Regarding the Klopp discussion, he hasn’t convinced me at all at Liverpool. He reminds me of Wenger in fact, he gets his side on the same page brilliantly in attack (albeit in a totally different way) yet seems utterly blind to the basic necessities in defence.
He has a similar tendency to do the bare minimum in the transfer window and only sign a player he needs if its his top choice. Once he missed Virgil, he didn’t go for his second favourite CB, he threw in the towel and they are paying for it at the back and will over the course of this season once again.
Now that Gazidis and co have filled out the organization of the club on the footballing side with Sanllehi, Mislintat and Mertesacker (I assume we will still expand our scouts and youth coaches, but that will probably be the responsibility of Mislintat and Per as ‘Heads of’). It’s going to be interesting to see who they will appoint as head coach to finish off the restructuring. They really can’t continue with Wenger after the summer of 2019…?
I assume it has to entail more than just an ambassadorial role. Otherwise they should have given him a role like Pires, Wilson and Keown I reckon. I guess behind the scenes he is working and learning the job with Luke Hobbs if he takes over in the summer.
Yeah. On The Totally Football Show podcast, Honigstein said Tuchel’s wife also speaks excellent French and described him as a “Francophile”, which is now my favourite word
I’m probably going to start sounding like a broken record. But here’s yet another example showing why I don’t want Ancelotti at this club. “Conservative”. Nah, you’re alright, thanks.
Taken from a feature and interview with Kimmich
He had shown rare versatility while playing as a central defender for Pep Guardiola at Bayern and at right-back for Germany during Euro 2016 – when he made the team of the tournament. He started well under Ancelotti and, as a defensive midfielder, Kimmich scored seven goals in his first 14 games. But Ancelotti is much more conservative than Guardiola and his preference for experience consigned Kimmich to the bench for months.
Kimmich winces at the memory. “As a young player the most important thing besides having a very good coach is to play a lot because you improve that way. So it was a very hard time for me. But you have to deal with it alone… ‘What can I do to play? How do I improve?’ I trained longer and harder. Then I would get home and think: ‘Oh, shit, I have to change something.’ It’s very tough for your mind when it’s three months or longer.”
Ancelotti soon lost the trust of the team and Jupp Heynckes replaced him last October. It was striking that Kimmich was one of the first players Heynckes asked to see in a private meeting. He underlined Kimmich’s importance to Bayern – and that trust was key to the player signing a new contract to 2023.
“Jupp talked about a few points I have to make better,” Kimmich says. “It’s really important for a young guy to have a coach who wants to improve you and believes in you.”
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