Could it be that attention is focused more on the away dugout rather than the home technical area at Anfield on Sunday afternoon?
With Xabi Alonso’s announcement that he will remain at Bundesliga table-toppers Bayer Leverkusen for at least another season, the spotlight on Sporting Lisbon head coach Ruben Amirom and Roberto De Zerbi, the Brighton & Hove Albion manager, has only intensified. And, as luck would have it, De Zerbi and Brighton visit Merseyside this weekend.
The encounter was already sizeable in terms of Liverpool’s Premier League title challenge — Jurgen Klopp’s team are in the thick of it with Arsenal and Manchester City,, who face off this weekend — but it now takes on more significance given recent developments.
Liverpool’s search for the manager to take over from Klopp was never going to be easy. Michael Edwards, the returning chief executive of football, and newly-appointed sporting director, Richard Hughes, who does not formally take up his position until the summer, were well aware of that too.
The club undoubtedly want to avoid anointing their new man and Klopp has been reticent to engage in talk on his potential successor. For him, it is a decision for the club to make and something he does not want to get involved in.
Whichever way it is looked at, Klopp leaves big shoes to fill — and maybe Alonso’s decision to stick with Leverkusen highlighted the fact that it could have been too soon for the 42-year-old to take on such a job. The former midfielder had also been linked with the vacancy that Thomas Tuchel will leave at Bayern Munich.
Klopp said he did not know whether there is too much expectation on young coaches like Alonso to take a big job so soon after they finished playing, but Alonso himself highlighted that he feels the best environment for his development is currently in the Rhineland.
“At the moment, this is the right place for me to develop as a coach, I am a young coach …I’m in the place where I want to be,” he said.
Whoever becomes Liverpool’s new manager will not exert the same degree of power that Klopp has at the club. Edwards’ newly-created role hints at the direction of travel and that more of a head coach is sought.
Yet, neither will anyone have to rip the team up and start over again. Rather they will have to ensure that the earlier-than-anticipated rebuild continues apace.
Liverpool are not at the end of a cycle. Instead, they are at the point of reaping the benefits from an overhaul that has gone better than most envisaged and is being supplemented by exciting new talent from the academy.
The trajectory is positive and the new guy will be tasked with keeping it that way. Stepping in for such a job may appear appealing at face value but it will not be easy to maintain the sky-high standards that have been a hallmark of Klopp’s reign.
Not only will they have to have an abundance of ability but they will also have to possess self-confidence. Alonso would have already had a relationship with the Anfield faithful, any other newcomer would have to forge that themselves.
What Liverpool are going through is what City will have to experience when Pep Guardiola departs and something that Manchester United and Arsenal both had to contend with when Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger called time on their respective reigns. As history suggests, some may prefer to be the successor to follow the successor.
Anfield audition awaits De Zerbi this weekend
What Alonso’s announcement has certainly done is narrow the field. The two outstanding candidates are Amirom and De Zerbi; both are impressive young coaches with unique styles of play as evidenced by their work with Sporting and Brighton. But carrying a club like Liverpool is entirely different.
Whether they are capable of that will only be evident if they are given the chance. Sunday may not represent an audition for De Zerbi — Liverpool’s research into the Italian will clearly go far beyond a one-off match — but it certainly represents a good opportunity for him to enhance his claim.
De Zerbi has certainly put his imprint on Brighton. The 44-year-old’s time at the south coast club started with a 3-3 draw at Anfield in October 2022 and has included him guiding them into Europe for the first time with a seventh-placed finish last season.
De Zerbi’s Brighton are also unbeaten in four meetings with Klopp and Liverpool (there have been two draws and two victories) and the Liverpool manager was quite open in talking about Sunday’s opponents ahead of this weekend’s encounter.
Klopp spoke about how “different” it is to play Brighton, adding how impressed he has been by how much the team has improved under De Zerbi. He interestingly said, with a smile, that he couldn’t coach that style as it “goes against his personality”, but emphasised how it is a “good watch and super interesting”.
It was an endorsement of sorts and it should be remembered that Hughes, during his time as Bournemouth’s director of football, wanted to appoint De Zerbi before his move to Brighton.
So one would forgive the home gallery for casting an inspective eye over the visitors’ technical area this weekend and also seeking a closer examination of the playing style of those in blue and white — it could well be a look into their own club’s future.