Liverpool were a rabble in the month of January. As I have already said Klopp couldn’t have had any complaints if he was sacked. The fact that they were still largely on target for their realistic season target of a Top 4 finish and had key absent personnel returning after such a bad run provided Klopp with a safety net and breathing space.
Swansea had a dreadful start to the season and lost what looked like three consecutive early season relegation six pointers to Hull (at home), Leicester and Southampton in a run of one point in six games. With a full hand of players at such an early stage in the season, Guidolin wasn’t providing much of a case that he was the man to achieve their primary season target of survival.
Guidolin provided a great case in the prior season when he saved them from the perils of relegation to comfortable survival.
He had a difficult run of games, 4 of the sides in that run of matches finished in the top 10 last year.
Given Klopp exited two competitions last year and brought Liverpool to a disappointing 8th place finish, there were less mitigating factors for his bad run of form.
Yes, he’s still there. Got the important vote of confidence last week. Has Ranieri ever been involved a relegation scrap in his long and distinguished managerial career?
Hardly. You might have been in nappies in the early 80’s and possibly still the mid 80’s and not remember but the rise and fall of Swansea City was a big story in English and Welsh football in those years.
I have a good knowledge of Swansea City’s fortunes in the early 1980s from reading the authorised biography of Ray Kennedy which I loaned out from Ballyfermot library in 1998.
