Jurgen Klopp has perfectly corrected Gary Neville’s ‘chippy tea’ concern about Liverpool before the German arrived.
Klopp took charge at Anfield in October 2015, inheriting a squad that threw away the 2013/14 Premier League title after winning just one of their final three league fixtures under Brendan Rodgers and three years after Kenny Dalglish had been sacked at the end of the 2011/12 season.
The Bundesliga title winning boss at Borussia Dortmund was tasked with returning Liverpool to the summit of English football which he has duly achieved, winning the Premier League in 2020 as well as lifting the Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup and Community Shield.
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Klopp’s success at Anfield proved right Neville’s concerns over the lack of identity at the club he made clear on Sky Sports back in 2011 during Dalglish's tenure, Neville said: “I think a bigger problem for Liverpool at the moment is an identity and a set style of play, for me.
“I don’t know how they’re going to play. When I close my eyes, I have this vision of title winning teams, that’s what Liverpool have got to become.”
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Neville added: “I think of title-winning teams, even going back to Kenny Daglish’s Blackburn, (Jason) Wilcock, (Stuart) Ripley, (Alan) Shearer, (Chris) Sutton. I think of the (Thierry) Henry, (Robert) Pires, (Ashley) Cole, (Freddie) Ljungberg team, I know how they’re going to play. I can think, I can vision, I can feel it inside me.
“I can’t visualise Liverpool actually repeating things on a football pitch, patterns of play. They’re like anything, human beings, football players. You think of the Arsenal team with Henry, with Pires running inside and Cole always going round the outside, I don’t visualise anything of that with Liverpool.
“I think we’re all the same, Fright night: Chippy tea, Saturday: Chinese, Sunday: Roast beef dinner. You get relationships, you get used to things, you get used to repeating things.”
Former Sky Sports host and current ITV Racing host Ed Chamberlain was left trying to hold in his laughter at Neville’s chippy tea analogy before asking Neville whether on summary, “to win titles, you have to have an identity,” to which Neville replied: “I don’t think Kenny Dalglish at this moment in time has a set pattern of play.
“I don’t think he has a routine in that Liverpool team, I don’t think he’s fixed on 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1. I think other teams have more of an identity than Liverpool at this moment in time.”
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