Newcastle host Liverpool on Sunday with Klopp’s side having won seven of their last eight games in all competitions.
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It was a crushing 3-0 home defeat by Klopp’s Bundesliga title-winning Borussia Dortmund in 2011 which helped push McClaren towards the exit door when he was boss of Wolfsburg.
Emre Can has been deployed in just about every position in defence and midfield over the past season but his strongest role is in the centre of the pitch according to head coach Jurgen Klopp. We know things need to change.
And the arrival on Tyneside of Klopp’s in-form Liverpool is perhaps the last thing under-fire McClaren needs right now.
“By the time we played them again, they were top of the league and a really good team and very well organised”.
“Our form is okay until now but I think it is not allowed – it is not even the middle of the season – to think about how it was until now”.
There have been 42 encounters between the two sides, and they average 3.14 goals per game – but that is not the most prolific match-up; that honour goes to Manchester United and Southampton.
He had brought in some very talented players, and you have seen that Jurgen has taken that on.
McClaren said: “Everyone comes into a club in different situations”.
Ferguson is a member of the panel that awarded the accolade to Klopp’s Reds for their 6-1 victory over Southampton in the League Cup on Wednesday. I think it’s a tough league, anyone can beat anyone else.
McClaren insists that it’s just a matter of confidence and form but with the players failing to perform for the third successive manager, the club must be considering whether a short, sharp shock is the only way to save themselves this season.
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“If we are doing it right and we are getting the ball back and we are keeping the ball, it means we are going to run less”.
