Leipzig playmaker Xavi Simons (in white) suffered an ankle injury against Liverpool FC on Wednesday and is at risk of being out until the end of the year.
Photo: imago/Inaki Esnaola
His name wafted like evening fog around the Leipzig Central Stadium. Jürgen Klopp is actually still on holiday in Mallorca. When Rasenballsport Leipzig lost 1-0 to Liverpool FC on the third matchday of the Champions League on Wednesday, there was still no way around the 57-year-old star coach. After all, it was only two weeks ago that Red Bull announced that Klopp, who left the English team in the summer, would work for the shower manufacturer from January.
The Liverpool fans who traveled with us were also aware of the special significance of the encounter. But hardly anyone wanted to be as critical of the club icon before the game as 68-year-old Kevin Barrat from Bournemouth: »I’m very disappointed that he’s taking over Red Bull. I love Jürgen, but I have the feeling that he is abandoning the values that Liverpool stands for.” Some other fans also admitted that they would have liked another new employer for their ex-coach Most people were still grateful for nine extremely successful years, after which Klopp had repeatedly emphasized that he needed a break from the stressful coaching job.
However, it currently looks like Klopp will also be needed as a problem solver in his new job as “Global Head of Soccer” at Red Bull. The reason is the group’s two football flagships, Leipzig and Salzburg, which have not yet gotten off the ground in the new Champions League format. After defeats against three supposedly easier opponents, Salzburg will have little chance of progressing due to the difficult remaining program. At Leipzig the situation is even more dire. There were also three defeats in the tough start against Atlético Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool. The Saxons’ other program looks much easier with games against Celtic Glasgow, Sporting Lisbon and Sturm Graz.
But the home defeat against the English on Wednesday also showed how big the gap still is between Leipzig and Europe’s top clubs. An average performance was enough for Liverpool to control the game for long stretches. “We were too unclean with the ball, too imprecise, especially in the final third we were too impatient,” analyzed RB captain Willi Orbán after the game. Only at the beginning and at the very end of the game did Leipzig manage to put Liverpool under some pressure, but without the necessary precision in front of the goal.
A double inattention from Leipzig was enough for the Reds to win. First Antonio Nusa let Liverpool’s left-back Tsimikas move on the wing, then Castello Lukeba made a positioning error in the middle, so that Mo Salah was able to head the ball unhindered from Tsimika’s cross, which Darwin Núñez then pushed over the line. Even the two irregular goals from Loïs Openda, in which the Belgian was clearly offside twice, could not hide the fact that Leipzig only became dangerous when Liverpool made a mistake.
This will be the challenge for Jürgen Klopp, whose main task over the next five years will be to take the Red Bull club’s playing philosophy to the next level. Because in the future they also want to compete for the really big titles in Leipzig. The DFB Cup victories in 2022 and 2023 are said to have been just the beginning. That is the claim that Red Bull’s sports director Oliver Mintzlaff made before the season. It will be exciting to see whether Klopp also adapts Red Bull’s transfer strategy, according to which only young talents should be signed. The 57-year-old should also know that you can’t win the really big titles with talent alone. Especially not if they are to be sold regularly for a profit. This has also been part of the Red Bull strategy so far. The resulting loss of substance is particularly noticeable in Leipzig after the summer transfer of European champion Dani Olmo to FC Barcelona.
Offensively, a lot depends on Xavi Simons, who had to be substituted on Wednesday due to an ankle injury and risks being out until the end of the year. Without the 21-year-old, it will probably be more difficult for Leipzig to continue its good start in the Bundesliga, finishing second on equal points behind Bayern. If things go badly, Jürgen Klopp will have to manage the first crisis from January 1, 2025.