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It might have seemed sacrilege a few weeks ago, but somebody, somewhere, is asking the question now. Is Jurgen Klopp really all he's cracked up to be?

First it was seven points. Then it was four. Then it was one, and now it's minus one. Liverpool's lead at the top of the table has melted in recent weeks. 

Where was Klopp's tactical genius as he failed to outwit Leicester and West Ham? Where was his heavy metal football, his brilliance as a motivator, as they trudged to dreary 0-0 draws in two major derbies?

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side have stumbled in recent weeks as season nears a close

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side have stumbled in recent weeks as season nears a close

But his time at Borussia Dortmund shows that he is able to fight to get teams over the line

But his time at Borussia Dortmund shows that he is able to fight to get teams over the line

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The questions are grossly unfair, but they are not unfamiliar to the Liverpool manager. It is an unfortunate by-product of his likeability. There will always be someone who, when the chips are down, accuses of him of being a fraud, nothing more than the class clown.

'A lot of people still think Klopp is just a motivator, a people-person and a good-mood-bear,' wrote Der Spiegel back in 2011. 'But if Dortmund's young team really do win the title, it won't be because of his qualities as an entertainer.'

Klopp's young Dortmund team did win the title that year. They won the Double the next year and reached the Champions League final the year after that. Yet Klopp has never been quite able to shake the notion that he is a better entertainer than he is a football coach.

Much of that has to do with a supposed lack of ruthlessness. Klopp has a famously poor record in cup finals, and as a sense of foreboding settles over Merseyside this week, many will suspect that perhaps he just doesn't have the killer instinct, the ability to push his teams over the line.

Klopp has never been quite able to shake the notion that he is a better entertainer than coach

Klopp has never been quite able to shake the notion that he is a better entertainer than coach

The only flaw in that argument is that, in 2011 and 2012, he did push his teams over the line. In both years, Dortmund established a lead at the top of the table and held onto it.

So why are Liverpool bottling it now? Were Klopp's Dortmund more ruthless and hard-headed than Klopp's Liverpool?

Probably not, but much has changed since 2011. The relentless running and ferocious press of Klopp's teams was, at that time, still something of a novelty. Even as teams worked it out, it was harder for them to resist. 

In the Premier League almost a decade later, opponents are cleverer, and Klopp has had to be more inventive. Where Dortmund could simply shock teams into submission, Liverpool must struggle with constantly changing gameplans.

Teams have got better at dealing with Klopp's preferred system over the last decade

Teams have got better at dealing with Klopp's preferred system over the last decade

In 2010, meanwhile, nobody had Dortmund down as serious title contenders. Klopp had guided them to two top six finishes in his first two years, and they were undoubtedly a team on the rise. But the title was a mere pipe dream.

The side which swept through the Bundesliga in that

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