The Athletic FC⚽ This is The Athletic’s daily football/soccer newsletter. Sign up here to receive it directly in your inbox.
Hello! We’re wondering if Klopp’s goose is cooked.
On the way today:
😬 Liverpool ‘lose the plot’ at Anfield
🔴 Ryan Giggs and reputational management
💰 Lucas Paqueta in Manchester City’s sights
🤕 ‘This could get ugly’ – facing Arteta’s Arsenal
A sorry end to Klopp’s reign?
It’s nigh-on closing time at the bar for Jurgen Klopp, and the dream scenario at Liverpool was him going out of Anfield with four trophies. One bad week and it’s entirely possible he’ll be going out of Anfield with just a Carabao Cup.
Liverpool took a kicking in the Europa League last night, losing 3-0 to Atalanta at home, and I’m trying to think of the last time Klopp looked so furious on the touchline.
He’s an emotive guy, forever swaying from charming to passive-aggressive to frenetic, but this was different.
Between last Sunday’s costly Premier League draw at Manchester United and yesterday’s mess of a European quarter-final, he’s taken the guise of a coach who feels the chance of a glorious ending to his career at Anfield slipping through his fingers.
Our Liverpool writer James Pearce wonders if the club’s season is cooked. You’d have laughed at that suggestion this time last week. Doesn’t football change quickly?
Would anyone like to mark Scamacca?
Scamacca scores Atalanta’s second goal in acres of space (DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images)
There are a couple of ways for a coach to react to a bad defeat. One is to deflect blame. The other is to spell out a few home truths.
Klopp had no option last night. Atalanta wiped the floor with Liverpool and if you want to get the measure of the defeat, take a look at Gianluca Scamacca’s second goal and the tired, half-hearted defending (below, video geoblocked for readers in the United States).
Gianluca Scamacca makes it 2⃣-0⃣ 🤯
Unbelievable scenes at Anfield 🔥
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK #UEL pic.twitter.com/HKCpZVVz3Z
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 11, 2024
“It was a bad game, oh my God,” Klopp admitted. He said Liverpool had “lost the plot”, which was entirely true. But actually, they’ve been following a consistent plot over the past six days: missing chances, conceding shoddy goals and paying a heavy price for them.
In Monday’s newsletter, I asked if that stray pass from Jarell Quansah — the tee-up for Bruno Fernandes’ 45-yard equaliser at Old Trafford — was his Steven Gerrard moment; the equivalent of the slip by Gerrard which cost Liverpool the Premier League title a decade ago.
It’s taken the wind out of their sails completely.
Italian renaissance?
Italian teams so rarely win away at Liverpool, and very rarely win so convincingly. Atalanta have now mastered Anfield twice.
They might be a mile off the pace in Serie A but they had Liverpool on toast. They’re also the first team to beat Klopp’s side at Anfield in any competition for 14 months.
Pep Guardiola once served up a great line about Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta: that facing off against them is like “going to the dentist”.
As for Scamacca, his two goals will resonate back home too.
It’s widely assumed in Italian circles that a recent comment by national coach Luciano Spalletti — “You come on international duty to win the Euros, not Call of Duty” — was a dig at the ex-West Ham United forward.
Touche. But Scamacca pressed the right buttons last night.
- Atalanta’s win should help Italy snatch an extra place in next season’s Champions League. UEFA’s co-efficient calculations are massively in their favour, according to Opta, with Serie A now having a 99.8% chance of getting one of the extra two spots, with the EPL on 57.8% and Bundesliga on 41.8%
Giggs and football: A complicated relationship
Ryan Giggs the player has the makings of a Netflix series.
Giggs the man is more of a soap opera: the family feuds, the court case in which he was accused — and subsequently acquitted — of subjecting a former girlfriend to physical and psychological abuse.
We’re talking here about one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever players. Perhaps the greatest. He won 34 trophies with Manchester United and played 963 times for the club.
This Sunday marks 25 years since the finest goal Giggs ever scored, against Arsenal in the FA Cup.
At Old Trafford, they still love him. But out in the wider world, his reputation has taken a big hit. He hasn’t had a coaching job since resigning as Wales boss when criminal charges were first brought against him. The Premier League is yet to induct him into its Hall of Fame.
Should he be a hall-of-famer? Does he deserve a route back into management? And the bottom line — is anyone out there minded to give him that chance?
£85m Paq Attack
Paqueta celebrates (BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester City are not prone to making expensive signings on impulse. They plan, they bide their time and everything they do in the market gives the impression of being strategic.
Last summer, they had a nibble at West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta and were rebuffed. This summer, an £85million ($106m) release clause in Paqueta’s contract becomes active, reducing West Ham’s powers of resistance.
City and Guardiola remain keen. You know how this goes. And so do we.
What is it like to face Arteta’s Arsenal?
Every manager wants their team to be a nightmare to play against. That’s exactly the reputation Mikel Arteta has given Arsenal.
Here’s what some of Arsenal’s opponents have been telling Jordan Campbell about trying to live with Arteta’s side:
🗣️ “The way they came out of the traps, I thought ‘Oh s***, this could get ugly.’”
🗣️ “When we’re struggling, the staff can usually see solutions. I remember finding it really difficult to think of one.”
🗣️ “We did well and we had our position game. But as soon as we got to their box, it was over.”
Believe the hype.
Catch a match
Saturday, April 13
(Selected games)
🏴 Newcastle v Tottenham (7.30am/12.30pm)
📺 Premier League. USA Network, TNT Sports
🏴 Bournemouth v Manchester United (12.30pm/5.30pm)
📺 Premier League. NBC, Sky Sports
Sunday, April 14
(Selected games)
🏴 Liverpool v Crystal Palace (9am/2pm)
📺 Premier League. USA Network, Sky Sports
🏴 Arsenal v Aston Villa (11.30am/4.30pm)
📺 Premier League. USA Network, Sky Sports
🇩🇪 Bayer Leverkusen v Werder Bremen (11.30am/4.30pm)
📺 Bundesliga. ESPN+, Sky Sports
(Top photo: Dave Howarth – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Read the full article here