Fear Grips Liverpool’s Klopp After Record 13 Managers Sacked

Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp jokingly questioned why he still had a job as clubs around the Premier League sacked their managers as the season enters its home stretch.

Chelsea sacked Graham Potter on Sunday with the club sitting 11th in the league, hours after relegation-threatened Leicester City parted ways with Brendan Rodgers. Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur also parted ways with Antonio Conte late last month.

Klopp has been at Liverpool since 2015 but despite guiding them to Premier League and Champions League titles, he is under pressure with the Anfield club eighth in the standings — eight points off the top four after losing 4-1 to Manchester City.

“What can I say about that (the sackings)? The elephant in the room is probably why am I still sitting here in this crazy world? Last man standing,” Klopp told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s game against Chelsea.

“So I think both clubs are not in the spots where they expect to be… I respect them (Potter and Rodgers) a lot. Really good people and fantastic managers, both of them. But things can go wrong.

“We all accept that part of the business, but that’s it. Conte was last week, (Julian) Nagelsmann and now these two. The season is in a decisive part, people are afraid of maybe not reaching their targets.”

Nagelsmann was shockingly sacked by Bayern Munich during the international break despite being in a much healthier position in the league.

The Premier League has had a record 12 managers sacked this season, which Klopp described as an “awful number”.

“It is how it is. Some clubs are under achieving, definitely us too… There are expectations out there, rightly so, and if you don’t reach them, then you have to accept the decisions,” he said.

On his own future, the German manager said Liverpool have “smart owners” but he did not like the fact that he was still in the job because of his previous success with the club.

“I’m here to deliver, I’m not here as a talisman or for murals on houses’ walls,” he said.

“I know as well I’m still here because of what happened in the last few years, I don’t like the fact that I have to rely on that.

“But we have to sort it, we cannot just continue playing like we do from time to time. Not always, thank God. That’s not allowed, really. I’m really disappointed about us, but it happens and we have to find a way out.”

EPL Managers who Have Left their Posts this Season

*SCOTT PARKER (Bournemouth)

The first managerial casualty of the 2022-23 Premier League season was Bournemouth’s Scott Parker. His departure came after a 9-0 thrashing at Anfield against Liverpool, equalling the biggest Premier League defeat of all time. 

*THOMAS TUCHEL (Chelsea)

Tuchel was relieved of his duties as Chelsea manager just 33 days into the 2022-23 season – the morning after they suffered a poor 1-0 defeat away at Dinamo Zagrebin the UEFA Champions League.

*GRAHAM POTTER (Brighton)

The only non-sacking managerial departure of the Premier League season, so far. Potter left Brighton & Hove Albion after three full seasons at the club, where he’d turned the Seagulls from relegation contenders into challengers for European football.

*BRUNO LAGE (Wolves)

Lage was relieved of his duties at Wolves on 2 October following a 2-0 away defeat at West Ham a day earlier. The Portuguese boss had picked up just one win in his first eight Premier League games in charge across 2022-23, losing half of games (four).

*STEVEN GERARD (Aston Villa)

Aston Villa had only won nine points from their opening 11 games of the Premier League season when they sacked Gerrard on 21 October – only Leicester City (eight) and Nottingham Forest (six) had won fewer points than the Birmingham-based club (nine). 

*RALPH HASENHUTTL (Southampton)

At the time of Hasenhüttl’s sacking, only Jürgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Thomas Frank had been in charge of current Premier League clubs for a longer period than the Austrian (1,432 days), but his tenure came to an end in early November. After back-to-back defeats in the Premier League against Crystal Palace (1-0) and at home to Newcastle eight days later (4-1). 

*FRANK LAMPARD (Everton)

After being sacked as Chelsea manager in January 2021, Lampard suffered another setback in his managerial career with a second Premier League sacking two years later – this time at struggling Everton. His departure was the first following the mid-season 2022 World Cup, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. At the time of his sacking, Everton were only kept off the foot of the table on goal difference ahead of Southampton.

*JESSE MARSCH (Leeds)

Leeds United called time of American Marsch’s spell as the club’s manager on 6 February, just a day after a 1-0 defeat in a crucial game against fellow relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

At the time, Leeds were kept out of the relegation zone only on goal difference but had gone on a seven-game winless league run (L4 D3).

*NATHAN JONES (Southampton)

Southampton chose Luton manager Nathan Jones as their ideal replacement for the outgoing Ralph Hasenhüttl, but the Welshman was quick to find out that the Premier League wasn’t as forgiving as the Championship.

Jones lasted just 94 days as Southampton manager 

*PATRICK VIEIRA (Crystal Palace)

Former French international midfielder Patrick Vieira was dismissed as Crystal Palace boss in mid-March, where he was replaced by their former gaffer and oldest ever Premier League manager, Roy Hodgson. Admittedly, Palace weren’t doing well under Vieira, with the side on an 11-game winless streak in the Premier League.

*ANTONIO CONTE (Tottenham)

Conte was dismissed as Spurs manager following this outburst in the post-match press conference in the hour after a 3-3 away draw at struggling Southampton.

*BRENDAN RODGERS (Leicester)

Rodgers may have seen his Leicester City side struggle this season, but overall he can be proud of the job he did at the Foxes – even bringing them FA Cup glory in 2021. Across his spell as Leicester City manager, only the so-called ‘big six’ won more Premier League points than they did (222), while 29% of his league defeats as the Foxes’s boss (17/58) came this season.

*GRAHAM POTTER (Chelsea)

Potter became the 13th Premier League manager to leave his job in 2022-23, and the 12th to be sacked. Having already overseen two Premier League clubs this season, it would be foolish to rule out the chance of a third, with Potter’s stock still high and many clubs needing or likely to be needing a new coach in the competition.