Robbie Fowler surprisingly named Unai Emery as a potential Jurgen Klopp successor.

The Spaniard has taken Aston Villa to new heights in recent years following the unsuccessful stint of former Villans boss Steven Gerrard.

“The biggest compliment I can pay Unai Emery is that I think he is one of the few managers who would be up to the challenge of replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool,” the ex-Red told the Mirror.

We’d have some serious reservations over such an avenue of action being taken at Anfield, however, as and when our German tactician opts to call time on his L4 career.

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Fowler did get one thing right

With all due respect to one of the greatest footballers in the annals of Anfield history, the idea is a terrible one.

Emery does boast some serious European pedigree when it comes to the Europa League. That said, his spells at PSG and Arsenal hardly inspire a great deal of confidence in his ability to lead the biggest clubs on the continent.

Certainly, no job comes bigger than that on the red half of Merseyside!

As such, we can confidently say that Fowler did get one thing right: there are indeed only a ‘few’ managers in world football who could be considered. Emery shouldn’t be one of them.

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Robbie Fowler has said he ‘wouldn’t mind’ seeing one current Premier League manager taking over from Jurgen Klopp whenever the German leaves Liverpool.

The 56-year-old’s contract at Anfield runs until 2026, so unless things go majorly awry between now and then, he’ll still have plenty more time on Merseyside.

Still, that hasn’t stopped some pundits from discussing who may be an ideal candidate for the unenviable task of succeeding him when he eventually leaves the LFC dugout.

In his latest column for the Sunday Mirror (30/7; page 74), Fowler sang the praises of one of Klopp’s current Premier League peers and championed him as a viable name to consider as the German’s successor.

The Anfield legend wrote: “I’ve always liked Unai Emery, who took over at Villa Park in October. I know he didn’t do that well at Arsenal, although, under him, they did reach the Europa League final where they lost to Chelsea.

“What he didn’t deserve was to be mocked at times at the Emirates for struggling to make himself understood with his less-than-perfect English. That was completely unfair and the wrong perception of a man who, I have thought for some time, is a top, top manager.

“So much so that when, at one stage last season, there was some talk of Jurgen Klopp possibly leaving Liverpool, I’m thinking to myself I wouldn’t mind Emery as the next Liverpool boss. I can’t pay a bigger compliment to him than that.”

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When looking at the impact Emery has made at Aston Villa, you can see why Fowler has talked him up as someone he ‘wouldn’t mind’ taking over from Klopp.

The Midlands club were teetering dangerously close to the relegation zone when the Spaniard replaced Steven Gerrard last October, but a return of 49 points and 15 wins from 25 Premier League matches (Transfermarkt) saw them finish the season in seventh, duly qualifying for the Europa Conference League.

The 51-year-old has a formidable CV when it comes to continental silverware, too, winning the Europa League four times as a manager and also reaching the final of that tournament with Arsenal in 2019.

Furthermore, Emery can lay claim to a Premier League record of his Villa outfit scoring in their first 20 matches following his appointment (talkSPORT), so his teams can certainly make an impact in the final third of the pitch.

His stock is quite high at the moment, as Fowler rightly acknowledges, but with Klopp set to be in the Liverpool job for three more years, hopefully we won’t need to seriously start considering his successor for some time yet.

Let’s enjoy the German while we have him – how many other clubs in England, Europe and worldwide must be looking enviously at us when they look at what he’s produced at Anfield…

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Aston Villa manager Unai Emery confirmed one injury absentee for his team’s trip to Anfield on Saturday, and it’s a name which will resonate with Liverpool fans.

The Spaniard gave a team news update in his pre-match press conference this afternoon ahead of the weekend’s fixture when he was asked about former Reds playmaker Philippe Coutinho.

The 51-year-old disclosed (via avfc.co.uk): “Philippe Coutinho is still injured…I talked with him this week; he’s a little bit unlucky with his month because I didn’t see him play matches like I want.

“But, of course, with the injuries coming, we have to be patient as well, now we are going to wait for his recovery. This year, he’s not going to play again until the end of this season because we are finishing in two weeks.”

Emery added that, barring no issues in Friday’s training session, Villa will have ‘the same players we had last week’, with Calum Chambers hopeful of making the trip after a recent illness.

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On a day when Liverpool fans will say an Anfield farewell to three of Coutinho’s former teammates in Bobby Firmino, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Naby Keita’s arrival came after the Brazilian left for Barcelona in 2018), it would’ve seemed apt if he were available to feature.

It’s just under a year to the day since his goal against Manchester City had the Reds dreaming of a last-gasp Premier League title triumph, only for Pep Guardiola’s side to come from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and retain the crown, but the 30-year-old won’t be netting in Villa’s final away match of this season.

While LFC might feel somewhat relieved to be spared the danger of the ‘former player coming back to haunt his old club’ narrative, it’s unfortunate that the Brazil playmaker won’t have any part on a landmark day for some of his ex-teammates, in particular his international colleague Firmino.

Even with Coutinho ruled out, though, Emery’s side could still pose a threat through the likes of Ollie Watkins, Emi Buendia and Jacob Ramsey, the latter of whom was described by journalist Ryan Taylor in recent days as ‘a great fit for someone like Liverpool’ (GIVEMESPORT).

They’ve been one of the most improved teams in the Premier League this season and have European football in their sights, so Jurgen Klopp’s side will certainly have earned a win against the Villans if they get it.

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Villarreal manager Unai Emery has claimed his side ‘need to play a perfect game’ to have any chance of progressing through to this season’s Champions League final.

The Spanish outfit find themselves 2-0 down on aggregate after last week’s game at Anfield in which Liverpool were truly dominant and Emery was today made aware that Jurgen Klopp’s side have lost just three of their last 56 games across all competitions.

“I didn’t want to hear those details but I did,” the 50-year-old said (as quoted by the Independent).

“It is a difficult task but we are working on the game.

“We need to play a perfect game. We need to find our excellence in certain things and maybe achieve something no one has achieved, which is this kind of comeback.

“We will try to find some weak spots, something that no one has done this season.”

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The Reds dominated the La Liga side for most of the first leg at Anfield last week and limited Emery’s side to just 29% of the ball, something that the former Arsenal boss insisted cannot be the same tomorrow night.

“They played a tremendous game at Liverpool,” he said.

“Thiago was man of the match, Fabinho has been fantastic at Liverpool.

“They are two players who can play really good football but they have the work-rate and intensity and they were at a world-class level at Liverpool (last week).

“If the player of the match is again a Liverpool player we will be out for sure but if it is one of ours we can be there.”

Thiago Alcantara was at his magnificent best against the team from his homeland last week.

He controls the tempo of the game and when he’s at his best, we usually win games.

Although we are in full control of the tie at the moment, the Yellows will pose a different threat in front of their home supporters so we need to be right on it to ensure we book our spot in yet another European final.

You’d expect Thiago, Fabinho, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold to return to the starting XI after they were rested at the weekend, but whatever team Klopp chooses to play, we have confidence they’ll get the job done and put us one step closer to our seventh European Cup.

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It wasn’t the best first leg for Unai Emery’s Villarreal team but they will be hopeful of overturning our lead, when the teams face each other in Spain.

Speaking with BT Sport after the game, the 50-year-old said: “We can’t say anything about their victory because they deserve it and the first half for us was really good but we didn’t achieve some things in attack to do good counter-attacks and good transitions.

“They had two or three chances to score but we defended the box and the goal better than we did in the second half.

READ MORE: (Video) Luis Diaz held back by Rhys Williams as Liverpool and Villarreal players clash after the final whistle

“But the second half was the same, they pushed and they deserved to score. 2-0 is a good result for them.

“For us, it’s not really a good result, but we are going to try to dream to do something different at home with our supporters.

“The match next week will be very, very different than tonight.

“Obviously it’s very difficult. After they made it 2-0, you can go to try to score one goal.

“We tried but when they have space to do transitions and with the players like they have, it’s more important to try to do that next week at home.

“We’ll change something maybe tactically, but I think they are going to suffer more than tonight in the next leg.”

It’s certainly going to be a different game in the Estadio de la Cerámica, with the team in yellow needing to score at least two goals against Jurgen Klopp’s side.

We will need to ensure we remain focused at the task on hand and don’t let complacency affect our performance, as we aim to reach the final in Paris.

Let’s hope we can get an early goal, win the game and then book a place in our third final of the season!

You can watch the video of Emery’s interview via @btsportfootball on Twitter:

"They [Liverpool] are going to suffer more than tonight in Villarreal."

Unai Emery insists he'll change a few things about his side as they look to overhaul a two-goal deficit on home soil.

@TheDesKelly #UCL pic.twitter.com/z3uiz3DTrm

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 27, 2022

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Liverpool will be hosting Villarreal in the Champions League, in the knowledge that the Spanish outfit have several injury concerns.

Unai Emery spoke to the media ahead of the game at Anfield and provided the following update (via liverpoolfc.com): ‘Yeremy Pino has been ruled out due to injury, while the fitness of forward Gerard Moreno will be closely monitored as he recovers from a hamstring issue.

‘Former Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno is unavailable after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in early March.

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“Yeremy Pino is going to be missing, he has an injury that is dragging on,” boss Unai Emery said at his pre-match press conference. “He trained yesterday but he won’t be able to play.

“Gerard Moreno is working well, and the idea is that he will pick up the pace tomorrow. Francis Coquelin has trained as normal.”

It looks as though Yeremy Pino joins Alberto Moreno as being a confirmed absence, with Gerard Moreno a doubt and Francis Coquelin seemingly fine.

The La Liga team have been this season’s surprise package in Europe and, despite us being the overwhelming favourties, they will be out to cause another upset.

With the first leg being at our home, it’s up to Jurgen Klopp’s side to put down a marker and try and establish a lead to take to Spain next week.

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Jurgen Klopp has labelled Unai Emery as ‘the king of cups’ after Liverpool progressed through to the semi-finals of the Champions League last night and set up a clash with Villarreal.

The La Liga outfit progressed through to the last four after defeating both Bayern Munich and Juventus across two legs in the previous rounds.

Emery’s side are only in Europe’s premier competition this season as a result of defeating Manchester United on penalties in the Europa League final last season.

The Spaniard also led Arsenal to the final of Europe’s second competition back in 2019, only for the Gunners to be defeated by Chelsea in Azerbaijan.

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And after Klopp secured Liverpool’s passage through to the semi-finals with a 6-4 aggregate defeat of SL Benfica last night, the German was keen to praise Emery.

“If I could do an analysis of Villarreal right now that would be very strange,” Klopp told BT Sport (via the Metro).

“I saw the results, the game was very impressive.

The boss of the La Liga outfit has won the Europa League on four separate occasions – he won three in a row with Sevilla as well as the success he tasted last season with his current side.

In addition to this, he won another seven trophies during his time in charge of PSG including a league title and two French cups.

He certainly has experience and he’s proved this season that he knows how to set up his side to earn impressive results both home and away in Europe.

Last night’s result means we remain in contention to complete a historic quadruple this term – we just need to continue taking each game as they come and it’ll be interesting to see the silverware we end up with come the end of the season.

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Liverpool-linked Villarreal star Pau Torres should only go to either Real Madrid or Barcelona if he leaves the La Liga outfit in the summer, according to his manager, Unai Emery, as reported by Radio Marca (via the Echo).

With Jurgen Klopp’s men having endured a harsh fall from grace following a spate of injuries racked up in the centre-half position, the side is considered likely to invest in at least one new quality defender in the upcoming window.

“Pau Torres? Double (the pride), because he’s also from here,” the former Arsenal boss said. “If he leaves here, he has to go to Real Madrid or Barcelona.

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The centre-back comes with a £55m release-clause attached, meaning that the Reds would have to fork out a considerably higher fee for the 24-year-old than for the likes of Ibrahima Konate or Ozan Kabak.

To put things into context, we could afford to bring in both the latter pair for less (if reports are to be believed with regard to the Frenchman’s price tag) than the amount it would take to secure the services of the Spaniard.

That’s not to say significant investment for a top talent isn’t necessary, particularly given that our struggles to replicate our title-winning form of the piror term all feed down from the long-term injuries suffered in the heart of defence.

We just can’t see the club sanctioning a move when there are far cheaper, and potentially more talented, options available.

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Unai Emery has explained how he tried to sign Fabinho from AS Monaco while in charge of PSG and then again when he arrived at Arsenal.

The Spaniard took the helm at the Emirates on May 23 2018, but six days later, Fabinho had finalised his transfer to Liverpool!

At first, the Brazilian struggled to adapt to English football, but Jurgen Klopp remained patient and gradually built up his minutes.

Now, he’s recognised as arguably the best holding midfielder on the planet.

Emery used this example as a reason for Gunners to not get on underperforming Nicolas Pepe’s back.

“We spent money with Pepe and he needs time to adapt to the Premier League,” Emery told the Standard.

“For example, in France I loved Fabinho a lot. He was in Monaco and I wanted to sign for PSG. When I arrived here, also his name was on the table to achieve to sign him, but he signed for Liverpool.

“The first six months he didn’t play, it was adaptation. But now he is amazing and I want the same with [Dani] Ceballos, with Pepe.”

We’re not sure if Pepe will come good, but in all honesty, it’s not really our concern.

It’s very good though that PSG didn’t snap up Fabinho when they had the chance, as they usually have a monopoly on good players in Ligue One.

Now as we approach 2020, Fabinho is an automatic starter for the Reds and will remain so for the rest of the campaign barring injury.

While the likes of Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum fight for two positions, Fabinho’s is assured.

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Former Arsenal man Lee Dixon has lashed out at Unai Emery and his backroom staff for their behaviour at Anfield last weekend.

The Gunners lost the game 3-1 to the relentless Reds, and the Arsenal boss barked orders at his players from the touch-line.

This is to be expected, mind, but maybe not another couple of the club coaches doing the same thing – it can confuse a player, if there are too many voices.

“We’ve just seen [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang who’s just gone off the pitch, he’s just come back on the pitch,” Dixon is quoted as saying by the Express.

“Unai Emery is a very demonstrative and animated coach and then once he starts and his staff are the pointing fingers and trying to direct traffic, I think sometimes as a player you can get dragged into that.

“There’s three people up there shouting things. There needs to be a calmness. It’s a throw in, they’ve lost the ball. Coaches give information and [speaking to Andy Townsend] you know, you’ve played at the highest level.

“You’ve got so many things going on, the last thing you need is a coach to be going ‘yeah but you should be doing that, should be doing that’.

“He can’t coach everybody so he’s coaching the nearest and if the nearest one makes a bad decision, everybody else follows.”

The Gunners really didn’t make a good account of themselves at Anfield, with the majority of their tactics devolving into simply hoofing the ball up to one of the pacy forwards.

To be fair, it almost worked on several occasions as new boy Nicolas Pepe did look lively on the right flank, and he got the better of Andy Robertson a few times – something which shouldn’t be taken lightly.

But, whether it was what Dixon has mentioned or something else, there’s no denying that Arsenal didn’t look like a team that was going to take any points away from Merseyside last weekend.

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Former Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp says he thinks the Reds and Manchester City will finish 30 points ahead of Arsenal this season – which is more than the gap was last year.

Last season, the Reds came 28 points ahead of Unai Emery’s men, and while Jurgen Klopp’s players are expected to at least get close to their points total from last season once again, the Gunners are much-improved having spent big over the summer.

Arsenal’s improvement was evident on Saturday – despite a comfortable 3-1 win for the Reds, the Gunners were much better than they have been recently at Anfield.

There is a gulf to the Reds and City for them to overcome still, but they’re certainly not worse than they were last season.

Speaking on TalkSport (via The Boot Room) this morning, Redknapp said: “Arsenal are short in midfield; they’re short at the back. I think they’ll be 30 points adrift of the top two and I don’t see them finishing fourth.”

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Arsenal may well finish outside of the top four, though Manchester United are giving them every chance of making it and Chelsea are by no means guaranteed another Champions League place, but we can’t see the gap being that far.

There might be another significant gap between the Reds and Manchester City and everyone else, but 30 points seems a little excessive!

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Unai Emery says Arsenal are ‘looking forward’ to the opportunity for make amends for recent drubbings at Anfield this weekend.

The North Londoners have been dealt 5-1, 4-0 and 3-1 beatings on their last three visits.

They travel to Merseyside with more optimism this year, though, after some much-needed summer spending and a winning start to the new campaign.

Emery is hopeful his team are emboldened, rather than cowed, by the electric Anfield atmosphere on this occasion.

“Each match, each moment, each season is different,” he replied when asked in his press conference how he would ensure a repeat of last season was avoided.

“We can use last year, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago but really it’s about our moment and this moment.

“Anfield is a big atmosphere with their supporters, they are a very good team and they [have the] advantage [over] us in their progress and in the last few years.

“In Anfield they have one step more in feeling strong, but it’s not for us, it’s for all.

“We need to take our best performance and to go there with a good feeling and also thinking we can achieve that performance individually and collectively to be strong and to have our chances.

“We are looking to forward to going there and showing that.”

Reds fans should also take note of the possibility of a full debut for the Gunners’ record signing Nicolas Pepe.

Pepe has been restricted to a pair of substitute appearances since his £72million move from Lille, but Emery hinted that he had reached a sufficient level to start.

“I think his individual performances are progressively getting better,” he said.

“For Saturday, he is maybe ready to have more minutes. 

“I am going to decide tomorrow, but really his progress had been positive and has been good for the team and for him.

“The most important piece of the adaptation is to help him to feel easy and be comfortable with us.”

Pepe was one of our reported targets during the transfer window and while he’s clearly an impressive player, a first start here would be a baptism of fire.

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Arsenal manager Unai Emery has surprisingly admitted he never likes playing against a side as good as Liverpool.

Last season, his team was on the end of a 5-1 pummelling at Anfield – in which the Reds could have genuinely racked up double figures – such was the ease in which we cut through the Gunners defence.

There was a 1-1 draw played out at the Emirates, but Liverpool were robbed of a win by poor refereeing decisions.

“For us, we don’t ever want to play against Liverpool – but it’s really a challenge, a good test,” he said, reported in the Echo.

“Really our target is to reduce the distance (between us) and Manchester City and Liverpool last season, and when we go to play against them it’s a big moment to show how (much stronger) we can be.”

Emery does have history of success against Jurgen Klopp, of course.

In 2016, Sevilla downed us to win the Europa League – and in a Champions League game in 2017 – they came back to draw 3-3 after being 3-0 down.

But Liverpool are a far better outfit now than before. In fact, we’re one of the very best teams on the planet – and are two wins from two games so far.

A week’s break will do us plenty of good and will hopefully allow Klopp to deploy his strongest XI – with the likes of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson returning to the lineup.

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Philippe Coutinho could join on loan Arsenal this summer according to reports in Spain, with the Gunners set to hold talks with Barcelona on Sunday after the sides meet in a pre-season friendly at Camp Nou.

Via the Daily Express, Sport claim that the Gunners’ head of football Raul Sanllehi is said to be planning talks with Barcelona while they are in Spain for the Joan Gamper Trophy, with the Catalan side reportedly prepared to send the Brazilian out on loan due to a lack of interest in a permanent deal.

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Where exactly Coutinho fits in at Arsenal remains to be seen, with Nicolas Pepe having already arrived and the leaky defence still the most pressing issue for Unai Emery.

Coutinho would still be an unbelievable signing for Arsenal. So good, in fact, that it seems too good to be true. Sport’s claims appear to be largely based on the fact that Arsenal are in Spain anyway, so they have an advantage in the race – it might just be a case of putting two and two together.

Where Arsenal would get the funds from is another problem. It was thought earlier in the summer that their entire transfer budget was under £50 million, and they have already splashed £72 million on signing Pepe.

For the record, if Coutinho is available on loan, the Reds should be all over it. A player of that quality coming in would be an absolute no-brainer – and on a temporary deal, he would not cost a fortune.

Letting Arsenal have a free run at him would be ludicrous.

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Crystal Palace would prefer to sell Wilfried Zaha to a club in the Champions League than Arsenal.

That’s according to Sky Sports transfer honcho Kaveh Solhekol, who name-dropped us as one of the sides the Eagles would look to do business with ahead of Unai Emery’s side.

There is no suggestion Liverpool are interested in the 27-year-old Ivorian, who has without question outgrown Selhurst Park and needs a move elsewhere.

“Wilfried Zaha is Unai Emery’s number one target ever since Emery watched him play for Palace at the Emirates Stadium when Arsenal lost 3-2 to Palace in April,” Solhekol told the Transfer Talk podcast.

“We’ve been told that Emery is desperate to sign him.

“But of course it all comes down to making an offer that Crystal Palace are going to accept.

“I don’t think Crystal Palace are under any pressure to sell him.

“They are saying ‘look, he’s our player, we would understand if he wanted to leave to go and play for a Champions League club, but Arsenal are not a Champions League club’.

“They wouldn’t stand in his way if Barcelona or Real Madrid or PSG or Manchester City or Liverpool were trying to sign him.”

While players like Zaha would jump at the chance of an Anfield switch, it doesn’t look like Liverpool are planning to take advantage of our financial and pulling position via the transfer market.

If we were to bring in a marquee signing, it would have already been done.

Instead, it looks like we’ll start the season with the same squad that won the Champions League and earned 97 points in the Premier League – which when you put it like that – is understandable.

Hopefully the likes of Rhian Brewster and Yasser Larouci will be able to properly replace Daniel Sturridge and Alberto Moreno, though – who were able deputies.

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