It's funny and all... But look at how the football press, jolting instinctively from personality-driven narrative to narrative, from up to down, always click bait farming, never thinking --digested klopps earnest call for the welfare of the game.
You have a tv network, who klopp specifically said he'd never work for, meme making. Never mind that klopp did want to be working at 1230, he just wanted that job to be trying to make a team play better football, and not "help make tv more money." The two are actually necessarily linked, but klopp has been right on this issue for day one. Fox is in the henhouse, and they're joking about the only chicken consistently warning about it. Klopp got burned out on the schedule too. Doing fucking interviews a day after the post match interview, about the next match, which couldn't be combined due to embargo. Knowing you can't really do your job, while having to answer snide questions about scheduling. All because they keep squeezing.
What else could they do but keep picking the game all of us had to watch because we are legion. They kept picking the game they wanted to make money from, agnostic to any other consideration. They kept making the only choice they could, and we had the worst schedule of any team because of it. Arsenal had the best and a bit of luck, and are a better team as well, but our team didn't really have a chance to coalesce. It's actually easier to figure that out without Europe, something I'd have rather have missed out on entirely.
I've been feeling it for ages. The football is worse these days. We know there are more injuries. We've gone from good teams to good squads. Different challenge, sure, but is it better? Used to be a squad like ours would be more than enough. Now the games are so frequent that there is a cascade effect to injuries. Squads are deep but once one position starts crumbling, you overplay players leading to injuries in that same position.
The quality of football is worse with no time to actually learn how to do anything. Tactical planning is more limited, and also involves subs that aren't so much tactical as sports science. Absolutely necessary, absolutely correct reaction. Is that better though? I don't think so.
CB pairings that defined eras, front lines that developed telepathy, we know it can happen but that used to happen with a whole side at its best. That could happen too but it's less likely, a side has to be young and lucky and robust. Grindy dependable players have increased in value. Playing players out of position has increased, not due to tactical hubris, but due to necessity. Swiss army knife players have increased value. Is that better?
