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Liverpool Football club is in a spot of crisis at the moment after a very poor start to the season. Brendan Rodgers job was under threat after a dismal ending to the previous season, but the owners backed him and gave him the players he wanted in the summer. However after eight games this season across all competitions, Liverpool has won just two games, drawn four and lost two, while scoring just four goals and conceding nine. The five time Champions League winners has surrendered the lead in its last three games to end the game at 1-1 and the most embarrassing one was the most recent game against League Two side Carlisle United.In the last fifteen league games; Liverpool has won just four games, scored 13 goals, conceded 25 goals and garnered just 16 out of the maximum possible 45 points. The club hasnt scored more than one goal in a game in its last eleven games across all competitions and the last time it scored three goals in a game was against Spurs back in February 2015. All of the above facts and Liverpools failure to elevate its performance are clear-cut indications that Brendan Rodgers time at Liverpool is over. So if the inevitable happens, then who should Liverpool turn to in an attempt to save its season?
#5 Unai Emery
Unai Emery has been with Sevilla for two seasons now and he has won the Europa League with the side in both these seasons. This is a marvellous achievement as he had to deal with the departures of crucial first team players like Negredo, Navas, Medel and Kondogbia when he took over. In his second season he lost more important players in Rakitic and Alberto Moreno, but still ended the season with a Europa League trophy.
His ability to deal with the departures of star players is incredible and he has done the same before. In 2008, when he was just 36 years old, he was the manager of Valencia. In spite of the clubs serious financial problems he led them to sixth place in his first season. In his second season, the club finished third and in his third season he repeated the feat despite losing David Villa and David Silva! The Spaniards final season with Valencia also ended with the club finishing third and he did this after losing Juan Mata as well.
Liverpool on the other hand hasnt been able to replace Xabi Alonso effectively after six seasons and now they are clearly struggling after the departure of Luis Suarez. Under these circumstances, it is clear that the club needs a man who can produce consistent finishes in the top 4 at least, even if the club loses some of its big players. Emery is a man who has achieved similar feats with Valencia and Sevilla and he could be the answer to Liverpools problems.
#4 Leonardo Jardim
Leonardo Jardim is the current manager of AS Monaco. Although the Portugueses biggest managerial honour so far is winning the League title in Greece with Olympiakos, aged just 41, he has already shown signs of becoming a top manager in the future.
To get a fair idea about Jardims abilities, an insight into his one season with Sporting is more than enough. The season before he took over, the club finished the in seventh position, scored and conceded 36 goals. Under Jardim, the club finished five places higher in second position above Porto and just seven points behind champions Benfica. The club also scored 18 goals more and conceded 16 less than in the previous season and the side that he worked with had an average age of 24 and consisted mainly of its youth products.
His work with young players at Sporting landed him the job of Monacos manager and his side finished in third position in his first season despite losing key players like James Rodriguez, Falcao, Eric Abidal and Emmanuel Riviere. The club was not expected to fare well in the Champions League, however, it finished top of its group and conceded just one goal. Monaco went on to defeat Arsenal in the first knockout stage and eventually only lost to Juventus in the quarter final by a single goal.
Jardim builds his game on defensive stability and this ensures that even if his team doesnt score, they will get a point at least. Such defensive stability is something Liverpool lacks as it often surrenders the lead and drops points.
A man like Jardim can make Liverpool defend better and has experience of working with young squads makes him a good fit for the club. But it is risky to once again put the club into the hands of a relatively young and inexperienced manager like Jardim after seeing how things have panned out under Rodgers.
#3 Lucien Favre
Lucien Favre is the man who resigned as Borussia Monchengladbachs manager recently after losing six out of six games at the start of the season. This shouldnt be a parameter to judge the man as he was largely responsible for building the squad and had to deal with the departures of some first team players as well as injuries to others when the current season began.
When the Swiss manager took over at Monchengladbach, it was sitting at the bottom of the Bundesliga table with only 16 points after 22 games and seven points adrift of safety. His arrival saw a massive improvement in the sides performance and eventually he kept the side in Bundesliga by winning the relegation play offs.
In the following season the club exceeded all expectations and finished the season in fourth place and qualified for the Champions League playoffs. The most impressive part of the season was an emphatic double over Bayern Munich. However the sale of key players and the added weight of European competition meant that Gladbach finished eighth in 2012/13. It fought back to finish third at the end of last season and he achieved all of this despite losing players like Reus, ter Stegen, Dante and Neustadter over the years.
Favres teams have been known to play quick attacking minded football. His attractive style of football has won many admirers and brought success in every club he managed. His is tactically astute and the opposing teams usually find it very difficult to open up his well-organized sides. He is also known for developing young players. In fact, he won the Swiss League with FC Zurich and the average age of that squad was just 21.5! Some of the players who became stars under his guidance include Reus, ter Stegen, Kramer and Inler.
Favres work with Gladbach on a very tight budget is very impressive and with Liverpool he can work on a bigger budget and with better players. However his recent unimpressive start with Gladbach could put Liverpool off.
#2 Carlos Ancelotti
In the history of football there are only two managers to have won the Champions League/European Cup thrice in their managerial career. One is Carlos Ancelotti who won two titles with AC Milan and one with Real Madrid during his 20 year long career as manager and the other is former Liverpool manager Bob Paisley who did the same thing within the space of five years and his entire managerial career lasted for just nine years.
Ancelotti is among the most successful managers today and his resume speaks for itself. He was successful at every club he went to and he has already proved himself in the Premier League with Chelsea. The biggest advantage Liverpool gets with Ancelotti is that the Italian is a renowned figure in football and he can easily attract many quality players to the squad. Plus Ancelottis track record in Europe is marvellous and he could be the man to finally save clubs face in European competitions after some dismal shows under Rodgers.
Amidst all these positives, there are factors that could affect Liverpool in a negative manner if Ancelotti is the manager. The Italians previous four clubs were Real Madrid, PSG, Chelsea and AC Milan. All four of these clubs had world class players during his time there and he had an extravagant budget to work on. This is not the case with Liverpool and could prove to be a big hurdle for him. Secondly despite managing so many world class teams, he has won just three league titles in his managerial career and Liverpool obviously needs to do well in the league to return to the Champions League at least.
The Italian is currently without a club and has openly expressed his admiration for Liverpool. If the owners can back him up with the required funds, then he could be the clubs saviour.
#1 Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp was one of the first names to be linked to the position of Liverpools manager after he announced his departure from Borussia Dortmund. The German took a sabbatical from football after last season, but is now ready to return to managing a club.
In many ways Klopp is a perfect fit for Liverpool. The German has experience working on a tight budget and this will appease Liverpools owners the most. Klopps work at Dortmund was marvellous as he took a side that finished 13th, made them league champions and eventually took them to the Champions League final. He did all of this while losing some of his key players like Nuri Sahin, Shinji Kagawa and eventually Mario Gotze, but he managed to find quality players like Marco Reus, Ilkay Gundogan, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang to replace the players who left.
Klopp drafted in many young players like Lewandowski and Hummels and later turned them into some of the best players in the world with patience and perseverance. Even though Klopps final season was poor for his standards, he left Dortmund by giving Thomas Tuchel a world class squad to work with.
Liverpool has many promising young players in its squad and a manager like Klopp can bring the best out of these players. The fact that Klopp is available and eager to join the Premier League is welcome news to Liverpool if Rodgers is axed.
The risk factor with Klopp is that he is coming on the back of a very bad season with Dortmund and it remains to be seen if he will emulate his last season with the club or the ones before that. However his positives outweigh the negatives as we discussed in another slideshow earlier.
