"I’ve never been great at endings."
The quote from the headline above is one from acclaimed director JJ Abrams.
Abrams was a co-writer of one of the highest rated Television shows of all-time, ‘Lost’, before making his way into Film Direction. He was subsequently put in charge of the return to the big screen for the two largest Sci-Fi franchises out there, Star Trek and Star Wars. Abrams has long been panned by film critics and fans alike for his inability to end his stories in a fulfilling manner.
Under his direction, both franchises began anew promisingly, but ultimately fell at their final hurdles. The intros went well and brought on the same emotions that the original movies and series’ brought, but each new part added under his direction seemed to break the continuity that had previously been set up by the previous parts of each franchise, even the opening ones that he had written and directed.
Abrams has recognised this fault in himself . ”I don’t actually think I’m good at anything, but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story? That’s tough.”
It’s about time that fellow bespectacled boss, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, recognises the same fault in himself.
If the so-called ‘seven-year itch’ is real, Klopp is experiencing it for the third time in his career.
Klopp’s final season at Dortmund saw players run out of steam after seven years, as also happened at Mainz. That Klopp hit his seven-year milestone at Liverpool this season is perhaps not a coincidence. Has he learned from his previous experiences? It seems not.
You can point to no shortage of glaring issues but they all come back around to the same two; the midfield and a lack of intensity. It’s that lack of intensity that is a culmination of the years that have preceded where we are now.
Just like at Dortmund and Mainz, Klopp at Liverpool has overhauled the squad he inherited, nurtured that squad in its prime years and achieved incredible success, but, thus far in his career, he’s never been able to rebuild his own squad.
The best managers have consistently done it. Alex Ferguson did it multiple times at Man United, re-building his squad to achieve sustained success. Pep Guardiola has done/is doing it at Man City now, although largely thanks to a large open chequebook.
Since reaching their peak with a Champions League win and a return to domestic glory in 2019 and 2020, this Liverpool team has done nothing but decline, and the players causing that decline have been kept rather than being moved on when the first signs of decline hit like many of the best managers would have done. The fairytale ending for a player is rare and managers can’t let sentimentality get in the way.
But sentimentality is understandable. Players become legends at football clubs and when the signs of decline hit it can be hard to tell them that their time has passed. It can be hard to seperate the player who brought so much joy from who they are now. This is something that’s been consistent with Klopp.
He struggled to move on from Weidenfeller and Błaszczykowski coming into his final year at Dortmund. More than that, he actually chose to lean on them. Both were shoved out of the team when a fresh approach under Thomas Tuchel came around the next season.
Now with Liverpool, he seems to be doing the exact same thing. 32 year old Jordan Henderson and *37 year old* James Milner having played 27 games each this season is ludicrous, to say the least. But who else do you play when your midfield choices are so sparse?
Actually, wait. Why are they sparse?
Fact of the matter is, Liverpool’s recruitment strategy over the last few seasons have been ridiculous.
Their forward line is full to the brim with some of the best footballers on the planet. That isn’t the issue. They’re spoilt for choice there with the options of playing Salah, Firmino, Díaz, Jota, Núñez and Gakpo.
The main issue is the midfield. This squad has somehow been allowed to get to the point where its midfield, an absolutely key component of Klopp’s side, has no midfielder with Klopp-like attributes.
Fabinho is arguably the only midfielder who could still be considered in his prime at 29 years old, but he looks - like many of this Liverpool squad - like a player who has played too much football in a physically demanding style for the past four seasons. Those running and sprinting stats look great at the time, but there has to be a physical toll down the line.
The German recognises this himself. Klopp said in summer 2020 that his two full-backs “cannot play every season 50-something games - it would limit their careers.” Since those words, Andy Robertson played 50 games the following season, plus another 19 with Scotland, then 47 last season.
His performances this season have been well below par, but Klopp seemingly has no willingness to give him a break, even with Konstantinos Tsimikas performing well on the rare occasion he gets on the pitch. It’s coaching like this, leaning on players until they crumble to dust, which led to the sudden decline of Jakub Błaszczykowski under Klopp in that final Dortmund season.
Players like that need consistent cover, and a declining Jordan Henderson and nearly finished James Milner aren’t exactly the perfect replacements.
Liverpool fans will try to blame FSG’s under-investment in the club compared to the owners of their rivals. I can understand this viewpoint. After Liverpool’s Champions League win in 2019, the club only spent €10.5 million. Consistent success isn’t built by getting complacent when you’re on top. That was the perfect time to build their depth, but they just basically sat and waited for the next season.
You can blame lack of investment, but it’s also just a very easy thing to blame. In the last three seasons Liverpool have spent a combined €307 million, which is far less than every one of their top 6 rivals, but still a ridiculous amount of money!
During their initial rebuild under Klopp they proved they could work through this issue. They spent intelligently on areas that would improve them gradually under their manager’s chosen style. Now they’re having the same problems that Manchester United had up until Erik Ten Hag joined the club. They’ve spent their money in the wrong areas.
Take the signing of Cody Gakpo for instance. Did they need him? Not at all. Sure they had injuries in their forward line at the time but that clearly wasn’t their most pressing area of need. They could have gotten by without him and spent the money on someone to improve the midfield. In the same window, Manchester United signed Marcel Sabitzer on loan from Bayern Munich. You can’t tell me that if a player like him comes into this Liverpool squad that they aren’t immediately improved.
They’ve needed better starting quality midfielders for several years now. Since the 19/20 season they have only brought in two midfielders. Thiago Alcantara and Fabio Carvalho. Thiago is a good signing, admittedly, but needs more support. Carvalho is a prospect, and should never have been an option for right now.
Klopp’s squad now has a real dearth of prime-aged players, while the senior players look - as evidenced by all running data this season - incapable of reproducing the same physical numbers as they have in the past three, four or five seasons under Klopp. Heavy metal is great to listen to, but sometimes too much of a good thing takes its toll on you.
One of many great quotes attributed to Bill Shankly is that of a football team “being like a piano - you need eight men to carry it and three who can play the damn thing.” Right now, Liverpool are severely lacking those to do the heavy lifting. And that has to be on Klopp's shoulders.
This season isn’t going to end well for Liverpool. Next season is going to be a rebuilding year, very likely without top tier European football. It’s what Liverpool need right now. To begin again. Some rest. Some time to ponder and make some changes.
The Liverpool manager signed a new contract with the club last August, pushing his expiry date to the end of the 2025/26 season. This period will be time for him to ponder also. With much of Klopp’s talk previous to his contract renewal, I think we can be safe in assuming we are entering his last ride with Liverpool.
Jürgen Norbert Klopp has never been one for the perfect ending. His life in the game has always been comparable to how he likes his teams to play. His retirement from playing and subsequent slingshot into the managerial post was a sharp and sudden decision made on instinct by then Mainz Sporting Director Christian Heidel. He resigned as manager from both Mainz and Dortmund when he suddenly got the feeling that it was time to move on. The same will most likely happen at Liverpool in the next couple of years.
Most endings are never going to tie up all the loose ends into a nice little bundle. It’s hard to write them.