The famous Russian coach Valery Ovchinnikov said what the Liverpool management and their coach Jurgen Klopp should do now.
– Valery Viktorovich, in your opinion as an experienced coach, is there a systemic crisis in Liverpool? What should the club management and Jurgen Klopp do?
– We need a good reorganization, we need fresh blood in all the lines.
– But what names! These same guys recently won the Champions League and the Premier League.
– Do you remember how Zenit became champions in 1984 and the next year almost flew out of the big league?
– Yes, I remember.
– I saw what was happening at Zenit at the training camp in Leselidze after the winning season. I was also in the south, preparing my equipment. So they did not go to Turkey.
Zenit is playing a control match, Sadyrin is changing players, but he doesn’t want to leave. Only with a scandal it was possible to make a replacement. Football players were impressed after winning the USSR championship. In this case, drastic measures are always needed.
– Now the situation is different. It was in the USSR that you could disperse half the team and recruit new ones. The transfer window is now closed. And you can’t recruit like that, you need to buy players or borrow them. And that is a lot of money.
– So, Klopp must show character, put things in order in the team. You say that lately everyone has won, and now they are sure to fly out of the Champions League.
– Well, yes – 4:0 in Madrid will be difficult to win. In the championship, things are not important either, even for a place in the Champions League, it will be difficult for Liverpool to fight.
– Well, here, what am I talking about? Either Klopp puts the players in his place, or they remove him. It’s all up to him, can he take a hit?
– But in Liverpool the situation is not at all like that of Zenit in the winter of 1985. All the players are professionals, they all give their best. But it’s not like that.
– We do not know what is happening within the team. And what will happen after such a defeat at home.
– Koppa is highly criticized by the press. They write that his “bank account is empty before our eyes.” They picked up such an unusual metaphor: they say, Jürgen passed. But before the end of the season it is unlikely that he will be eliminated.
– But why? Another failed match, and they’ll point to the door.
FROM THE STORY OF THE QUESTION
Yesterday Liverpool lost 2:5 to Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 match at Anfield.
Darwin Núñez (4) and Mohamed Salah (14) scored for Liverpool, while Vinicius Junior (21, 36), Karim Benzema (55, 67) and Eder Militao (47) scored for Real Madrid.
The second leg will take place in Madrid on March 15.
Liverpool is eighth in the Premier League with 35 points. From fourth place, which entitles them to play in the Champions League, and which is now Tottenham (42 points), Jurgen Klopp’s team is separated by 7 points. But Liverpool have two games pending.
