A season of heartaches and under-performance
Gideon Gobusamang Nkala | Saturday May 27, 2023 06:00
On Sunday, when the 2022-2023 English Premiership curtains are drawn for another recharge, it would leave me with a crushing moment of unguarded inadequacy.
I feel like I have met the person Jürgen Klopp and his boys could have made me become – even if it were to merely brag and thump my chest in an aura of momentary vanity.
I have seen this person beaming and beamed. I see his aliases and associates, and it is not a nice meeting.
Nine Supersport subscriptions ago, I had the audacity to practice the victory tap, the clap, the walk, the laughter, the not-so-innocent giggles, the barbed barnyard hyperbole, and almost bought the t-shirt.
Nine moons ago, I had all the solid credentials to stand on the podium of hope. Liverpool had just emerged from a quadruple fighting season. We went to the final of every cup that was on offer and fought for the league marathon up to the last second of the league campaign. We won two domestic cups. I had every right to believe that we will take it to another level this season.
And now this. Deflating!
For thousands of English Premiership League followers, particularly those of the red hue, never mind the North London, Manchester or even the Merseyside shade, this season had a monotonous familiarity to it. It only flattered to deceive.
The Liverpool season did not take long to go up in smoke. Before the league went for World Cup recess at 14 games, our season was already over. We were a huge 15 points adrift at position six and we have been stuck around those neighbourhoods over the last six months. It has been a struggle to wiggle out of a quicksand of underwhelming mediocrity. Even the late rally for a top four berth has fizzled out in a wobble. What happened to the gegenpress and the heavy metal tactical formations that bemused the football world? Has the Klopp era run its extended lifespan? Klopp has cut a name for himself as a reincarnate of the man of valour, the Gideon of the scriptures who defeated massive armies blessed with superior riches, with only a smaller band of inferior but nimble and agile troops.
He has vanquished so many decorated teams and claimed some scalps on the way to the summit of the football aristocracy. Even with the frugal war chest, he has gone on to clasp his arms around the Holy Grail in the Champions League trophy and ended the 30 year barren years at Anfield to land the treasured league. For all his momentous achievements, Klopp has never quite convinced that he has the staying power to do his rock and roll on a consistent basis. He comes across like that irritant, Robin Hood who barges into the scene to upset the status quo but never to reign as the undisputed king. He seems to relish being the underdog, with less pressure and scrutiny.
To stay at the summit of football glory, as we wished and hoped Klopp would, it takes a ruthless streak, not sentiment but being decisive to the point of being cold. To the North East of Liverpool, along Motorway 62 (M62) lived a Scotsman who many in the red half of Merseyside, and us here who wear the liverbird with pride, would not publicly admit that he was, and is still the gold standard in football accomplishment.
Klopp needs the stellar rigour of that unmentioned Scotsman in order for him to be anointed as football royalty or he will forever be remembered as a serious challenger who made life difficult for Pep Guardiola. A mere sparring partner! It would not be true that Klopp is a puritan who rigidly implements the heavy metal system of the Borussia Dortmund days.
There are strong indications that Klopp has made major tweaks to his football make-up, the heavy metal typified by quick transitions has mellowed and evolved.
The pressing is almost non-existent with an ageing midfield. Curiously the highline and wingbacks who bomb forward still remain and the effect has been disastrous on more than few occasions. They don’t allow room to experiment and self-correct in the EPL. The league is unforgiving. It is in the area of player recruitment, retention and management that Klopp has sent some of his supporters into meltdown. In the army, they say rest and recuperation is crucial to the prosecution of war. Klopp’s quality players are too few and they have looked jaded to carry a sustained assault on the painstaking enterprise that is the premiership crown.
Two seasons ago, Klopp’s squad needed a renewal but he has been too loyal and sentimental to his players, and this has postponed a football revolution that could have eclipsed the Manchester City juggernaut. James Milner, Oxlade Chamberlain, Naby Keita, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez should have been moved on, at least a season ago. Instead of giving them a handshake and wave them along to pastures anew, Klopp gave them an undeserved embrace into Anfield.
The Sadio Mane-Salah-Firminho triumvirate for all its dividends was over exploited with no able assistants on the bench to carry on the succession plan. Some of his purchases like Darwin Nunez have been less than shrewd and the less said about Arthur Melo, the better.
Time is running out for Klopp to establish himself as unquestionably Liverpool’s greatest manager and to surpass Anfield luminaries such as Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
Maybe when he fully realises that he has history to correct and destiny to carve out, just maybe, I will be able to tap again, brag again and blast that ‘you will never walk alone’ anthem to meet that person that Klopp and his boys were supposed to press out in me.