With serious money spend this summer and the right man in charge, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool could be serious contenders for both domestic and European honours this season.
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00:00 Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea
00:10 the first time, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea the second time. As Nelly Furtado once famously
00:15 asked, 'Why do all good things come to an end?' Liverpool fans are perhaps wondering
00:20 that more than just about anybody else at the start of this season.
00:23 Jurgen Klopp is now the longest reigning manager in the Premier League, and it's weird to
00:27 think of him being the oldest, wisest head, yet he became a grandad over the summer break.
00:31 And just looking around at rivals, Arsenal and Newcastle both have dynamic young managers
00:36 who may well have barely started their careers. Tottenham and Chelsea are both embarking on
00:41 brand new eras and will have new philosophies to match. Things look exciting at Brighton
00:46 and Aston Villa, who both have Europe to look forward to this season too.
00:50 But that doesn't mean that Klopp is on the descent, far from it actually, even after
00:54 a disappointing season last year. Because for all the exciting bosses around the country
00:59 these days, Klopp is the only one of them who's ever wrestled the title away from Pep
01:03 Guardiola. He's won everything at Liverpool and, whisper it, but he could be about to
01:07 do it all again. Because this is Liverpool Mark 2, the second chapter of this all-conquering
01:13 beast of a side that the German is recalibrating. This is why Liverpool are going to be alright
01:18 in the end, and how the Reds will still compete this season.
01:23 Jurgen Klopp's first transfer at Anfield was the mighty Marco Gurić. His second was
01:28 Steven Kalka on loan, which doesn't exactly give us much of a clue of how he was going
01:32 to transform the Premier League. Klopp, that is, not Kalka. Nah, thanks Steven. But those
01:37 early years were proper exciting. Show of hands, who remembers the 4-1 over Man City
01:42 away from home really early in Klopp's reign? Okay, more of a classic here. Who remembers
01:47 the 5-4 over Norwich when the Reds went bananas at full time and Klopp lost his glasses? There
01:53 was a 6-0 over Aston Villa in his first season, that was a laugh. Then there was a 4-0 over
01:58 Everton in the derby, which was fun. And then the following season started with a 4-3 over
02:02 Arsenal, then a 4-1 over Leicester, a 5-1 over Hull, and a 6-1 over Watford in the first
02:08 three months of the season. You see, when Pep Guardiola came in at Man City, he built
02:13 from the back, signing Claudio Bravo, John Stones, Ederson, Karl Walker, Danilo, Benjamin
02:19 Mendy and Aymeric Laporte all within his first two years. Klopp's first big major signing,
02:25 apart from super Steven Kalka of course, was Sadio Mane, and that set a very different
02:30 tone because when he built Liverpool, he built them from the front backwards. Alisson and
02:35 Van Dijk were almost finishing touches to this team. Is history repeating itself? Well,
02:41 maybe. I mean, I can't promise that every game is going to be as bonkers as that win
02:45 against Tottenham last season and the dying seconds, as incredible as that would be, but
02:49 Liverpool are about to be a lot more fun again, and they're going to be formidable in big
02:53 games. That's what always separated JĂĽrgen from Pep. Guardiola loves control. He built
02:59 a winning machine at City with interchangeable parts that didn't even need to rely on individuals
03:03 thinking outside the box, just players knowing their roles and where to stand at any given
03:08 moment. You don't need me to tell you that Pep's a genius, and that's not to dumb
03:12 down his philosophy of those early years at City, but the one downside was that it didn't
03:16 always work in the heat of the big moments. It cost him in the Champions League for a
03:20 long time. Klopp, on the other hand, revels in the sheer chaos of those European nights.
03:26 His Liverpool team were always more about the players than the system, and he had more
03:29 success in Europe while Pep was scooping up his first few Premier League trophies. Klopp
03:34 loves a leader. Just look at the players he signed this summer. Alexis McAllister was
03:38 as cold as ice for Argentina in the World Cup, keeping his country tick along in the
03:42 midfield all the way to the trophy. And the way that he handled his last few months at
03:46 Brighton, knowing that he wanted to go, showed a level of maturity that perhaps Brighton
03:50 fans would like to see from a few others. And Dominic Sabozlai is just 22, already the
03:55 captain of his national side. Look at Cody Gakpo, signed in January, who stepped up in
04:00 the World Cup when few others did for the Netherlands. Or even Darwin Nunez, signed
04:05 in last year. Look, I know he's not everybody's cup of tea, but in the Champions League already,
04:09 he scored against Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, a very good Ajax side, and,
04:15 well, Liverpool. Back when Klopp began at Liverpool, he brought
04:19 in players with this unpredictability and knack for making things happen on the big
04:23 stage, and he relied on players with a big game mentality. There's a reason that the
04:27 only team capable of knocking them out in Europe for so long just happened to be the
04:31 only other team with more bottle. Liverpool have evolved in the last few years to have
04:36 more control and be less counter-attacking, but now they're evolving to become less
04:40 controlled than recent seasons, as Sabozlai, Curtis Jones and Nunez all come in to become
04:46 more direct. It's probably only going to end up one way,
04:49 which is great for neutrals. Goals, goals, goals, and if you're a betting person, you
04:54 can probably count on Liverpool conceding more in transition than they've been used
04:58 to recently. It's difficult to win over the course of a season playing such heavy
05:02 metal football, but remember, this is the start of a new era for Klopp and for Liverpool,
05:07 and the control is going to have to come back over time. For now, the unpredictability
05:11 of this team is going to be hard to live with in the biggest fixtures, and that means that
05:15 a Europa League final in Dublin is a serious target.
05:19 Questions have been asked of them defensively, but in Addison, Liverpool still probably have
05:23 the best goalkeeper in the league, ahead of Virgil van Dijk. That's not bad. Mohamed
05:28 Salah and Diogo Jota are proven match winners, who can change the game at the drop of a hat.
05:34 Alexander-Arnold looked back to his best, drifting into midfield towards the end of
05:38 last season, convincing long-term Trent-sceptic Gareth Southgate to give him minutes for England,
05:43 and if you look at how young this Liverpool team is, what has stopped two or three of
05:46 them having a breakout season like Arsenal did last year?
05:49 Curtis Jones was arguably England's best player at the under-21 Euros. This could be
05:54 the season that he truly explodes. Most Liverpool fans have perhaps been more excited about
05:58 Harvey Elliot up until this point anyway. Nunez, Gakpo, Knate, Sobozlai and McAllister
06:04 are still young too. And then there's Moyes' Kaiseido.
06:19 Yep, generic world-class defensive midfielder. And just like Van Dijk and Aderson before
06:25 him, he could be a finishing touch to this side. He's cut from the same cloth as Klopp's
06:29 best midfielders. He's physical, he's aggressive and he's technically secure. And when Liverpool
06:34 have possession, it'll likely be Kaiseido and Alexander-Arnold ahead of a back three.
06:40 It's the perfect blend of precision and aggression, on and off the ball.
06:45 Really, all Klopp needs now is one more defender and perhaps a little bit of luck. This is
06:49 a squad that's been decimated by injuries and hasn't had time to settle into a rhythm.
06:54 Who knows what might actually happen if the same few players have a run playing together.
06:59 But with Liverpool a year further on in the rebuild, and Klopp having reshaped his side
07:03 from last year, we can see a little clearer where this team is heading. Liverpool started
07:07 last season not knowing who the long-term replacement was for Bobby Firmino, how to
07:12 get the best out of Trent, how to regenerate an ageing midfield, and who was going to step
07:16 up in Sadio Mane's absence. Well, Klopp's answered all of those questions.
07:21 This is a Liverpool team who shape up with a similar box midfield to City, but their
07:24 ideals couldn't be more opposed. They're going to attack, they're going to be direct,
07:29 they're going to try and smother teams, and this is a manager and a squad capable of putting
07:33 the cat among the pigeons and taking the game to big teams. They could well decide the title,
07:39 even if they don't have the lungs to be the ones lifting the trophy in May.
07:43 Klopp's new Liverpool is a lot like Klopp's old Liverpool. This is a team that might not
07:47 be fresh and new like some of their rivals, but if history is to repeat itself, it's still
07:51 good news for fans, like chaos is what made Merseyside fall in love with Jurgen Klopp
07:56 in the first place.
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