Jurgen Klopp faces a critical juncture in his Liverpool tenure, after seven years in charge at Anfield

“The situation at this club is different,” he said, heading off questions about how long he will continue at Anfield before they are even asked. “The seven-year spell was not planned, or because I lost energy. I was manager at Mainz and after three years we got promoted to the Bundesliga and three years [later] we got relegated. We tried one more year and the club needed a change.

“I was full of energy, I went to Dortmund and all was fine. I could have stayed there, they wanted me to stay. We just couldn’t make the Bundesliga [title] and it was a case of constantly players got [poached] by other clubs. I had no energy problem but took a year’s holiday because it was fancy at that time. I think Pep [Guardiola] did it and Thomas Tuchel did it. So, a holiday – but I couldn’t do it and was here [at Liverpool] after four months.

“I have no problem with energy and the situation is completely different. Seven years is intense. We have all got older, really a lot older – that is time, it is nice too.”

Animated and joking, Klopp, now 55, did not seem too removed from the toothy messiah in a leather jacket who swept into Merseyside on October 8, 2015, to speak about making “doubters into believers”.

He concluded with a rallying cry: “From this point, does it look like we will be champions? Unfortunately not, but in all other competitions we are not out yet and nobody knows where we end up in the league. Difficult yes, impossible no. So let’s go from here.”

The obstacles confronting Liverpool are as follows: a Manchester City side, 13 points ahead, who scored 150 goals without a No.9 last season before adding the ultimate striker to their mix; other rivals who are investing and improving, most notably Arsenal, the team they face today; and smaller clubs who no longer fear his team – last week Brighton & Hove Albion became the seventh non-"big six” side in eight league games to take the lead against Liverpool. The issues also include the age profile of his key players and teething problems transitioning to a new attack.

Liverpool were also troubled in October 2015, yet with a pre-Guardiola City, a fading Arsenal, a stagnant Manchester United and an imploding Chelsea, and the lower quality in the league generally, the environment was easier. If the challenge facing any Liverpool manager is to be No 1 in the country, it could be argued that Klopp embarks on his eighth year as challenged as at any time during his reign.

He admits Liverpool need to recover intensity and find ways to be “unpredictable” again, and on Tuesday, against Rangers in the Champions League, Klopp changed to 4-2-3-1, his first departure from 4-3-3 in 79 games, and a return to a system he favoured at Dortmund and initially at Anfield. The player who made him switch to 4-3-3 (the formation that has brought all his trophies at Liverpool) was Sadio Mane, his first big signing, and Mane’s summer departure to Bayern Munich remains keenly felt.

The Senegal striker was many things and never better than when Liverpool were in a tight spot. In his place, Darwin Nunez, 23, has provided only one moment of meaning – his goal against Fulham – though his performance against Rangers encouraged the notion that he will play himself out of his trough.

The Uruguayan’s interplay and movement impressed, as did his arrival in scoring positions, and only a remarkable performance from Allan McGregor denied him a goal. Nunez’s conversion of only one of the 16 shots he has taken in the league seems poor, but his past suggests this is a blip. His career record is one goal from every six shots – a similar rate to Mohamed Salah, Mane and Harry Kane.

The issue for him, indeed for everyone, is comparisons with Erling Haaland. City’s Norse goalbot has scored from one shot of every three across his career; this season he is converting at the obscene rate of almost one goal for every two shots. “Nobody in the world can cope with the Haaland situation. It is crazy what he is doing,” Klopp said.“ I don’t think we should compare anybody with Haaland at this moment – at least I don’t.”

In the 4-2-3-1 Nunez enjoyed playing with a second striker, Diogo Jota, with whom he could link and swap positions, but Rangers were passive and it would be bold of Klopp to line up against possession-hungry Arsenal with only two midfielders. Achieving the right blend appears difficult for him in all areas.

Take the back four. The leading analytics consultancy Driblab has analysed Liverpool’s defending this season. With only three clean sheets it is clearly an issue, and a theme is opponents counterattacking through gaps left by advanced full backs. Driblab pinpointed that all of Liverpool’s key defensive metrics – goals against, xG (expected goals) against, shots on target against, and passes per defensive action (the possession you allow the opposition before making a pressure or tackle) – improved when Kostas Tsimikas was on the pitch.

Virgil van Dijk’s performance has also been markedly better with the Greek at left back, with Van Dijk making more successful tackles and able to do more of his work in a secure, deeper position, rather than stepping into midfield to engage in risky duels. It appears Tsimikas, more defence-oriented than Andrew Robertson, has been better at allowing Klopp to keep taking gambles with Trent Alexander-Arnold’s positioning on the other side – and yet Robertson is one of Liverpool’s most important players, and the superior attacking option. This typifies the dilemmas Klopp faces.

Klopp’s take on things is typically collective. Liverpool’s problems will be solved by getting the team to run harder, play faster, press more boldly and “defend the shit out of everybody we face”. However, transition is an awkward task for any manager. In the Premier League era only Sir Alex Ferguson and (to a lesser extent) Arsene Wenger managed to keep evolving and winning beyond seven years in charge, but Guardiola – not only by signing Haaland but by tweaking tactics and selling big players such as Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus – is suggesting he has the vision and ruthlessness to emulate the greats.

Klopp? The academic, author and Liverpool season-ticket holder John Williams has just written a fascinating book, Red Men Reborn!, which tells Liverpool’s history in its social context. For him, the parallels between Klopp and Bill Shankly are powerful – but come with a warning attached in terms of rebuilding teams.

“When you look at Shankly’s record, it’s patchy. He does this fantastic job in getting Liverpool up in the early 1960s, then one year on wins the title, but from 1966 to 1972 doesn’t do anything. But what Shankly had was time, because people felt emotionally committed to him. He felt like more than a football manager, almost like a credo and ethos. He eventually built a second great team, which won the First Division in 1973,” Williams said.

“What is interesting about Klopp is we’re in a different age, an age of technocrats, of managers who aren’t expected to stay a long time or generate strong relationships with their players and clubs, and then you get a guy like Klopp, who says he’s the normal one, but he’s not for these times.

“He’s the one who’s got this emotionality, who talks about loving his players and connecting with the fans and about social things outside of football – all like Shankly. So many similarities are there, and one is that because Klopp gets emotionally connected with his people, he doesn’t want to let players go, which means transition is harder.”

For Klopp, year eight boils down to whether he can re-blend, rework and perhaps, when it comes to certain players, rethink the formula that, after all, took him to the brink of a Quadruple only five months ago.

The terrain gets ever harder, he admits. Since 2015 the Premier League “has got better and better, quicker, more intense,” he said. “So it means top-class managers [are attracted to] the league, which makes life uncomfortable for all the other ones, because the better you are coached the better you can play.”

And he smiled. “I have no sense at all to think about the seven years in these last three months. It [the anniversary] has hit me by surprise.”

– The Sunday Times

Originally published as Jurgen Klopp faces a critical juncture in his Liverpool tenure, after seven years in charge at Anfield