David Wagner backs his best man Klopp at Liverpool

Fans and the media alike love to pick on Liverpool, so it comes as no surprise that current Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has come under heavy criticism lately.

 

The criticism of Klopp has nothing to do with the public’s dislike for Liverpool FC. The club is ninth in the Premiere League table and has a negative two goal differential. That means the historic club, with all it’s glorious history, is one place away from being at the exact middle spot of the twenty club league. That’s not good. That’s very far away from a Champions League sport. That’s also far away from a Europa League spot.

 

As you can imagine, even the Liverpool faithful are growing weary with the unexpected trajectory of this season. Jurgen Klopp has been called a lot of things, but the most unbelievable of them is boring. Yes! You heard it here. Jurgen Klopp, the unofficially dubbed rock star coach, is being accused of making his club play boring soccer.

 

 

Klopp’s biggest supporter is one of the most unusual of people. (Kinda, sorta) Huddersfield manager David Wagner, is not having it. (It’s unusual because Wagner manages an opposing team, but it’s actually not that surprising because Jurgen and Dave used to work together and Wagner was Klopp’s best man.)

 

As he was quoted by ESPN FC, Wagner says, “I can understand the criticism for the lack of points, but I don't understand the criticism for the performances. I don't have a clue what the folks expect. How they create chances, how they defend -- that's cinema at its best. You couldn't play the game much better.”

 

I’ll admit, David Wagner is probably the most biased source that could be found to discuss this matter, but he brings up a good point.

 

I won’t name names but there are some teams, very successful teams, that have a playing style colloquially dubbed as “parking the bus.” Some teams win by not attacking. They simply block the other team from scoring and barely every try to score themselves. I don’t know about you, but, to me, that’s pretty boring. Despite the tedium and predictability of this style, teams that employ it don’t have any trouble filling their stadiums with fans week after week.

 

This bodes the question. As fans, do we base whether or not we see our team as entertaining on whether or not the club is winning?