Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
We could be set for something of a bromance this afternoon when Jurgen Klopp and David Wagner go head to head at Anfield. These two are long standing friends after their time spent together at Borussia Dortmund but that friendship will have to be put to one side for 90 minutes later today.
Liverpool come into the back of this game without a win in their last three league matches, a run of form which has seen them drop to ninth in the table. A win for Huddersfield in a few hours time would see the Yorkshire outfit leapfrog their opponents.
It’s fair to say that two points from nine has put the pressure on Klopp and Huddersfield will most definitely be eyeing up another major scalp after their impressive win over Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United this time last weekend.
Just a day later Liverpool were getting torn apart by a rampant Tottenham side but you have to say that Liverpool and perhaps one player only has himself to blame. Dejan Lovren had an absolute torrid half an hour, so abject was his performance that he was not even offered the courtesy of seeing out the first 45 minutes.
The performance of the Croatian pretty much summed up Liverpool’s season in a nutshell. Fantastic going forward but abject at the back, for all their efforts up front they are undone by the faults with the defensive five players behind them.
The fact that they have conceded the second most goals in the top half of the table speaks volumes, they’ve conceded 14 at one and 16 at the other. Quite simply the statistics do not lie, the question is though whether or not Huddersfield can take advantage of this.
Before last weekend Huddersfield had not score in three league matches, they still have only scored 7 goals all season a goals to games ratio that they will have to improve on but to their credit they are not giving much away at the other end.
Only three Huddersfield players have found the net this season with two goals a piece (the other being a Joel Ward own goal on the opening weekend of the season) but it is contribution that at the moment is just about doing enough as they lie 11th in the table.
Their win over Manchester United last weekend was arguably the result that got David Wagner out of the shadow of Jurgen Klopp and a Premier League by his own right and not just of association, a result for Huddersfield would not only increase the stock of their manager but also heap more pressure on the Liverpool boss.
Not only that but the former Borussia Dortmund manager will be looking at events on Merseyside earlier this week and thinking that it is not a situation he himself would like to find him in. Failure to win today will not define his stint at Anfield but it certainly won’t help either.
Surely though after the defensive howlers that were on show last weekend the riot act would have to be read behind closed doors and that must mean that they will have to up their game in the defensive third. If he hasn’t then questions would have to be asked as to what is going on in the red half of Merseyside.
To be honest something positive has to come from such a poor performance last week at Wembley, truth be told Jurgen Klopp cannot afford anything else. I think Livepool will win this as they bounce back, I would not like to see the fall out if they fail to do so.
Here is what social media thinks will happen – you can still vote on the outcome
Who will win the bromance between Klopp and Wagner as #Liverpool take on #Huddersfield
— Dan Tracey (@dantracey1983) October 27, 2017
