Champions League: There’s a good reason why you can’t judge Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp just yet – The Warm-Up

"We do this job in public and the judgement for this will be later on in the season, or even at the end,” said Jurgen Klopp. "Whatever questions will be asked then, but you can’t 100% judge the squad and this team.

"We can’t make changes up front; we've had the same situation in midfield for a long time now. We’ve had it everywhere. We are all out there to be judged that’s fine, that includes the managers and players, that’s how it is in professional football.”

Whether you like him or not, the Liverpool manager is right.

Firstly, though, it’s worth remembering he’s not leaving anytime soon bar quite possibly a 10-game losing run (okay, maybe eight or nine at a push). We know this because in 2020-21 he survived a run of D D L W D L L W W L L L W L W L L - which is a whole lot of L's - and what followed was a turnaround in form that resulted in the following season seeing their remarkable quadruple push last until the final Premier League game.

And back to why he’s right: because of his Champions League pedigree. Three finals already with Liverpool, one trophy brought back from Madrid, and two separate reasons to hate Real Madrid.

So, while they remain in this competition, Liverpool are very much a threat. Yes, they may have lost to Nottingham Forest and Leeds United on the odd weekend or two, but they are also capable of beating Manchester City and Ajax, and with a Champions League know-how that is almost unrivalled (yes, yes, Real Madrid) they therefore cannot be judged until March at the very earliest – basically when the last 16 concludes, and if they then make it to the quarters, April, and if they… you get the point.

First, though, a hefty home win against Napoli would go down well. It’ll need to be a victory at Anfield by four goals or more to leapfrog the Italian club at the top of Group A, but regardless, if they finish second then the group winners will fear drawing Liverpool as much as it will be made a big deal about the Reds potentially drawing Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain.

There is always Club Bruges or Porto – vying for top spot in Group B with the latter a club Liverpool very much enjoy playing – for Liverpool to potentially face, and we’ll use this to segway over to a wide-open Group D which could also present a group winner Liverpool could face – so long as it’s not Tottenham.

Group D really should be your viewing of choice tonight given just two points separate all sides. Only Spurs know that victory will guarantee them top, but throw in a partisan Marseille crowd, a suspended Antonio Conte, and Arsenal alumni in Alexis Sanchez, Matteo Guendouzi and Nuno Tavares, and you have a recipe for a fraught Champions League affair which will also be defined by how Sporting fare against Frankfurt.

It’s going to be a good one.

Hardly a shock, but there’ll be no Paul Pogba to help France defend their World Cup in Qatar, with the Juventus midfielder missing the tournament as he continues to recover from knee surgery.

"If wishful thinking would change things, Paul would be playing tomorrow,” his agent Rafaela Pimenta said. “But what changes things are hard work, resilience and discipline, all of which are the only things in Paul's mind at these challenging times.”

That news sees Pogba join N’Golo Kante on the sidelines. The pair were influential figures four years ago, but the times are a-changing, and some duo called Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni are on hand to ensure their absences are not too keenly felt.

We think they’re more than capable, but whether France as a team can actually win the thing – or should that be whether France can act like a team – is another matter entirely after their poor Euro 2020.

We could all handle the change from Kiev to Kyiv just fine, so we’re ready for your name change, Wales. Sorry! Cymru.

As FAW chief executive Noel Mooney has quite rightly pointed out, Turkey wanted to be and are now known as Turkiye, technically, so why not ditch the anglicised name and go with the Welsh name for Wales instead?

"The team should always be called Cymru, that's what we call it here," Mooney said.

"Our view at the moment is that domestically we're clearly called Cymru. That's what we call our national teams. If you look at our website, how we talk about ourselves, we are very much Cymru.”

Any change won’t be until after the World Cup, mind, but just a heads up like, it looks a strong possibility the FAW want to be called Cymru going forward. Just a hunch.

Zlatan has been talking. Which means you’ll either scroll right by or click and watch below. Marmite, that lad.

Tackle!

Groups A to D conclude tonight, with Liverpool and Napoli in a Group A face-off for top, Club Bruges and Porto going for top in Group B, Bayern out to make it a perfect six in Group C, and as mentioned, the group to watch tonight – Group D.

Spurs, Marseille, Sporting, Frankfurt. Two will go through, one will get the unwanted but better than wooden spoon Europa League spot, and one European campaign will be over. Game on.