McAllister Dismisses Klopp Concerns

Former Liverpool midfielder Gary McAllister remains convinced that, having struggled through a dire run in December and January that exposed their thin squad, Liverpool can still get their season back on track. That facing one game a week now, the players can rediscover some of their autumn form.

It won’t be easy, and there may yet be some stumbles, but in the end he thinks that this experience can be gotten past. That it can maybe even help the players and manager Jürgen Klopp become better able to handle the kinds of pressure and expectation that come with being at a club like Liverpool.

“It’s something that was very apparent when I came here, and when I was at another big club at Leeds United,” McAllister told Sky this week. “You’re under the microscope more at big clubs, and none more so than here. It’s all part of being a Liverpool player and dealing with criticism that comes your way.

“Not only are people looking at game by game, they are looking at minute by minute. It’s brought into that sort of scale. It’s a poor run of results. I was here for a two-year period and there weren’t many losses back then, but whenever there was a draw it felt like a crisis. That’s just the nature of the beast.”

As for any doubts as to whether Klopp is up to steadying the listing Liverpool ship or whether he’s still the right man to take the club forward, McAllister was rightly dismissive, pointing to the German’s track record as a manager, one that clearly stands him amongst the best managers in football.

“He’s proven,” noted the ex-Red. “A lot of managers come along saying they are winners, but Jürgen Klopp is proven. He’s worked at a big club, he’s taken the title away from Bayern Munich when he was at Dortmund. He knows his way around.”