Next Liverpool Manager Odds

Following the shock news story that Jurgen Klopp is set to depart from Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 season, we’ve taken a look at who the bookmakers’ favourites are to take over from the German.

The 56-year-old is a much-loved figure around Anfield, as he is the fourth-most successful manager in the club’s history, only behind fellow club legends such as Sir Kenny Dalglish, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley in terms of major honours, although Klopp does still have the opportunity to match Shankly as Liverpool’s second-best manager on trophies should his side win an unprecedented quadruple this campaign following their Carabao Cup final win over Chelsea in late February.

Among the eight pieces of silverware that Klopp brought to Liverpool, the stand-outs will be the 6th Champions League crown that he coached them to in the 2018/19 season, as well as the Premier League title in 2019/20 - ending Liverpool’s much-talked about 30-year top-flight league title drought.

Xabi Alonso is the bookmakers' firm favourite to become next Liverpool manager at 8/15 due to his remarkable successes at Bayer Leverkusen on top of his positive rapport with fans of the Anfield club.

Alonso was a fan favourite during his five-year spell at Liverpool having made 210 appearances between 2004 and 2009 while playing a key part in the Reds winning four major honours such as the Champions League in 2004/05 under current Celta Vigo boss Rafael Benitez.

The Spaniard's first senior management job was with Real Sociedad’s B team, coaching them between 2019 and 2022. The 42-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's next managerial role would be with Leverkusen, taking over at the BayArena on 5th October 2022. Since joining the Bundesliga outfit, he has managed to win 46 and draw 14 of his 68 matches in charge - equating to a 65.71% win percentage.

When Alonso joined Leverkusen, they were second-bottom after eight games, however, the Spaniard led them to a sixth-place finish and to the Europa League semi-finals. So far this season, his side sits top of the Bundesliga with 61 points from 23 games and could potentially be on course to win the first Bundesliga title in the club's history.

Following the news that Klopp was set to leave the club, the Spaniard remained coy on rumours linking him to the vacancy. Alonso said: "I was surprised by Jurgen's news. I have huge respect for Jurgen and Liverpool. At the moment I am really happy here and enjoying my work.

Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim has emerged as the closest contender behind Xabi Alonso to takeover from Klopp at Anfield.

The 39-year-old is highly regarded in the managerial world having first impressed with Sporting Braga between December 2019 and March 2020, winning 10 and drawing one of his 13 matches in charge, culminating in winning the Taca da Liga in 2019/20.

This form saw Amorim join Sporting Lisbon in March 2020 where he has a 69.39% win percentage, having won 136 and drawn 30 of his 192 matches as manager of the Lions, and in the process, ending their first Primeira Liga title in 19 years during the 2020/21 season, on top of earning two Taca da Ligas and the 2021 Supertaca Candido de Olivera since.

So far this season, Sporting are second-place in Liga NOS with 56 points from 22 matches and are by far the highest-scoring side in the league having found the back of the net 63 times.

Jurgen Klopp's current assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders comes in at 7/1 despite news circulating that he will also be leaving Anfield.

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 in the 2021/22 season.

Current Brighton & Hove Albion manager Roberto De Zerbi would also be in consideration for the job at Liverpool.

De Zerbi has done an excellent job since arriving in the Premier League and replacing Graham Potter at the Seagulls.
In 74 games with Brighton, the Italian has won 35, drawn 19 and lost 20 giving him an impressive 47.22% win rate.

Having only joined in September 2022, he led them to a sixth-place finish and a spot in the Europa League, securing European football for the first time in the club’s history. Brighton currently sit seventh in the Premier League table having accumulated 39 points from 26 matches.

Before joining the Seagulls, De Zerbi coached Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar Donetsk, but left after just one season due to the Russian Invasion - Shakhtar were at the top of the table during the unfinished season. Prior to his stint in Donetsk, De Zerbi managed in his home country Italy, with Palermo, Benevento and Sassuolo.

Julian Nagelsmann would perhaps be the ideal candidate to replace Klopp, as the 36-year-old has a similar style of play to his German compatriot.

At present, Nagelsmann manages the German national team having being dismissed from Bayern Munich in the second-half of last season. During his time at the Allianz Arena, Nagelsmann won the German Bundesliga title in his first campaign in charge (2021/22) - he has also won the DFL-Supercup on both occasions he entered it with the Bavarian side - he was sacked in March 2023 despite Bayern sitting just one point behind eventual runners-up Borussia Dortmund.

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 thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 in March of that campaign.

Interestingly, The Telegraph have recently linked the likes of Nagelsmann to the job as a potential alternative for Xabi Alonso should the Spaniard opt to join Bayern Munich at the end of the season.

Interestingly, Thomas Frank’s odds have significantly shortened of late with the Dane now sitting at 16/1.

Brentford are well-known to have a progressive pressing style of play with many variants to their style, something which could perhaps be replicated at Liverpool, especially with Frank having a good reputation for developing youngsters too, such as Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo, Ivan Toney and more.

Frank joined Brentford all the way back in December 2016 as an assistant manager before stepping up as manager in October 2018 and has overseen 259 games in the process, leading the Bees to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs in 2021 and memorably led his side to a 9th-place finish in the top-flight last season. So far this season, Brentford sit 16th in the table, however, this can partially be put down to the extended absences of key players such as Ivan Toney between May 2023 and January 2024. as well as Bryan Mbeumo.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou is another manager that will be highly regarded by Liverpool's hierarchy.

The Australian coach has had a successful managerial career to date, having managed to win 16 trophies with the likes of Australia and their youth setups, as well as South Melbourne, Brisbane Roar and Yokohama Marinos before joining Scottish giants Celtic.

During his time at Celtic Park, Postecoglou won five of six domestic trophies that were available to his side before joining Tottenham Hotspur last summer, where he has continued to impress.

The 58-year-old has had plenty of bad luck with injuries to his team so far this season, however, despite this, Tottenham's brand of football has not shifted away from Postecoglou's impressive playstyle which sees them sit fifth in the table, just five points behind Aston Villa in fourth-place with a game in hand. So far at Spurs, Postecoglou has received the Premier League Manager of the Month award three times, doing so in August, September and October.

For a lengthy period of time, Steven Gerrard was talked about as being Jurgen Klopp's future replacement, however, the Liverpool legend's managerial career hasn't quite worked out as initially planned.

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.

However, in November 2021, Gerrard departed Rangers to join Aston Villa and failed to impress, having left the club in October 2022. following just two wins in their opening 12 league matches of the 2022/23 season, seeing him be replaced by Unai Emery.

Following his sacking, the 43-year-old then opted to become manager of Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq. At present, Gerrard's side sit eighth in the table, with 28 points from 21 matches, meaning that the ex-England international has a 34.8% win percentage at the club.

Thomas Tuchel's Odds: 20/1

Xavi Hernandez's Odds: 20/1

Unai Emery's Odds: 20/1

Zinedine Zidane's Odds: 20/1

Roger Schmidt's Odds: 22/1

Graham Potter's Odds: 25/1

Jose Mourinho's Odds: 25/1

Marco Rose's Odds: 25/1

Simone Inzaghi's Odds: 25/1

Diego Simeone's Odds: 33/1

Enzo Maresca's Odds: 33/1

Julen Lopetegui's Odds: 33/1

Luis Enrique's Odds: 33/1

Antonio Conte's Odds: 40/1

Hansi Flick's Odds: 40/1

Luciano Spalletti's Odds: 40/1

Brendan Rodgers' Odds: 66/1

Rafael Benitez's Odds: 66/1

Liverpool vs Southampton (FA Cup 5th Round): Wednesday 28th February 20:00

Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: Saturday 2nd March 15:00

Sparta Prague vs Liverpool (Europa League Round of 16 First Leg) - Thursday 7th March 17:45

Liverpool vs Manchester City: Sunday 10th March 15:45

Liverpool vs Sparta Prague (Europa League Round of 16 Second Leg) - Thursday 14th March 20:00

Everton vs Liverpool: Sunday 17th March 14:00

Liverpool vs Brighton & Hove Albion; Sunday 31st March 14:00

Liverpool vs Sheffield United: Wednesday 3rd April 20:00

Manchester United vs Liverpool: Saturday 6th April 15:00

Liverpool vs Crystal Palace: Saturday 13th April 15:00

Fulham vs Liverpool: Saturday 20th April 15:00

West Ham United vs Liverpool: Saturday 27th April 15:00

Liverpool vs Tottenham: Saturday 4th May 15:00

Aston Villa vs Liverpool: Saturday 11th May 15:00

Liverpool vs Wolves: Sunday 19th May 16:00

*Fixtures are subject to change due to cup draws and TV schedules*

Although it is still early days in the race to become Liverpool's next manager, we believe that Xabi Alonso will likely become the Anfield club's next manager at the end of the 2023/24 season due to his legacy at the club, coupled with his excellent work at Bayer Leverkusen.

Stylistically, the Spaniard's Leverkusen side tends to attack via tiki-taka with a mix of gegenpressing while developing young talent, something that would certainly make him favourable with Liverpool's current owners, FSG.