New Liverpool Manager Developments

And reminder of new site posting rules

First of all, at the end of this article will be a reminder of the new posting rules, and the compromises to keep TTT going in a way that I manage.

I will also keep this article near the top of the site for debate on the subject of who will be the next Liverpool manager.

Replacing Jürgen Klopp

Personally, I’m more relaxed now that Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes are running the process.

They are both data-led but not data-driven; while Will Spearman can provide the great data insights to work from. Edwards and Hughes bring a wealth of knowledge and ideas, but also with institutional knowledge of how things were done so successfully I the past.

To me, it needs to be a manager who understands modern ways of working (and who has a personality big enough to handle the role) that gets the best out of the players. He has to speak good English; not broken English, but English good enough to inspire and give clear messages to players and fans.

My only real personal stylistic requirement (I don’t care if it’s three at the back, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or whatever), is that they play a very high-possession style, because I see even low-50s as reactive, and correlates to cup football at best, where you can maybe win by being bloody awkward, but is not something any successful team in Europe does anymore.

You can transition fast, or build up slowly, but your team must be able to control games.

Liverpool’s league improvement under Klopp has come since becoming a 60%-possession (average) side five or six years ago. You have to be able to keep the ball to kill off games, or to be patient. If you can’t do that, you’re only half-armed. A team like Atalanta or Brentford can be very hard to play against, but that’s not a mark of a great manager, just a pragmatic one.

Once Xabi Alonso decided to stay at Bayer Leverkusen, there wasn’t really a “popular” choice anymore.

But I’ll give my views on a few of the names linked, and the new strong favourite; then people can discuss the issue as it unfolds now that we’re within the final month of the season, and things could start to gather pace.