Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp ‘pulled a Mourinho’ on Saturday.
The German started James Milner and Gini Wijnaldum in midfield as Liverpool lost to Arsenal in the Community Shield.
It was a surprise pick, and journalist Duncan Alexander feels Klopp may have done it to send a message to club owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG).
Liverpool have been heavily linked with Thiago. Bayern Munich want to sell him, the player wants to leave but it seems like FSG don’t want to pay the money.
Klopp wants to bring in the Spanish international, which doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on the club hierarchy’s ambition to sign the midfielder. And so, the German was forced to make a little bit of a statement – hypothesised Alexander.
Talking to the The Totally Football Show, he said:
"“I thought that it was interesting, Klopp kinda pulled a Mourinho by playing the worst midfield he possible could – possibly as a message to the board to say ‘Thiago, please. Soon.’“I saw a lot of Liverpool fans saying ‘not Milner and Wijnaldum in midfield.'”"
Losing that game was disappointing, but we’ve been here before. Liverpool lost to Manchester City on penalties last season and it didn’t stop the side from having an incredible title-winning campaign.
There will be some exciting things to look forward to. Takumi Minamino scored his first goal for the club, Curtis Jones and Neco Williams are due for bigger things and there’s that intriguing question mark over the fourth choice central defender.
Could it be Nat Phillips, Sepp van den Berg or Billy Koumetio? None of those are really up to first team level, and with injury concerns over Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, it could come back to bite Klopp.
You would forgive the manager for getting frustrated with the Liverpool bean counters. He clearly wants Thiago, while the team clearly needs another senior central defender.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if he was doing his best Mourinho and trying to send a signal to FSG that they need more bodies.
Stay tuned for more, because this isn’t going away.