Jürgen Klopp is expected to leave Liverpool shortly, thus the club needs to hire a new manager. In light of a recent allegation regarding the Sporting manager, Rúben Amorim seems to be the frontrunner.
As soon as Xabi Alonso declared himself ineligible to succeed Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool supporters turned their focus to Rúben Amorim. The Sporting CP owner is without a doubt one of the top young coaches in the game.
The search for Klopp’s replacement at Anfield will have been ongoing for some time. While virtually nobody else was aware of Klopp’s desire to depart until the beginning of the year, Liverpool had an advantage when it came to investigating possible exit destinations as he notified FSG of his intention to go back in November. Richard Hughes has been appointed the new sporting director, and Michael Edwards has returned to the team to continue that process.
Florian Plettenberg of Sky Germany claims that Liverpool and Amorim have now reached a “verbal agreement” for the Portuguese to become the team’s new head coach. But what will Liverpool be receiving if it’s Amorim?
Many people who have followed the 39-year-old Portuguese coach’s career thus far have compared him to Pep Guardiola. As things stand, his team is expected to win Liga Portugal once more this year, having been led by Amorim when Sporting’s 19-year league title drought came to an end in 2021.
Given that animosity, Amorim, a former Benfica player, wanted to win over the Sporting supporters. It will undoubtedly have helped that he won the league in his debut season, and he might win it again before losing out. Whilst winning is important, how it is accomplished is just as important, and Sporting has a group of intriguing players.
On his roster are Gonçalo Inácio, Ousmane Diomande, and Viktor Gyökeres. Amorim frequently uses a 3-4-3 style that is dependent on wing-backs. Even while that might not remain the same at Liverpool, it’s still fun to imagine what might happen if he stuck to it.
Conor Bradley, who was previously on loan at Bolton, can play as a wing-back; Andy Robertson can do the same on the other flank, maybe with Trent Alexander-Arnold occupying the midfield position. It may take some getting used to playing with a different center back next to Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté, as O Jogo has been associated with Liverpool not only for their recent acquisition of Inácio, but also for other reasons.
but also 20-year-old Diomande of Sporting, who might lure the Reds (as well as Chelsea, Arsenal, and Bayern Munich) with a $86 million (£68 million/€80 million) release clause.
As he is presently, Darwin Núñez may be flanked in the attacking positions by Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah, but they would need to tuck in even more. Dominik Szoboszlai and Harvey Elliott would also make the most sense in that forward slot in a 3-4-3, albeit it becomes more challenging to fit them in.
It seems far more sense to stick with a back four and stick with the current 4-3-3 formation, with the team assembled to play that way. But if they wanted to switch things up, Amorim or whoever else comes in has options, and this summer, buying a new center-back is probably going to be a top priority regardless of the formation.
Even if Liverpool’s players are now far more comfortable playing with a back four, a few additions and a positional adjustment for Alexander-Arnold might create new opportunities. Similar to Alonso, Amorim does not necessarily play with a back three in the future. Not every situation calls for him to do so.
