The manager will have started to make decisions regarding the current squad says Aldridge
With hindsight, it shouldn’t have taken that long, but Jurgen Klopp may have now already drawn his own conclusions on the current crop of Liverpool players. Of course, we did have the benefit of having had to watch most of them for the past 18 months of Brendan Rodgers’ tenure but after several complete collapses and submissions in recent months, the 48 year old now probably knows where he stands.
And that’s an opinion shared by former Liverpool player John Aldridge. The former striker, writing for his Liverpool Echo column, said: “I can’t say I was surprised by what happened at Upton Park on Saturday.
“We’ve seen it time and time again from this Liverpool side. We got out-fought and we got bullied.
“We just don’t have the players to stand up to the challenge in a game like that. When you looked at the teamsheet, you just knew West Ham had the type of players who would cause us problems.
“They were two bad goals to concede and we have to stop crosses getting into the box like that.
“For the first goal, the referee had a shocker because it should have been a free-kick for a foul on Alberto Moreno. But we didn’t react quickly enough to the danger.”
Many will point to the terrible refereeing and, on another day, had Moreno been awarded that free-kick, then Liverpool may have gone on to win comfortably. But it was, as Also says, the manner in which Liverpool didn’t react and allowed West Ham an easy goal. It’s a culmination of events that Aldo believes could see the manager move in January.
He continued: “Jurgen Klopp was clearly angry at what he saw. After three months in the job, I think he knows where he stands with this group now. He will be starting to draw conclusions. He will know what he needs.
“I’d like to see him move in the market in January if there’s a player of real significance he thinks he can go and get. Someone with a presence, a leader.”
The team has a chance to at least start to put things right over the coming games though, with the Capital One Cup semi final this evening, and the FA Cup third round on Friday. And those same players that submitted so pathetically to West Ham are likely to see some action, with the huge amount of injuries leaving Jurgen Klopp with little option to rotate.
