sport news IAN HERBERT: If Klopp can't accept that age is the flaw at the core of his team ... trends now

sport news IAN HERBERT: If Klopp can't accept that age is the flaw at the core of his team ... trends now
sport news IAN HERBERT: If Klopp can't accept that age is the flaw at the core of his team ... trends now

sport news IAN HERBERT: If Klopp can't accept that age is the flaw at the core of his team ... trends now

It was a book by Jurgen Klopp’s assistant Pep Lijnders, published last August, which made you wonder if Liverpool were perhaps getting a little too caught up in their own publicity.

The breathless publication, entitled Intensity, was the inside story of the club’s success, and it would certainly have had the old Boot Room boys — Bob Paisley, Ronnie Moran and Joe Fagan —spinning in their graves.

The whole point of that legendary, windowless room, with its upturned beer crates for seats, was that Liverpool’s coaches lured opposition managers in at 5pm on a Saturday and flattered them into offering up their secrets — while revealing none of their own.

Liverpool have suffered a decline this season after their quadruple push in the last campaign

The Reds boss appears reluctant to let go of the players that have taken them to their heights

Liverpool have one of the oldest squads in the league with a number of players now 30 or over

In his book’s prologue, Lijnders posed the question: ‘How much do we want to give away?’ and proceeded to answer it. ‘Everything,’ he declared. This didn’t matter, he figured, because: ‘How do you stop unpredictability? How do you stop flexibility? How do you stop intensity?’ Well, Brentford had a few answers to all three of the above as they dismantled Liverpool on Monday night.

Lijnders gifted us a few little insights into how Klopp and his staff got the environment right. Barbecues on the terrace and table tennis in the hallway at the club’s training ground. Klopp’s extraordinary magnetism. Klopp’s new ideas, like playing the ‘first pass forward’ every time, from last season.

But given that the entire creed was built around what Lijnders described in his book as ‘one of my quotes in big lettering on the wall’ — that quote being: ‘Our identity is intensity’ — there seemed to be an obvious question to answer. How do you maintain the athleticism of a team being asked to work like a crack commando unit, week to week?

The prospect of players reaching the wrong side of 30 just doesn’t seem to exist in Lijnders’ world when in fact that is very much the reality now, two and a half years on from that Premier League title. Klopp cannot seriously expect Mohamed Salah, James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to play the high press which has delivered him so much success when they are all 29 or older. Or Virgil van Dijk to be their protector at 31.

Klopp can't expect Virgil van Dijk to be their regular protector now at the age of 31

Klopp can't expect Virgil van Dijk to be their regular protector now at the age of 31

The likes of Mohamed Salah can't be expected to play the high press as efficiently as they did

The likes of Mohamed Salah can't be

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