Next Liverpool Manager Odds

Following Liverpool’s appalling 4-1 defeat to Napoli on Wednesday night in the Champions League, Jurgen Klopp could be a man under pressure if results don’t head his way, having won just 28% of his matches so far this season.

Having seen the likes of Thomas Tuchel ruthlessly sacked, could this put more doubt on the future of Klopp at Anfield?

So far this season, the Reds have only taken the lead in one match, their 9-0 thumping of Bournemouth at Anfield. They have only managed to pick up nine points from their first six Premier League games, with both of these being victories over Bournemouth and Newcastle at Anfield.

Since taking over from Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, the German coach has seen his side win 237 and draw 89 of the 389 matches he has taken charge of - going on to take the club from Europa League fodder to both champions of Europe and England in 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Last season, the Reds also missed out on what would’ve been an unprecedented quadruple, as having won the League Cup and FA Cup via penalty shootout wins over Chelsea, they were stopped in their tracks by Manchester City in a bid to equal Manchester United’s record of 20 league titles, whilst also losing 1-0 in the Champions League final to Real Madrid.

Liverpool’s current assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders is the favourite for the job at evens if Klopp is to depart the club.

The 39-year-old has over a decade of coaching experience, having started off as FC Porto’s assistant manager between 2006 and 2014, before making a move to Merseyside to team up with Brendan Rodgers.

After three years at Anfield, he left to manage NEC in his homeland, the Netherlands, but following the team’s failure to earn promotion out of the Dutch Eerste Division, he was sacked in 2018.

Despite his shortcomings in Holland, Lijnders returned to Liverpool in 2018 as assistant manager to Klopp and has even taken charge of some matches, such as the Reds' thrilling 2-2 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last season.

It is a commonly talked about topic of Steven Gerrard potentially replacing Klopp as Liverpool manager, however, he will have to focus on turning things around at Villa in the meantime.

Gerrard, who made 710 appearances for Liverpool between 1998 and 2015 had a good start to his managerial career with Rangers, having taken over as manager there in 2018, famously stopping Celtic from beating the Ibrox club's league-record of nine league titles in a row in the 2020/21 season in emphatic style, accumulating 102 points, winning 32 and drawing six of 38 matches.

Since then, he has moved to Villa where he has struggled at times to implement his style of play, winning 12 of 35 matches. What has been promising for Gerrard though, is the willingness for big-name players to come and play for his side, such as Philippe Coutinho, Diego Carlos and Lucas Digne.

Another former Liverpool midfielder makes this list in the shape of Xabi Alonso, who was part of their famous 2005 Champions League winning side.

The Spaniard has only ever managed Real Sociedad’s B team at senior level, doing so between 2019 and 2022. The 40-year-old actually did well with Sociedad, managing to earn them promotion to the Spanish Segunda in 2020/21, the first time their B team had played in the second tier since the 1961/62 season, however, they were relegated in their only season in the Segunda.

Alonso left Sociedad at the end of last season, although there were significant rumours that the Spaniard was in the running to become Borussia Monchengladbach’s next manager in March 2021.

Julian Nagelsmann would perhaps be the ideal candidate to replace Klopp, as the 35-year-old has a similar style of play to his German compatriot.

At present, Nagelsmann manages Bayern Munich, of which he won the German Bundesliga title with last season in his first campaign in charge - he has also won the DFL-Supercup on both occasions he has entered it with the Bavarian side.

Prior to this, Nagelsmann had impressive spells in charge of the likes of Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, taking the former to Champions League football for the first time in their history in 2016/17.

Meanwhile, he also managed RB Leipzig to the Champions League semi-finals in the 2019/20 season, having become the youngest coach to win a knockout tie after his side hammered Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 in March of that campaign.

The final manager on this list is Klopp’s successor at Borussia Dortmund, Thomas Tuchel.

To many people’s shock, the German was sacked as manager of Chelsea by new owner Todd Boehly, just seven games into the 2022/23 season.

Tuchel was a popular figure at Stamford Bridge having won the Champions League with the Blues in 2020/21, as well as the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup later on that year.

The 49-year-old was also harshly sacked by Paris Saint-Germain despite having a win percentage of 74.8%, the highest of any manager in their history that has completed at least one season. He also lead them to the Champions League final in 2020 where they were narrowly beaten by Bayern Munich. In his time with the Parisians, Tuchel won six trophies in two seasons, including two Ligue 1 titles.

He also had a decent record at Dortmund and Mainz, leading the former to a DFB Pokal triumph in 2016/17, whilst managing Mainz to a fifth-place finish in the 2010/11 season.