Yes. With this squad, I think Klopp, Pep, Tuchel, Ancelotti, Conte, Nagelsmann, Gaultier, Simeone, Emery, Enrique, Zidane, hell, probably Lopetegui, Sarri, Allegri would’ve gotten top 4.
It doesn’t matter what the Ralf fan boy cult thinks, the fact of the matter is that the board expected Ralf to stabilize the defense, achieve top 4 and provide a platform for success for the permanent manager. He’s failed in every way, alienated the squad, is tactically naive, no,wait, stupid.
He’s a clown and a fraud and in a 20 year managerial career, he’s won one measly trophy against a Bundesliga 2 side where he came in just before the final.
.
There is this Ralf cult idea that he is the the genius behind the high press. No, he stole that from Arrigo Saatchi who stole it from Rinus Michels who stole it from some guy no one can remember. There is this idea that counter attacking football isn’t modern, isn’t smart, doesn’t win trophies. False. Zidane’s Real sides were essentially counter attacking, Conte, Ancelotti, Emery, Allegri, Simeone… the list goes on. SAF played a 4-5-1 (mostly in Europe) or a 4-4-2 almost exclusively, two counter attacking formations, and that fella won a few trophies.
If Ralf had successfully installed the geggenpress, morphed to a 4-2-2-2 successfully, solidified the defense, made us play BETTER, I wouldn’t have cared about the top 4. But he’s been a disaster in every category. This idea that we have to be bad in order to become great again is a view held by naive nitwits who don’t understand management. We can easily go from good to great, we don’t need to burn it to the ground first. No CEO, ever, was like, “let’s feck up our products so bad that no one will buy them and we can just start over with new ones.”