Is Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester City a sign that history is repeating itself for Jurgen Klopp
To paraphrase Liverpool owner John Henry, what do you think they’re smoking at Anfield? Because something is up with the champions.
Losing to your main domestic rivals is one thing. Losing to them 4-1 at home is another. And losing to them when you are 27 points down on your tally at the same stage last season is something else.
The unrelenting barrage of attacks has, well, relented. Even dependable goalkeeper Alisson has lost his way.
Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester City on Sunday wasn’t so much a setback as the latest sign that Jurgen Klopp’s team might be in terminal decline.
The title holders now trail leaders City by 10 points. For a better reflection of their campaign, they are one point ahead of West Ham.
Yes, they have been badly affected by injuries, especially in defence. The impact of losing Virgil van Dijk for most of the season can’t be overstated.
The absence of supporters from Anfield appears to have had a huge effect. Liverpool average one whole point per Premier League game fewer since lockdown.
City manager Pep Guardiola said at full-time: “Anfield is so intimidating but without people it is completely different.”
While City’s surgical approach to dismantling opponents seems unaffected by empty stadia, Liverpool have suffered without the fuel of fervour.
Alarmingly familiar patterns
But it cannot be ignored that there are patterns in Klopp’s managerial career that may look alarmingly familiar to those who would fill the Kop.
His last two jobs both lasted for seven full seasons, beginning with a gradual improvement and peaking in years three to five before decline set in.
At lowly Mainz, he achieved promotion to the Bundesliga in his third season. They then finished 11th in consecutive years, before relegation and a failed attempt at bouncing back.
At Borussia Dortmund, Klopp won the league in his third and fourth campaigns. In his fifth they reached the Champions League final.
But by then they had been eclipsed by a resurgent Bayern Munich and the wheels came off in Klopp’s seventh and final season, suffering 11 league defeats before Christmas.
There is a theory that he demands so much effort from his teams that, at a certain point, the project burns out. That might be simplistic.
But it is notable that, once the decline began, Klopp’s teams proved unable to fully arrest it. Never did they return to the top.
Klopp, who has a contract until 2024, is now in his sixth year at Liverpool. So have they peaked already?
Year three brought a Champions League final, which they won the next year, and last season – his fifth – they finally added the Premier League.
Against that body of evidence, it’s hard to conclude that this term, for all of its extenuating circumstances, is merely a blip.
Maybe Klopp will turn it around once Van Dijk is fit again and Anfield echoes to throaty renditions of You’ll Never Walk Alone once more. Or maybe not.
The German once said: “Everything has an end, apart from a sausage.” Liverpool fans could be forgiven for fearing the wurst.