Sir Alex Ferguson admits he is “worried” that Jurgen Klopp could take Liverpool above his former club Manchester United. Klopp has impressed during his short time at Liverpool, suffering only the second loss of his 12-game tenure at the weekend against Newcastle.
Ferguson, who led United to a remarkable 38 trophies as manager from 1986 to 2013, admits that he is “worried” the German could take Liverpool back above his beloved Red Devils.
Asked about Klopp at the TechCrunch event in London, Ferguson said: “I’m worried about him because the one thing United don’t want is Liverpool to get above us.
“He’s a fantastic personality, with those big white teeth always showing. Even at Newcastle when they lost the second goal he goes over to Steve McClaren to congratulate him. That’s class, that. And the work he did at Dortmund.
“I know him quite well from the coaching seminars. He’s going to make a difference at that club with his personality, drive and knowledge. Things are looking up there.”
Klopp has impressed not only on the pitch but also in the front of the media, which Ferguson claims is half the battle as a football manager. “You have to win twice on a Saturday,” said Ferguson. “You have to win the game and you have to win the press conference. Some managers fail, simply because they lack experience or they’re emotional.
“You have to gather yourself. I used to wash my face before a press conference. Sometimes you’re forced to go to the press conference immediately and you have to be thinking quickly about how you deal with it. It’s an important part.
“You have to give a message to your fans because they’re watching. They want to see their manager come out with a positive attitude and not a beaten man.
“Time and again you see coaches come out a beaten man after a few difficult questions about how the team played and why they lost.
“I tended to waffle a bit when there was a difficult question to make sure my thinking was right. You’ve got to handle the press. It’s a very difficult part of it.”
After a weekend which saw Liverpool and Manchester City both beaten, Mark Holmes gives his verdict on the crazy Premier League title race.
KNEE-JERKERS OUT IN FORCE AFTER LIVERPOOL DEFEAT
There is a habit among many in the media of drawing enormous conclusions on the back of one result. It leads to teams being talked up and written off as Premier League title contenders on an almost weekly basis.
Take Liverpool for example. On Thursday, the day after their brilliant 6-1 win over Southampton in the Capital One Cup, The Guardian published a blog titled: ‘Liverpool to win the Premier League? It sounds far from crazy now, Jurgen’
Three days later, after a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United, the same newspaper’s match report read: ‘As Merseyside reflected on an afternoon that made all the recent talk of an Anfield title challenge seem a little silly…’
You will find similar examples in pretty much every newspaper; as far as many journalists are concerned, one game can tell you an awful lot.
The reality, of course, is that every team puts in a mixture of good, bad and average performances throughout the season, meaning those determined to draw conclusions from every game find themselves contradicting themselves on an almost weekly basis.Georginio Wijnaldum
A much more sensible way to judge a team’s prospects for the rest of the season is to look at a bigger pattern, but in the case of Liverpool that is hard to do only 12 games into Jurgen Klopp’s reign. He has taken charge of just seven Premier League games; how can anyone hope to accurately predict how the Reds will fare in the remaining 23?
So far under Klopp’s stewardship, after back-to-back draws at Tottenham and against Southampton, Liverpool have won at Chelsea and Manchester City but lost at home to Crystal Palace, struggled past Swansea at Anfield and now lost at Newcastle. You might glean from those results that the Reds are better playing against ‘big’ teams, but the truth is that it is still too early into Klopp’s reign to make such an assessment.
The German is still testing out different players, different systems and different ways of playing; who knows how good (or bad) Liverpool might be once he settles on his preferred options? The fact that Klopp is still working out his best approach, with a squad built by another manager, may very well turn out to be a reason why the Reds do not challenge for the title this season.
However, it would be ridiculous for anyone to suggest that Sunday’s no-show at St James’ Park was proof that they cannot win it. Coming just a few days after a 6-1 win and on a weekend which saw Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham also fail to win, never have knees jerked quite so much....
Red Star Belgrade midfielder Marko Grujic has revealed he has held talks with Liverpool over a January move to Anfield.
The 19-year-old’s progress has been monitored closely by Jurgen Klopp’s assistant manager Zeljko Buvac and he is believed to have recommended Grujic to the German tactician.
Liverpool had representatives in Serbia to watch Grujic score in Red Star’s 7-2 thrashing of Cukaricki on Sunday and they were granted permission to hold talks with him after the game.
Asked about his future, according to quotes in the Liverpool Echo, Grujic said: “I’ll try to respect the club, the fans and the general public, but again I think that for myself I have to choose the best environment where I get the chance to play and where I work with good coaches in good conditions.
“It is certain that I remain here until the end of qualifying for the Champions League. I had a talk with Liverpool but I did not receive yet any agreement. I’m still a Red Star player.”
The Serbia Under-21 international is rated in the £5million bracket, but Manchester United, Inter Milan, Roma and Chelsea are also believed to be interested in him.
The 6ft 3in Grujic signed a three-year contract at Red Star Belgrade over the summer after Bundesliga outfit Hamburg made a bid of £1.2million for the player.
Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge claims Firmino bottled a challenge at Newcastle and says his performance was “horrible”.
Firmino, a summer arrival from Hoffenheim, has struggled to adapt to the Premier League but he was sensational in the recent demolition of Manchester City, however he was “anonymous” in the 2-0 defeat at St James’ Park, according to Aldridge.
Aldridge, who scored 63 goals in 104 games for the Reds between 1987-1989, believes Liverpool were out-muscled on Tyneside, but it was the Brzilian’s performance which irked him the most.
“Roberto Firmino is playing as if something is wrong, mentally and physically. He’s been absolutely redundant the last two games after such a great display at Man City,” the 57-year-old told the Liverpool Echo.
“It can’t just be the fact his mate Coutinho has been missing.
“Christian Benteke played badly – he was stood outside the box when two good crosses came in, one from Moreno – but it was Firmino who made him look worse. Everything Benteke needed from him was absent in a horrible display.
“He needed him to be the link man but he wasn’t there. Benteke won his flick-ons but he was nowhere near him.
“Firmino was the missing link and things improved when Adam Lallana, who played well, came on. It was like chalk and cheese.”
Aldridge, has also warned Firmino – who was subbed after an hour against Newcastle – he is going to “have to learn how to get stuck in” after an “unacceptable” showing in the 2-0 defeat on Sunday.
“The Brazilian also pulled out of a challenge that was 55-45 in his favour. Liverpool fans won’t accept that. I’ve been going for 50 years and I know it’s unacceptable,” added Aldridge.
“If the ball is there to be won you win it. He’s going to have to learn to get stuck in.
“The defeat to Newcastle was incredibly disappointing on Sunday. You try hard not to get carried away but it’s hard sometimes.
“Mistakes were made across the board but what stood out for me was the fact we got out-fought.
“The same happened with physically big teams like West Ham and Crystal Palace with their pace and power.
“We’ve struggled to deal with these big, physical teams this season.
“Newcastle had nothing else apart from their physicality.”
