The problem with football fans is that they think in a very binary fashion rather than recognising that in nearly a decade of work all sorts of major changes would happen and impact on performance.
So this idea that klopp = god who can’t be bettered and slot = unproven amateur is rubbish. Klopp was a burnt out wreck for at least 12-18 months, surviving on fumes, and it showed in all sorts of aspects of our play not to mention that he’d completely given up the tactical side of things to his no 2 in that period. The klopp of the last 2 years was a very different animal from the one who won the CL and PL.
Whisper it quietly if you’re talking to a load of Liverpool fans, but we look tactically and technically far superior now to what we’ve done for the last 2 seasons. The defence is now iron clad rather than conceding to the first attack and having to spend the rest of the game playing catch up. Energy levels are far better maintained with no serious injuries due to far less helter-skelter football. We’re better at retaining the ball, finding spaces, navigating through a press, maintaining control of a game, winning games 1-0 or 2-0 with a modicum of comfort.
And he’s far better at responding to opposition tactics both in advance of a game and in-game than klopp (or lijnders, who was doing all the tactics last few seasons) ever was. If klopp’s plan A didn’t work, the solution was always to go harder at plan A. Slot is very different - he adapts game to game, and it’s obvious. All of that said, the true test will be where he is come Christmas.
