Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool and the rule of 8th place…

Liverpool have never finished lower than 8^th – EVER – since returning to the top flight in the 1962/63 season.

That’s fifty four years of 8^th place or higher finishes. If you include our finishes in the old Second division then you can go back to 1954/55: our first season in the Second division after relegation from the top tier when we finished 11th, meaning sixty one years of 8^th or better.

We are the only club in England to have anything close to this record. Let’s look at our rivals who have been in the league a similar amount of time as us to compare – there really isn’t much competition:

Arsenal: True giants – in the top league since 1920. Promoted in 1915 – then a couple of Germans halted their progress but they resumed in 1920 in the top flight, and haven’t looked back since, or at least until Twitter was invented. In the time before we arrived on a permanent basis they accrued fifteen sub 8^th position finishes. After Liverpool arrived to stamp their authority on proceedings in 1962, a subsequent ten (10!) sub 8^th place finishes have occurred, including more than a couple relegation dogfights.

Man Utd: Since their last promotion to the top flight in 1975 – some 14 years after our own – they have endured a 9^th, a 10^th, two 11^ths and a 13^th place finish during the 70s and 80s

Spurs: Last promoted to the top flight in 1985…..

Chelsea: Last promoted to the top flight in 1989…….

Man City last promoted to the top flight in 1999  – it’s getting silly now.

Aston Villa: Gone!

Nottingham Forest, Leeds: Long gone!

Newcastle: Boing boing!

Everton: I’m not even going to bother tiring my finger muscles with this one.

(Note that none of this last segment on our rivals even focuses on 8^th place finishes, as we will now look at for Liverpool, only sub 8^th place finishes. I would quote all the 8^th place finishes our rivals have had as well, but I fear my spanking new, top of the line laptop doesn’t have the RAM to hold that much data!)

Liverpool are THE absolute goliaths of English football despite falling ever so slightly behind Man Utd in terms of total trophies (not European ones of course!).

Liverpool Football Club have had four 8^th place finishes since our promotion to the old First division in 1961/62 (and again in even the seven preceding seasons before that in the Second division). Here they are:

1962/63: Our first season back in the top flight under the legendary Bill Shankly.

1993/94: Roy Evans’ initial season in charge after replacing the much loved Graeme Souness midway through the season.

2011/12: The King’s return – Kenny’s one and only full season back at the helm resulted in an 8^th place finish despite winning the league cup and reaching the final of the FA cup.

2015/16: Klopp’s ‘recovering the Rodgers situation’ season and the start of a season that in hindsight should have probably started with Klopp not Rodgers (even though admittedly I was in favour of Rodgers having one last throw of the dice given what he had achieved). Although saying that, Klopp was on sabbatical, would he have come at the start of the season anyway? Maybe we needed those final few Rodgers’ era games for Klopp to have a rest and for Rodgers to coax the final nail through his own coffin lid.

Now and then we have a bad year and we finish 7^th or 8^th. This is the rock bottom, bottom line, backs to the wall, absolute minimum for Liverpool Football Club. That’s not to say it’s what I expect or demand, or that I would settle for 8^th, I expect and demand much more, but it MUST NOT ever be lower than that! It is not a possibility that is acceptable, and when you are 8^th or lower as a Liverpool manager your job is in serious jeopardy. We currently sit at 9^th. Everyone can have a bad run or even a bad season but finishing below 8^th must never be allowed to happen, ever! Liverpool managers get fired for doing that – or often even better than that – or languishing lower than that for a sustained period of time.

Liverpool managers never used to get fired, they simply handed the baton down to the next boot room boy. The firings started with Graeme Souness. Now they are commonplace… Graeme’s legacy?

Let’s look at what these managers have been fired for:

 Graeme Souness – Fired for two consecutive 6^th place finishes in the 1991/92 and 1992/93 seasons, and an even poorer start to his third season in charge, as well as some shocking transfer activity and possibly a general lack a character. After notable losses to Coventry, Blackburn and Newcastle, and then a four game streak of draws, and being dumped out of the FA Cup by Bristol City, Souness was put out of his misery and replaced by the loveable Roy Evans in January 1994.

Roy Evans – Doesn’t technically belong on this list as he resigned – the last of the boot room boys and being the only one on this list that wasn’t fired speaks volumes. But the writing was on the wall for him and after realising he was being eased out for Gerard Houllier, not aided by the retirement of Ronnie Moran, he resigned in November 1998 after finishing a respectable 3^rd the season before.

Gerard Houllier – Left by mutual consent after a 4^th place finish in the 2003/04 season – unthinkable these days. This seems harsh but also his health and general state of mind had suffered greatly during and after his heart attacks. Not to mention the signing of a certain Mr. Diouf didn’t help matters much.

Rafa Benitez – Fired after a 7^th place finish in the 2009/10 season which itself followed a glorious season before, finishing 2nd – albeit a lot of that down to the worst owners the world has ever known.

Roy Hodgson – (The man the legend!) Left by mutual consent – God old Woy – Basically fired during the 2010/11 season after seven wins in twenty. Stories of monotonous training, losing the dressing room, and with the club languishing in 12^th place as well as being knocked out of the Europa league by the might of FC Braga and dumped out of the league cup by world beaters Northampton town, the worst Liverpool manager possibly of all time, and certainly since the Korean war was thankfully dispatched. And lest we not forget his claiming a 2-0 loss to Everton was a fantastic performance…see ya Roy! King Kenny came in and galvanized the club finally finishing 6th

King Kenny – Let go after worsening league form from the previous season finishing 8^th, in 2012 despite winning the league cup and reaching the final of the FA cup. He was never the darling of FSG and wasn’t a long term candidate in their eyes. He did not fit the mold – and 8^th, as we are becoming aware, is rock bottom.

Brendan Rodgers – Fired for winning one game in nine during the 2015/16 season with the club stalling in 10^th place. Add to that many other factors such as Gerrard, European performance, Balotelli, the 6^th place finish the season before, and the general lack of direction that we have already discussed.

So there you have it, we NEVER finish lower than eighth, it is utterly unacceptable to finish lower than 8^th, and you will be fired for finishing in those 6^th-8^th positions especially if you do it twice. Or maybe just once and things are imploding quickly i.e. Hodgson / Rodgers. So based on these criteria so far, Klopp doesn’t warrant the sack: he hasn’t finished 6^th – 8^th in the preceding season and things are not imploding. However given the Rule of 8^th this cannot continue. If we find ourselves (which this particular writer does not think we will) still outside the top eight in a few months time, things could become very bleak for Herr Klopp. If it starts to look like a possibility that we will finish 8^th or lower then you gots to go! I do however think he will turn it around – especially once Lallana and Mane are back, and with an easier set of fixtures approaching, I think we will get stronger. Let us not forget this is the same team (plus Salah) that tore up the league last season, faded, but still made the Champions league ahead of Man Utd and Arsenal. Just don’t you dare, old pal Kloppy, put us in danger of finishing lower than 8^th. Less than 6^th and you’re probably getting fired. Sort the defence out. You’ve had your gamble and you’ve got until next season to get it right. Get us back in the mix! Ps we love ya. YNWA