ‘coup’ when the balance of consequence is a whole playing staff against one manager? It just strikes me as interesting as so many people have talked about how this would never have happened back in the day. So has the whole player/manager dynamic shifted now and is that maybe something we just have to accept?

No groundbreaking thoughts or questions I know, it’s been talked about a lot. But I’ve been running these things over in my head and am interested to know what the mailbox thinks about it.
Will (thinking of staging a coup at the office this week…don’t think it’ll end well) Wymant

Who killed football?
Jamie, LCFC (if football was dead we wouldn’t invest so much time talking about it), it’s hard to pinpoint when exactly the game that our dad’s and grandads would have known died – and all the instances you’ve given are good indicators – but I can tell you exactly when the fatal blow was struck. 20th Feb 1992, the day Rupert Murdoch and BSKYB won the contract to screen when what was from August to be the newly formed Premier League. From that day on (whether or not the FA knew it) football was now a modern capitalist business and the structural changes in revenue generation we’ve witnessed, that in turn have taken the romance out of on-field decision making, we’re set in stone.

Football of course hasn’t died, it has evolved. And despite the loss of romance many feel and despite some of the more unappetizing features of the modern game, in 1991 it needed to evolve. Player strikes, the growth of the EU, the change in broadcasting technology and many other factors all forced footballs hand. For better or worse.

Of course the FA could have given the contract to the BBC and we probably could have delayed this all by a few years but you can’t hold back the tide forever. Also I think it’s important, in this day and age especially, not to glamorise a past that never existed. Let’s be clear, whatever’s wrong with modern football, let’s paint a proper picture of English football (and England) pre 1992 that includes things other than passion and community. Racism – lots and lots of racism; fighting – lots of that too; terrible grounds – and I mean unsafe terrible, as good as no facilities, bottles thrown at you on the way out, that sort of thing; Ceefax coverage – I mean I love Ceefax but I prefer being able to see something in slo-mo; turgid football – with a few exceptions.

Football reflects society and whilst pre-Premier League football mirrored all the best traits of society (closer communities, less disparity between players and fans, clubs acting benevolently etc.) it also mirrored its worst (the previous mentioned racism and violence etc). The same is true today, football mirror our best traits – inclusiveness, equality, safety, open mindedness – it also mirrors our worst – narcissism, the cult of celebrity, ruthless capitalism, faux outrage.

So if at the end of all that you want to know you killed football? It wasn’t Murdoch neither Rupert or Cpt. H.M., it was you.
Matt, AFC

…To Jamie, LCFC. Obviously, I completely appreciate the fact that any letter entitled ‘When football actually died’ absolutely HAS to contain a reference to Manchester City but if we are to be defamed, at least make it accurate. Pellegrini stayed with City for a further two seasons after winning the league. He was not sacked and saw out his contract until it ended. Obviously, his replacement was announced before he left but even he precipitated that and he’s since acknowledged that that was a mistake.

If you really do need to include a City reference, how about Tevez refusing to get off the bench in a Champions League match against Bayern Munich and then disappearing for an extended golfing holiday, right in the middle of the season? That’s pretty poor, in my opinion. So much so that I actually binned my Tevez t-shirt and I loved that t-shirt!

Hope this helps.

Regards
Levenshulme Blue

…Not to be one of those guys but regarding the death of football mail, Pellegrini wasn’t sacked the year after winning the league. He won the league during 2013/14 season and left at the end of 2016. I’ve seen a stat of ‘the last 5 title winning managers’ haven’t been at the club the following season circulating so I am assuming you got your info from that.
Dave, (I’m more fun than I sound) Ireland

Scandinavian scandal
Top 10 Premier League Scandinavians and no John Jensen?

A pox on your list F365 – for shame!
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Hang on, Agger! Graveson! Mellberg! They make the top ten Scandanavians of the Premier league? Yet Ronny Johnson (four Premier league titles an FA cup and a champions league) and Henning Berg ( won Premier leagues at both Blackburn and Manchester United) dont get a look in? Mellberg?…. Mellberg! Seriously… Get a grip. I could write alot more but Jesus….. Whats the point! Mellberg and no Johnson or Berg!…wow. I need to shower.
Edwin Ambrose

Admit it – the only reason Jussi Jaaskelainen didn’t make your Top Ten Scandinavians list was because you weren’t sure how to spell his name
Joe (No such excuse for missing out Eidur Gudjohnsen) BWFC

Rooney is no JT
I imagine you’ll get a few of these but I’m wondering if EMUFC realises that Rooney was actually on the bench with the possibility of taking part in the match? United made their last substitution in the 90th minute so why would he get changed in to a tracksuit? Quite a different situation to Terry who was not in the squad at all and had to physically change in to his kit, boots and even shin pads to celebrate.

This EMUFC, is not worthy of any chastisement.
James, Kent

…EMUFC – get your facts straight fella, the reason John Terry was ridiculed for lifting the trophy in kit was that he was suspended and was in a suit for most of the game. Rooney was actually in the squad and on the bench and hence in kit already, he didn’t have to run off and change behind a bush…

I’m by no way Wayne’s biggest fan but as club captain and being in the squad he deserved to lift the trophy.
Phil, Observant Man U fan