Mark Langdon: Jurgen Klopp right to go out at the top

All good things must come to an end but Jurgen Klopp's bombshell decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the season reminded me of a self-help social media meme I saw recently.

You know the type, it will be followed by a list of comments like "you got this," or "make 2024 your year etc" and the one I saw recently on Pinterest read "if it makes you happy it doesn't have to make sense to others."    

On the face of it Klopp has done the hard work by reinventing his side to bring about Liverpool 2.0, a new team who have reached the League Cup final, are still going strong in the FA Cup and Europa League and have managed to go top of the Premier League against the odds.

His refreshed midfield with summer signings Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai bringing a much-needed energy boost to what had been a tired looking engine-room has been able to gel quicker than most pundits expected. Title-winning forwards Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino have been replaced, with the admittedly sometimes chaotic Darwin Nunez possessing the potential to make an equally devastating impact on opposition defences, albeit in a different way.

The Merseysiders have a squad that looks built to last thanks to Klopp. Alisson is no age for a keeper at 31 and outfielders Harvey Elliott, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo, Mac Allister and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all 25 or younger with their prime years ahead of them, while 27-year-old forwards Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota are both theoretically at the peak of their powers.

Captain Virgil van Dijk turns 33 in the summer and star man Mohamed Salah will be 32 then, so there will eventually be work needed in key areas, but the real tough graft has been done, so to see Klopp walk away instinctively feels like a terrible decision.

However, that is until you hear the reasons for the move and if he has genuinely run out of energy it does make sense and it's the right decision for him. 

A Klopp without full energy would be like a bald Rapunzel - it can't work and one of his major strengths which made him so special in the first place is his super-human ability to galvanise a city, never mind a football squad.

Klopp did it before at Borussia Dortmund, toppling the mighty Bayern Munich, and he has done so again with Liverpool, taking down Manchester City on one occasion and pushing them to the limit on others. That will take a toll and, while the timing seems off, at least this way Klopp gets to the control the narrative around his departure.

The Premier League won't quite be the same without the German gnarling on the touchline, while Liverpool could well need a period of transition to recover in a post-Klopp era, such was his stranglehold on the Reds, who won the lot at Anfield in his nine years and you would have got a big price on that after his first game in England, which was a 0-0 draw at Tottenham in October 2015.

It still feels like there is more to come from Liverpool and Pep Guardiola won't be at City forever either, so the opportunity to win more Premier League titles will likely increase, but if Klopp's decision doesn't make sense to you it does to him. Unless you are anti-Liverpool it should make football fans happy to recall what he achieved on Merseyside in a decade that will never be forgotten by those on the Kop.

Who can replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool?

There looks set to be a clean break at Liverpool with Klopp's staff following him out of the door in the summer. Here are the credentials of those prominent in the betting to take on what could be seen as the impossible job following in his mighty footsteps.

Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso is the early favourite and clearly has a connection with the club having become something of a honorary Scouser during his playing days at Anfield from 2004-09, winning the Champions League along the way with Rafael Benitez as manager.

Alonso then went on to play for Real Madrid under Jose Mourinho and Bayern Munich under Pep Guardiola, so he will have learned from the best. Stylistically it's fair to say he is more Guardiola than Benitez or Mourinho and that will only endear him further to those suggesting Alonso is the only candidate worth considering.

Spraying passes was the name of the game for Alonso as a player but it's a Steven Gerrard-like timing of his run which looks perfect here as he has led Bayer Leverkusen to an unbeaten start to their Bundesliga campaign and they are looking to hold off Bayern with the lead currently at four points.

However, this is Alonso's first managerial job in senior football and he joined Leverkusen in October 2022. Leverkusen and Liverpool are not the same size of clubs and don't have the same scrutiny which means there are risks attached with going down the path of the favourite. 

Roberto De Zerbi
Roberto De Zerbi's all-out style of play would be a joy to watch at a club with Liverpool's resources and attacking talent. He has achieved at least as much as Alonso, but much like the Spaniard, he would be taking a major step up from Sassuolo, Shakhtar and Brighton.

Pep Lijnders
Presumably if he was getting the job Liverpool would have announced that as part of the Klopp news. He doesn't appeal at single-figure odds with Klopp's assistant likely to need more experience as his own man.

Julian Nagelsmann
A possible runner. Julian Nagelsmann is still only 36 and yet he managed Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich before taking the Germany job. That feels like a marriage of convenience - an opportunity came up for him to manage his nation at a home Euros when he was out of the club game - but it's almost certain that Nagelsmann's future lies in mixing it with Europe's elite. Don't read too much into his Bayern sacking as replacement Thomas Tuchel is doing no better.

Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard was Klopp's heir apparent until it all went wrong for him at Aston Villa. The fact that Unai Emery has improved Villa out of all recognition highlights the mess Gerrard made of it and he isn't shooting the lights out in Saudi Arabia either. This would be a huge, and not particularly wise, leap of faith.

Ange Postecoglou
There has been a bit of money for the Australian, who has impressed in his first Premier League season. His style of play would suit the Liverpool squad, however, his European competition pedigree is limited.

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