Thought it was revealing that in his post match press conference today Jurgen stressed how he now feels he definitely made the wrong call last season in deploying Fab and Hendo as emergency centre backs and thereby undermined the team stability. Such an honest guy to admit he was wrong and he should in hindsight have trusted Nat and Rhys and kept Fab and Hendo as the steadying protective midfield screen. It was in answer to a question from Paul Joyce as to whether he viewed last season as a wasted season and he said no because he learnt so much from it including that priceless need for stability.
Personally though I think he’s being too self critical. I think he was in a no win situation. As you and I both stressed in our thread at the time we were so ravaged by injuries and other factors that no matter how he’d have juggled things we’d have still suffered. As it was, us somehow managing to procure third place was a bit of a fucking miracle given all the problems.
As you say right now in stark contrast to last season with the current injury situation seeming to be easing by the week we seem to be on the verge of being perfectly equipped to meet all the challenges to come, especially if he can also wangle retaining Mo and Sadio for the Leicester and Chelsea games just after Christmas.
Yes - that bit really stood out for me, and I think he also said he learned more last season than in other seasons. That's a sign of a really great coach in any sport - the ability to dig deep, find solutions and maintain a level head when the going gets tough and everything seems to be going wrong.
That's why I was disappointed at some of the negativity after Brentford, Brighton, and West Ham, as some had quickly forgotten the dark days of January to March last season, and that the first few months of this season was always going to have bumps in the road with key players being reintegrated. We were clearly in a period of readjustment, the defence was a little rusty, and we also had Elliot, Jones, Milner, Keita, Gomez and Firmino pick up injuries - which makes the figures I posted all the more remarkable given the midfield issues Jurgen has had to juggle.
I'm trying not to get too excited, but this season has a feeling of redemption about it. There is a hunger and energy about Klopp and the players, and I think they all want to put things right after last season - even though as you say - finishing 3rd was remarkable under the circumstances. We have Mo, Sadio and Jota on fire already, Virgil and Matip almost back to their best, Konate looking like he's been here for years, Alisson imperious in goal, Thiago looking sublime, Ox showing signs of consistency, Tsimikas pushing for Robbo's place, Trent being the assist king yet again, and another 4-5 players still to come back. It's 5 wins from 5 in Europe, and we can even rest half the team and put Morton next to Thiago and beat Porto 2-0 (who are no mugs and currently 9-2-0 in the Primera Liga).
It won't all be plain sailing, and there's the small matter of City and Chelsea on our route to number 20, but bloody hell - we look brilliant at times this season, and there's still plenty to come.