Dwight Yorke gives brutal assessment of struggling Liverpool and claims Jurgen Klopp is ‘asking for trouble’

Former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke spoke exclusively to Ladbrokes: Fanzone about the troubles at Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool won Premier League and talk about dominance!

I’m not a Gary Neville or one of those guys, and I never will be when it comes to rivalries. I played for Manchester United and had a great time, and that was that. I don’t hate the likes of Liverpool and Man City. I’m not from that generation of hatred. I just like good football.

I’ve had plenty of messages over the last four or five years from Liverpool fans, coming out in their numbers and shouting about their team’s success. What’s funny is that they’re not really coming out of the woodwork anymore – they’re hiding! I remember one fan used to send me a message every time they won a game, and I don’t get anything now!

Great teams have their moments and then things change. You could even say the same for Manchester City right now. We’ve been so used to seeing them dominate games in recent years, but they’re not that side anymore. Man United went through a transition and now they’re starting to look like a proper team again.

Jürgen Klopp described Liverpool’s start in the opening 12 minutes of the 3-0 defeat at Wolves as ‘absolutely not allowed to happen’.

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 4, 2023

Football goes around in circles, so it’s all about what you do when your moment comes. Did Liverpool capitalise on their moment? OK, they won one Premier League and one Champions League, so they haven’t really done this amazing thing they’re making out they have. They won the Premier League once and they’re going on about dominance!

They have problems. They certainly don’t look like the team they used to be and they’re going through a lot of changes, but so is every other team.

Liverpool have lost the fear factor

Jurgen Klopp would have hopefully learned a lot during his time as Liverpool manager. When you’re that successful, I think you need to make big changes every three years, bringing in two or three huge names, constantly freshening things up. This is where Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] was so clever, because that’s exactly what he did. Klopp has let it drift for a little bit too long, and it’s now taking him a longer time to re-establish that team, but it’s always going to be a challenge for him now.

Teams just aren’t fearing Liverpool as much anymore. A lot of their games in recent years, they’d pretty much won before a ball was kicked, because they were so dominant all over the pitch. I’m not sure they’re there anymore. Man City are losing a spark, too. Arsenal and Man United look like they’re finding it again.

It doesn’t surprise me at all that Liverpool are struggling a little bit, because there have been a lot of changes in a short space of time, which means it takes a while for them to get going again – and it’ll probably take them a lot longer, actually, to be back near the top of the table.

When you look back now, and you see the changes that were made last summer, you’d put the Sadio Mane exit right up there with the likes of Fergie letting Jaap [Stam] go.

Klopp won’t come out and say it, but it was a bad call and bad judgement on Liverpool’s part to let him leave. He was just sensational, and he still would have been sensational in this team. Listen, we all make mistakes, I just can’t see them turning things around this season – they’ll be incredibly lucky to finish in the top four. If they don’t finish in the top four, that would be a drastic decline in such a short space of time.

Reds troubles have put Jurgen Klopp in the firing line

Jurgen Klopp will be under pressure right now. As successful as he has been, there’s a standard that you must set yourself as a coach. Drop outside of that and you’re going to come under scrutiny. He’s probably got a little bit of leeway because of what he’s done for Liverpool, and he can always turn around and say “look what I’ve done for your club”, but things change quickly. We’re in a sport that is all about winning.

Finish in the top four as Liverpool manager, and that’s probably acceptable. But if you start finishing outside of those Champions League places, and when you look at where they are right now in the table, you’ve got to say that’s not acceptable. From a financial perspective, a club the size of Liverpool need to be in the top four in order to attract the best players in the world. They need to be competing, not struggling as they are right now.

If you’re not meeting expectations, you’re asking for trouble as a manager. You’re putting yourself in the firing line, I’m afraid.

I don’t understand why Pochettino’s name keeps cropping up

It’s too early to start talking about replacements, because I believe you’ve got to give Klopp a chance to turn things around. Let him at least try to make the top four this season before you even think about who replaces him. I think they were planning on giving Steven Gerrard the job of replacing Klopp. I think that was always going to be the long-term plan, but that’s kind of backfired a little bit now.

So who is the next best candidate that’s available? I suppose everyone always talks about Mauricio Pochettino when these big jobs become available, but I still don’t understand why his name keeps coming up. He went to Paris Saint-Germain where things didn’t work out. He didn’t do it at Tottenham and now he’s without a job, so it’s a strange one for me, I have to say. But I’m sure his name will come into the mix.

Then you start thinking about younger managers, someone unproven, but then the risk that comes with that. You wonder if it’s something Liverpool need. We can see Graham Potter is struggling with Chelsea at the moment, so maybe that’s something Liverpool should be looking at and learning from.

Klopp just needs to qualify for the Champions League. If he can do that, then I think he’ll be safe. But if he doesn’t, then that’s a problem.