What will the Liverpool summer rebuild look like under Klopp?

Published on: 10 February 2016

Jurgen Klopp took over from Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool's manager in early October and by doing so, ended up taking the job from a man who was given free rein to invest nearly £75million into the squad during a summer in which he was under heavy scrutiny and was called by many to be sacked.

The main reason he ended up staying put after last season's horrendous finale was presumably because John W. Henry and Tom Werner couldn't find a guaranteed upgrade on the manager who brought them a second-place finish and a return to the Champions League after a five-year absence.

They tried to go for Klopp in the summer, but the German turned the offer down, citing that he was in need of a break after a successful seven-year adventure with Borussia Dortmund.

He ended up taking the job just two months into this season though and as a result has had to face the consequences of taking over a squad that was built by his predecessor rather than him.

Some may argue, even the manager himself, that things perhaps may turn out better this way going forward as Klopp will now have had almost an entire season to have a closer look at his playing staff and decide on who he could cut from it and who he could keep around for next season and beyond.

Klopp has had several ups and downs so far, having led his teams to convincing wins away to last year's top two, Chelsea and Manchester City, whilst he's also led them to a League Cup final and the Europa League knockout stages.

Six wins in 17 league games though suggest that although the cup progress has been good, there hasn't been as much to cheer about from a league point of view with the club placed just one spot higher than they were at the time of Klopp's appointment.

No matter how this season ends up, it is very likely that several changes will be made to the squad and the popular term 'Kloppolution' will come into play as he'll look to build the team under his vision just as he did at Dortmund.

Whether he'll get the freedom he needs to implement all of that is still a question mark, as club owners Fenway Sports Group like to handle the transfer activities themselves, but if any manager can alter things with a positive outcome the result, then it surely is one Jurgen Klopp.

A closer look at the roster shows that the most likely areas to be overhauled are the defence, which has been a problem for many a year now, and the midfield which looks a far cry from the days when it was made up of Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, and club legend Steven Gerrard.

The forward position isn't short of its problems either with Daniel Sturridge and Danny Ings' injury woes, as well as Christian Benteke's failure to fit into the team's playing style, meaning that some addressing will need to be done here also.

It may not just about be all about spending money on proven quality though, even if that is an absolute must if Liverpool are to get back into the top four, with Klopp having used his opportunities this season to test some of the Merseyside club's youth.

The likes of Connor Randall, Pedro Chirivella, Kevin Stewart, Joao Carlos Teixeira, Brad Smith, and Sheyi Ojo have been given chances while Klopp made talented Serbian midfielder Marko Grujic his first Anfield signing from Red Star Belgrade last month.

Whatever he'll decide to do though, it will be interesting to track come the beginning of the summer.

Klopp may have done wonders to build a title-winning side and a Champions League contender at Borussia Dortmund on a limited budget, but with the array of talent in his current employers' academy and the vast amount of money he'll be able to invest with the wealthy owners topped by a massive TV deal, it will be intriguing to see if he can achieve similar results to the ones he had in Germany with big bucks to spend and bigger fish to fry in England.


By Edin Halilovic

Source: tribalfootball.com

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