Liverpool’s farewell to Jurgen Klopp is now complete. A new era beckons at Anfield.
The years under the German were glorious, emotional and trophy-laden. There will truly never be another one like Klopp.
Over the past few weeks, plenty has been written about Jurgen’s time at Anfield. So much more will follow in the future and given what he achieved, virtually all of it will be positive.
However, you don’t spent almost a decade at a club and have everything go your way. There were some tough times during Klopp’s reign and they should be scrutinized too.
The worst of times with the old boss was surely the 2022/23 season. With too many of the Liverpool squad fading badly, the Reds finished fifth in the Premier League. The poor form led to widespread changes at the AXA Training Centre, and not all of them were well received.
Jurgen Klopp upsets some Liverpool staff
One point of contention during Klopp’s tenure at Liverpool was quite how much power the 56-year-old yielded behind the scenes.
Although Klopp spent most of the time working with Michael Edwards as sporting director, he had to make do without him for that penultimate season.
This seemingly led to the manager taking on more responsibility and making calls that he hadn’t previously made. And according to journalist Duncan Castles, some of Klopp’s decisions were not popular with his backroom staff.
“One of the things that happened under Jurgen Klopp in his second last season, which was the season of multiple injuries, was that Klopp stopped using an AI led analysis of player’s physical output on the field and in training which was designed to flag up whether players were likely to get injured or not,” Castles explained on The Transfers Podcast.
“I understand that caused a fair amount of discontent within the backroom staff at Liverpool because they felt the system had been working well and it got overrode by Klopp.
“This is an opportunity [with Arne Slot] to bring a coach in who they have specifically targeted to fit the way they want to work to do something different. But a big, big test of whether handing everything over to the scientists works or not.”
Was Jurgen Klopp right to get rid of AI system?
Castles does not explain whether Klopp’s veto-ing of the AI injury tracker continued into this season.
However, without anyone really to counteract him, you’d have to imagine that the boss’ decision remained in place.
If that is the case, then this can only be seen to have been a poor call from Klopp. Liverpool have struggled badly with injuries this season in particular.
Last season was also difficult in that respect, while the 21/22 campaign saw fewer problems. Even Naby Keita, so notoriously injury-prone, managed 40 appearances.
Obviously, it’s impossible to say whether Klopp doing away with the processes in place helped or hindered matters. It could all be coincidence. But what seems to be for sure is that those Liverpool staff who were upset will see their systems back in place under Slot.