What Is Klopp Doing With No Specialist Striker?

What is Jurgen doing? Seriously Reds, what is he doing?

I get completely the need for high octane pressing and fluidity which is such a hallmark of his style, but surely you need specialists in specialist roles also in a team, and having played in one of the most prolific partnerships in LFC’s history and been around for many more, I can’t help but think Jurgen is seriously barking up the wrong tree by having no specialist and to be frank, going out of his way to piss another one off, having sold yet another!

Man City have Aguero
Man United have Zlatan
Chelsea have Costa
Leicester have Vardy
Everton have Lukaku
Arsenal have Giroud

You see what I mean? Whether you rate some higher than others, whether one is quick, one is strong, one holds the ball up better than another, they are all out and out strikers who guarantee you a presence in the box, pounce on half chances and are your match winners.

Liverpool have Firmino in that role at the moment, and for a club of Liverpool’s stature and the direction they need to go in…

I honestly believe that Klopp is in danger of getting this one seriously wrong.

I said last week play Sturridge or sell him, and that opinion hasn’t changed. But what about Origi and Ings? Two fresh, malleable young strikers that in Ings’ case works tremendously hard and Origi is young enough to understand the Klopp philosophy, so why aren’t either getting a game, or in certain games even getting a chance to play together? Surely that is as good management as identifying that Firmino “works hard” therefore should have a key part in the team!

If Sturridge isn’t deemed forceful enough to close down with the kind of intensity that Firmino does, does that mean Reds are happy that Firmino then assumes responsibility of having to score goals and win games on a weekly basis? Something I’m convinced Sturridge would do with the right back up. We can’t even be sure Firmino would outscore Olivier Giroud, who will always get his 15-20 goals but misses a hatful of chances, so why should Firmino get the gig only because he fits a system?

Systems are great, philosophies are great, but only if they work for the majority of the time. I’ve yet to see this with Gegenpressing or Firmino in the Premier League, so therefore have a plan B,C, or D.

This is the world’s toughest league, not one where you are guaranteed to finish top two, like Dortmund.

I love Jurgen but big ego managers sometimes have blind spots, I just hope that strikers isn’t his.

As for Spurs, is it me or does the team not look as fresh as last year at the start of this season?

Too much faith too soon in players, young players who are now household names, have played a lot of football over the last two years, are a scalp for the opposition? I think so. Having been in many dressing rooms, when you see one or two big names come into the dressing room during summer you’re automatically on your guard, extra motivated and relish the challenge of your place being competed for. I don’t see that with Kane, with respect to Janssen, he’s not replacing the England frontman anytime soon.

I don’t see Alli’s position under threat, the goalkeeper or realistically 90% of the team. That’s a dangerous game to play with players who can easily drop their intensity by even 5% safe in the knowledge their position is unchallenged, so although I wouldn’t advocate the crazy spending and numbers coming into WHL as happened after the Bale move, I do think Spurs need to flesh the squad out a little more in this window, or it may well be a tired second season for some of these exciting young Spurs players.