Liverpool suffering all-too familiar bad form despite Jurgen Klopp's arrival

It can certainly without doubt be considered a little harsh to judge Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp’s time at Liverpool thus far. After all, the former Borussia Dortmund manager has only been in charge of the club for 15 games. However his time at the club can be called underwhelming thus far.

The question to pose is; Have Liverpool improved under him since the sacking of Brendan Rodgers? The new manager effect when Klopp was appointed was somewhat mute. Klopp started his Liverpool career with three draws against Tottenham Hotspur, Rubin Kazan and Southampton respectively. In one sense, these were hardly terrible results, at least Liverpool were stemming the wounds so to be speak and were not losing.

A 1-0 victory in the Capital One Cup followed over Bournemouth at home but Liverpool under Klopp did not ignite until they traveled to Stamford Bridge on Halloween and beat Chelsea 3-1 after going a goal down. They then beat Rubin Kazan at Anfield but then highlighted the one step forward two steps back theory when they lost at home 2-1 to Crystal Palace. This, in the end mattered little when they travelled to the Etihad and destroyed Manchester City 4-1 with beautiful free flowing football not seen since the days of Luis Suarez et al. The form was there when victories followed over Bordeaux, Swansea City and a 6-1 victory over Southampton. In truth, Klopp had arrived and nobody could complain.

However since scoring six goals at St Mary’s, Liverpool has hit a patch of form that has summarized the club over the last decade. A shock loss to relegation threatened Newcastle United followed; a bore 0-0 score line against Sion in the Europa League hardly helped matters and a 2-2 draw against West Brom which saw Klopp clash with West Brom’s manager Tony Pulis was plain ridiculous. Pulis had done little wrong and Klopp to his credit apologized a week later. But that clash only emphasized that Klopp was feeling the pressure of the job.

Against Watford at Vicarage Road, Liverpool were expected to stop the rot but Watford ran off with a deserved victory, but it wasn’t a lucky one, a 3-0 whitewash saw Liverpool drop 14 points behind league leaders Leicester City and into 9th place.

Statistically Klopp has won just 47% of his games, nowhere near the 55-60% mark he would need to make sure that Liverpool were challenging for the league title and more importantly at this stage a place in the Champions League. From 15 games, Liverpool has had a negative result in 8 of those with 5 draws and 3 losses.

For now and as said above, Klopp can’t be judged. It’s too early for that, but Liverpool supporters could be forgiven for feeling a little anxious at this point. Watford themselves have leapfrogged Liverpool and gone four points clear of them whilst a batch of teams in Crystal Palace, Manchester United and Tottenham will be presenting Liverpool with an incredible challenge to grab that 4th place and converted spot for the Champions League.

The next two months should give us a clear indication of Klopp and Liverpool’s journey this season. However the German who was so successful at Dortmund despite a torrid final season will be given time – next season is assured. He has the press on his side too but in a cutthroat league which has already seen Chelsea’s most successful coach sacked, the press may be asking questions and prodding the fragile manager who has already shown signs of his anger, just ask Mr. Pulis.