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Jurgen Klopp’s energy boosts Liverpool in narrow win

By on December 30, 2015

Liverpool’s last match of 2015 ended in a lukewarm fashion that was emblematic of their campaign to date. The Reds took all three points from a trip to lowly Sunderland, but looked wholly unconvincing up front in a narrow 1-0 win over a team already facing the real prospect of relegation. Their seventh victory in the league with an overall indifferent goal-differential of zero, having scored fewer goals than everyone in the top half of the table bar Stoke City.

The visitors’ persistent offensive woes were again evident at the Stadium of Light, yet the headlines didn’t focus on Liverpool’s frailties, instead honing in on Jurgen Klopp’s touch-line bust up with Sunderland gaffer Sam Allardyce. The pair traded insults following Jeremy Lens’ rash tackle on Mamadou Sakho, warranting a telling off from police.

However, when all was said and done, the pair shook hands and Klopp came out unfazed, lighthearted and able to joke with the press, willing to address the issue but not the slightest bit regretful. “I am not too sorry,” he said. “Please, it was a foul. Of course, I was angry. For me, that is a red card, finished.”

Some managers divert the attention away from their team onto outside parties: the ball-boys, the fans, the media or even, ahem, the team doctor. Klopp grabs the headlines for himself with his enigmatic larger-than-life personality. “If you look on your ticket, it’s included,” Klopp half-joked after the match. “If nothing happens on the pitch, you can watch the bench.”

As Liverpool’s season ambles down a windy, rough road, Klopp’s presence is all the more important. Liverpool are more or less at the same place as when Brendan Rodgers left in October, still working through their various kinks while mired in the unflattering end of the top half of the table, yet their outlook as a club has undergone significant realignment. The days of Rodgers’ banal management are already in the distant past.

The German has put their woes into perspective and has offered them a clear vision, if not a direct path towards the top. The Reds thus far appear willing to follow their strong, outgoing and personable leader.

“We will be celebrating the whole way here to the plane and then we fly home and go to bed,” he deadpanned in his post-match press duties today. “The best teams in the league have nine points more than we have, so it is not that much. Everyone needs a bit of luck and then we will see. We are not in wonderland – but we deserved to win.”

Klopp’s tactical revolution will take time, but a profound impact on team morale has already taken root at Anfield. For now, 2016 offers many opportunities for escape from the drudgery that has been 2015 at Liverpool Football Club.

Photo credit: Delval Loic, via Wikipedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.