Page 11 - Soccer360 Issue 105

2024
TITLE RACES
THE KLOPP FACTOR
WORDS DEREK ROSS
Ilike Jurgen Klopp. I like his German accent where vowels waltz with consonants in a choreographed cacophony. And that smile. Those gleaming sentinels of the oral citadel that harbour each lustrous grin. Sadly and in many cases, heartbreakingly, Liverpool supporters are preparing themselves for that period of funereal grief that will arrive come the end
of the season. Maybe the tempest
of sorrow shrouded in a cloak of desolation might be tempered by the
club lifting the Premier League title for a record equalling twentieth occasion.
CAN HE DERAIL CITY ONE MORE TIME?
As Jurgen Klopp commences the time honoured ritual of clearing out his desk
for his eventual successor he is the one manager who can assert through that wide Colgate crusted, ivory smile that only his Liverpool have been able to find the answer to that often repeated refrain, ‘Who can
stop Manchester City.’ Indeed without that dark cloak of the umbral spectre which resides in the Eithad Stadium, Klopp would probably have at least another three premier league titles to add to his tally. His team has achieved ninety-two plus points in three of the past five campaigns. That he has but one title to show for it emphasises just how high City continue to raise the bar. Maybe it’s just too much to keep having to scale new heights? But he will leave behind him enough silverware to leave his successor requiring adequate stocks of elbow grease along with the deep heat.
KLOPP’S TROPHY CABINET.
An FA Cup. A League Cup, Charity Shield, a Premier League title, a Champions League title. The Super Cup, and a Club World Cup. And he’s not finished yet. Liverpool are not just favourites to pip city to the league title. They are favourites to lift the Carabao cup final again, The Europa League and The FA Cup. If he achieves this then his own statue may well replace that of the Fab Four as the most iconic lump of bronze in the city?
TIME TO BLOW THE WHISTLE.
Anyway. The great man has announced
that one of the reasons he’s hanging up his tracksuit is because he’s beginning to feel rather short on energy which makes you wonder what the hell it is that Pep Guardiola is drinking!! Maybe he wants to live his life in a slower lane. Time in the garden. Moonlight walks along the beach with her indoors. More quality time with the family and his beloved dog. Basically all of the things that essentially guarantee a return to a dugout in approximately six months from now?
THE FINAL RUN IN.
But in all matters football, Jurgen and his Premier League buddy, Pep Guardiola
have produced some of the most scintillating, high quality title races in recent times, and Liverpool’s pushing of City all the way this season could see Klopp delivering the perfect parting gift to his adoring fans. However, we shouldn’t forget that Arsenal also remain well in this title race, so we can rest assured that as the three current leading horses approach the finishing line things promise to get tighter
TOP:
Jurgen Klopp on the touchline for Liverpool
than a blindfold at a swingers party! Not surprisingly the anoraks that pervade every sport are suddenly reaching for their Opta stats like the rest of us reach for a Kleenex during winter! Opta’s predictor is giving Liverpool a 5.2% probability of beating City to the title. Personally I don’t do predictive stats, purely because I have personally predicted many times they’ll be proven wrong and was proven right. Am I in the wrong job?
WILL KLOPP DELIVER THE TITLE?
So the question is will Klopp and Liverpool do it? Will Klopp ride into the sunset a Premier League champion once more leaving Pep to cry into his tapas? It all sounds like the perfect end to a beautiful Merseyside romance. But in the real world many beautiful romances disintegrate into an enshrouded nebulous haze entwined in
a delicate dance of melancholy! In other words no. You see, Arsenal will falter because they lack a world class striker that will win them enough of the big fixtures on the horizon. Liverpool are brilliant and have been for almost all of Klopp’s time at the club. But, and I hate to use this whisper of contradiction where paradoxes intertwine and diverge, they don’t have Mr Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva or Rodri
et al. Moreover this moment of the season
is meat and gravy to team whose arm’s continue to ache from the constant lifting of silverware. Klopp will not depart trophyless this season that is a certainty. But City are primed to make his last day at the office a cadence of lamentation woven with threads of sorrow and probably quite a bit of profanity!!
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