‘Showboating’ Liverpool slammed as Klopp told he can’t trust ‘back-up’ players or ‘£85m prima donna’
Liverpool made eight changes to their starting line-up and won 5-1, but Jurgen Klopp can’t trust his ‘showboating’ squad players, Darwin Nunez in particular.
Owen goal
Question: What’s the biggest story in football as of Friday lunchtime, in between some interesting European games and a Premier League fixture list including a Manchester derby?
Answer, according to The Sun website at least: ‘Gemma Owen dating Prince Naseem Hamed’s son Aadam as pair go public following luxury holiday together in Dubai’
More as we get it.
I’m just Ken
After claiming that Jurgen Klopp should have been ’embarrassed’ by Liverpool’s stroll to a Europa League win against Union Saint-Gilloise three weeks ago, Ken Lawrence of The Sun continues to weirdly tell the Reds manager how he should feel about his really rather good football team after yet another victory
‘JURGEN KLOPP may not have enjoyed this continental soiree as much as the score line or his trademark grin at the end suggested,’ he writes in his opening paragraph, at which point Mediawatch is intrigued. Liverpool won 5-1 and Klopp looked delighted, yet he ‘may not have enjoyed’ the game quite that much.
Apropos of nothing, here is a snippet of Klopp’s post-match quotes from the victory over Toulouse:
“Most of the time we were in complete control. We made good goals, nobody got hurt, perfect night. We could bring the kids on.”
It certainly sounds like he ‘may not have enjoyed this continental soiree as much as the score line or his trademark grin at the end suggested’.
But we are this far in now and so might as well hear Lawrence out. The floor is yours, friend.
‘Why wouldn’t the German be delighted following this win over the French Cup holders that only suggested that his side are correctly rated as favourites to emerge trophy holders?’
You tell us. Please. We’re very confused.
‘Well, the showboating would be a start.’
At no point does Lawrence describe any actual acts of ‘showboating’, beyond Trent Alexander-Arnold being ‘complacent’ in defence and Caoimhin Kelleher getting ‘himself in a complete mess’. Neither of which are examples of ‘showboating’ but okay.
Is Darwin Nunez rounding the goalkeeper and setting Ryan Gravenberch up by hitting the post from six yards ‘showboating’? No, that’s being Darwin Nunez.
‘If he was looking for an edge from those he brought in there were occasions were it was all a bit too relaxes-vous.’
They won 5-1. And yes, the opposition team was French.
‘Even Liverpool’s fourth goal indicated that Klopp’s replacement players were not taking seriously enough the job of progressing last season’s dismal flops back towards new silver wear.’
Beating the opposition 5-1 suggests they took them plenty seriously. It’s one thing, reading too much into a funny Darwin Nunez miss, and another accusing Liverpool of phoning it in because of it. Nunez does stuff like that in every game. And he scored before that.
Oh, and ‘silver wear’. No notes.
Jurgen Klopp watches his players warming up.
‘None of those moments will have allowed Klopp to feel that, truly, he can truly count on his back-up boys when the let frites are down later in the season.’
Mediawatch is aware that the point has already been made, but they won 5-1. Five actual one. Klopp made eight changes to his starting line-up and they won 5-1. If that doesn’t encourage some sort of faith in his ‘back-up boys’ then nothing will.
Klopp himself said there was “nothing to complain about really” after the match so there you go.
And yes, the opposition team truly was French.
‘Still, there was much to be pleased about for him.’
You don’t say?
‘Job done against the minnows now being guided by former Anfield sporting director Damien Comoli.’
Those French Cup-winning ‘minnows’ who held Paris Saint-Germain to a draw earlier this season? Those ‘minnows’?
‘Even Mo Salah made a late cameo appearance and added an injury-time fifth in what ultimately became a training exercise.
‘But one that will still have raised a few questions in the head of the Anfield boss.’
They won 5-1, Ken! Klopp himself called it a “perfect night”! Stop being weird!
Mediawatch realises The Sun can – and have and do – essentially write what they want about Liverpool, in the full knowledge that no actual fan of the club will read and challenge it. But honestly, what a bizarre write-up.
READ MORE: Gravenberch rapidly becoming Liverpool’s Thursday star but he’ll soon outgrow Europa cruises
Breaking Nunez
Joe Bernstein of the Daily Mail has had a strange issue with Liverpool and Klopp’s management of Darwin Nunez for some time.
Back in May, he wrote how the Uruguayan:
– ‘doesn’t seem to have fully won Klopp’s trust’
– was ‘too expensive to a be a bit-part player’
– ‘either has to be a central figure or allowed to leave and continue his career elsewhere’
This after Nunez finished his debut season as Liverpool’s second-highest goalscorer, with Klopp publicly and privately delighted at his contribution.
But little has changed this campaign – Nunez has started six of the club’s 13 games and is again only being outscored by Mo Salah – so Bernstein remains peculiarly frustrated.
‘Darwin Nunez would rather be a Premier League starter than playing for Jurgen Klopp’s Europa League side but he showed enough willingness to prove he’s no £85million prima donna and deserved his goal courtesy of an emphatic finish.’
Has there been even a vague suggestion that he is an ‘£85million prima donna’?
‘It’s not ideal for someone of the 24-year-old’s stature whose pace and work-rate is yet to be matched by full understanding of what the Reds manager wants from him.’
He seems to be grasping it really rather well. As Klopp said after the game: “I couldn’t care less that he hits the post in that moment because everything before was super-convincing, was absolutely clear. He played incredible. He’s a happy boy or man in the moment and you can see that every day. And now we have to make sure that it stays like that.”
The only person seemingly struggling to establish a ‘full understanding’ of the situation is Bernstein himself.
Moyes-cancelling headphones
There must be something in the water when it comes to Europa League match reports for The Sun because this is how Jordan Davies kicks off his piece on West Ham being beaten 2-1 by Olympiakos:
‘TURNS out it is not just plates that the Greeks enjoy smashing – it’s also David Moyes teams.’
‘Smashing’ is generous for a one-goal victory but fine, artistic license and all that.
‘It was almost a decade ago that the Scottish coach, during his ill-fated Manchester United tenure, endured one of the worst nights of his managerial career here in Athens.
‘A 2-0 defeat in a Champions League last 16 first leg tie to Olympiacos, one that ultimately saw him get the sack a few months later from his dream job.’
That is obvious nonsense, considering they won the return leg 3-0 to advance to the quarter-finals. What ‘ultimately’ did for Moyes at Manchester United was being knocked out in the next round by Bayern Munich, and failing to qualify for the Champions League through the Premier League. He was sacked as soon as that became a mathematical impossibility, not almost two months before when they lost the first leg of a last-16 tie they would go on to win.
🗣 "We didn't perform as well as we would like but nevertheless we've had a really good start to the group."
David Moyes shares his reactions to yesterday nights loss in the Europa League pic.twitter.com/SHn2Q1QuJp
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) October 27, 2023
‘Snub’ of the day
‘Man United manager Erik ten Hag snubs watching rivals Man City play in Champions League for dinner with his wife at his favourite Italian restaurant, four days before the Manchester derby’ – MailOnline.
What an absolute nerd, spending time with his wife and probably watching the Manchester City game at a later time.
Also, how close do you think they came to putting ‘JUST DAYS before the Manchester derby’?
Trophy strife
‘Gary Neville pinpoints why he can’t see Erik ten Hag winning trophies at Man Utd’ – Daily Mirror website.
Justice for the Carabao Cup.
Sanch dressing
‘Inside Jadon Sancho’s Man Utd exile with star locking himself in academy changing room and being served food in LUNCHBOX’ – The Sun website.
Way to take a legitimate safeguarding issue and make Sancho sound like a tantrumming teenager instead.
