It will be a quiet few days for Liverpool. After reaching the Carabao Cup final on Wednesday, they were preparing for their FA Cup fourth-round tie against second-placed Norwich City.
Of course, both competitions will have to be taken seriously and Liverpool will be aiming for a top-four finish, but it was a weekend with fewer worries than the big games in the Premier League or Europe.
At least it seemed so. Jurgen Klopp unexpectedly announced on Friday morning that he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. Suddenly, the game against Norwich was not a standard home cup game, but Klopp’s first since his transfer.
Liverpool will be hoping for the best in any competition, but even if they draw at home in their next two FA Cup games, Klopp will have a win in hand if they reach the Europa League semi-finals on Sunday. a He will play up to 15 games at Anfield before leaving. He might not like it, but from now on the conversation will be mostly about Germans.
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi has been widely mooted as an option for Liverpool to consider leaving Klopp. And the Germans themselves are fans of the Italians. “I would say they are the best coached team in the league,” Klopp said in a preview of Liverpool vs Brighton & Hove Albion earlier this season (via Liverpool’s official website).
“They have progressed a lot, they are very consistent, they have different formations, different players, different formations. After all, you’re always watching football in Brighton and I couldn’t respect him more.
“Former Chelsea manager and current Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel is “entertaining” the prospect of replacing Klopp at Anfield, reports journalist Ben Jacobs. It is believed that the former Stamford Bridge manager could be given the chance to show Chelsea what they have been missing out on. Of course, Tuchel replaced Klopp at Borussia Dortmund.
But now his chances of getting to Liverpool look slim. If nothing else, he has work to do and even if Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen beat them and will win the Bundesliga this season, Bayern could be ruthless, which is certainly appropriate.
