9 months ago
151 Paul Merson believes that Liverpool could look to appoint Thomas Tuchel as their next manager – but on one condition.
The Reds, of course, are now preparing for life after Jurgen Klopp. Klopp announced last week that he intends to leave Liverpool at the end of the season.
It is a huge blow – the kind of which the Premier League has arguably only really seen when Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United. Liverpool are fantastically placed to win the title this year. And very few managers are universally loved by their club’s fanbase like the German is.
Paul Merson could see Liverpool make move for Thomas Tuchel
So finding the right replacement is absolutely imperative. And unsurprisingly, a host of names have already come into contention.
Liverpool reportedly admire Ange Postecoglou. Meanwhile, Thomas Frank is also on the Reds’ radar. But there are several other candidates who have been linked.
Obviously, the one who seems to make the most sense to many is Xabi Alonso. He has done a remarkable job with Bayer Leverkusen. And he is no stranger to Merseyside.
And Paul Merson has told Sportskeeda that he could see Alonso getting the gig. Interestingly, he added that another name may come into the Reds’ thinking if Leverkusen fall short in the Bundesliga title race.
“If they had to hire a new manager tomorrow, I don’t think they’d look past Xabi Alonso, who has taken his Bayer Leverkusen side to the Bundesliga summit ahead of Bayern Munich. However, by the end of the season, if Bayern Munich pip them for the title, then Liverpool could even look at Thomas Tuchel as a potential option,” he said.
Bayern boss has not yet shown that he can deliver long-term success
Tuchel is well aware of what it is like to follow on from Klopp. He took the Mainz job the year after Klopp had left for Borussia Dortmund. And he was the man tasked with taking over from Klopp at Westfalenstadion in 2015.
Tuchel did not have the success at Dortmund that Klopp had. But he has won the Champions League with Chelsea. And he did oversee Bayern Munich’s dramatic title win on the final day of last season.
The concern will surely be that Tuchel does not tend to spend a really long time at one club. Since leaving Mainz, he has not managed more than 127 games for a single side.
Of course, few managers have the kind of longevity that Klopp has. His 270 games in charge of Mainz represents the shortest managerial spell of his career so far – by some distance.
But Tuchel is arguably yet to really prove that he can keep building world-class teams over a long period. And that may be a worry for Liverpool who would love nothing more than to somehow find something like their next Klopp.
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