Liverpool assistant Buvac away for personal reasons for the rest of the season

[Liverpool]

Yep keeping a lid on the story. Out in the summer ffs

[calvoboy]

Sounds temporary, 'personal reasons'

So how did Mourinho's gimp get the scoop? Did he (Castles) get wind of the temporary leave story yesterday and see it as an opportunity to do some ****-stirring ahead of Rome? Or is someone in our squad passing stories on to him or Jose

[Shaggy]

So how did Mourinho's gimp get the scoop? Did he (Castles) get wind of the temporary leave story yesterday and see it as an opportunity to do some ****-stirring ahead of Rome? Or is someone in our squad passing stories on to him or Jose

Definitely worrying, just who the **** briefed Castles of all people ffs.

[calvoboy]

https://twitter.com/LFCZA/status/990866136966270976

"He was usually heavily involved in which substitutions take place and at what stage of the game" - in that case I'd imagine most on here will be pleased to see him go

[Liverpool]

So how did Mourinho's gimp get the scoop? Did he (Castles) get wind of the temporary leave story yesterday and see it as an opportunity to do some ****-stirring ahead of Rome? Or is someone in our squad passing stories on to him or Jose

The story was doing the rounds on twitter and in Liverpool yesterday, he must have got wind of it. The other journo's waited for the club's comments before running with it. He's not arsed about it and got the 'exclusive'

[Chris]

Out of our club ****house!! Xabi in. NOW!!!

[Pablo]

"He was usually heavily involved in which substitutions take place and at what stage of the game" - in that case I'd imagine most on here will be pleased to see him go

True

The timing is the worst thing. It must mean he'd become more of a hindrance than a help of late. So no choice but to bomb him out now before he did any more harm.

I'm sure we can bring someone in with fresh ideas. No doubt Klopp will know who he wants.

[Nicey]

The presser will be interesting

[Norbs]

Massively different from what Castles was tweeting last night

Castles 8s a huge cunt, he must be disappointed that's it's not a split

[Norbs]

Out of our club ****house!! Xabi in. NOW!!!

He's got great knowledge of both our potential opponents in the CL final

[calvoboy]

True

The timing is the worst thing. It must mean he'd become more of a hindrance than a help of late. So no choice but to bomb him out now before he did any more harm.

I'm sure we can bring someone in with fresh ideas. No doubt Klopp will know who he wants.

There's loads of simplistic analysis going on too about Patrice Bergues and Ayesteran in the wake of this announcement. Houllier's downfall was far more to do with him nearly dying a couple of months later and the following summer of signing Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou than it was Bergues leaving. Similarly after Pako left our owners were pushing us to bankruptcy and we ended up a day away from administration two years later. Rafa went on to win a European trophy at Chelsea and is doing a great job at Newcastle now without him.

The timing is ****, but it's not as though Buvac is the only one who knows the ingredient in the special sauce - I'm sure Klopp and the rest of the staff are aware of what's been happening in training and what Buvac brought to the team, and if necessary will be able to find a suitable replacement.

[kev776]

Either burn out or staff clash - either way a break sounds right.

[marcus50bucks]

Jürgen Klopp loses key assistant Zeljko Buvac at start of defining week

Paul Joyce, Northern Football Correspondent
April 30 2018, 9:00am,

Zeljko Buvac, Liverpool’s assistant manager and the man Jürgen Klopp calls “The Brain,” will not work with the first team for the remainder of the season and appears to be on the verge of leaving the club.

Liverpool have said the matter is due to personal reasons and that Buvac’s position at Anfield is not affected.

However, his absence at such a crucial juncture of the season — Liverpool face Roma in their Champions League semi-final, second leg, on Wednesday — is extraordinary.

Buvac’s standing, and the regard in which he is held, means the timing of his decision is a significant blow and pushes more pressure on Klopp to steer the ship in the run-in.

It is understood Buvac has become increasingly distant and withdrawn around the club, and visibly less engaged during matches of late, and it is that, rather than any specific fall-out with Klopp, which has resulted in him stepping back from first-team duties in the aftermath of the stalemate with Stoke City on Saturday. Liverpool’s players were informed at training on Sunday.

The Liverpool manager Klopp will hope his right hand man can return, but if Buvac feels he does not want to be around the club at present when European ambitions are on the line it is difficult to envisage that changing.

Klopp and Buvac met as team-mates at FSV Mainz 05 and struck a pact that whoever went into management first would take the other with them.

The transition of Klopp from player to coach at Mainz in 2001 made good the agreement and they have worked together ever since, enjoying success at Borussia Dortmund and arriving at Liverpool in October 2015. Peter Krawietz – “The Eyes” – completes the triumvirate, but it is Buvac who carries most influence.

It has been previously been unthinkable to consider either Klopp or Buvac — whose relationship is more professional than social — working without the other. When Klopp signed a six-year extension to his contract in in the summer of 2016, he insisted Buvac and Krawietz were given the same contract length.

Buvac, a Bosnian Serb, operates above the level of a normal assistant and Klopp has not hid the importance of a man six years his senior. During matches he was usually heavily involved in which substitutions take place and at what stage of a game.

He was furious with the goalkeeper coach John Achterberg in a game against Chelsea last November when the Londoners scored an equaliser while Liverpool were trying to bring on the substitute Adam Lallana and switch to a five-man backline. Buvac refused to speak to Achterberg, who liaises with the fourth official over substitutions.

Overall, Liverpool’s secret lies in their training, the repetition of attacking movements behind their relentless approach, and Buvac is central to everything that happens on the training pitch.

Klopp has been weighing up tweaks to his backroom team during the season, especially in the physiotherapy department. Andy Renshaw, the head of physiotherapy, left the club in October and there have been continued discussions on how to improve the department.

There will be disappointment among Liverpool supporters and a sense of uneasiness also at the prospect of history repeating itself.

Gerard Houller won a cup treble in 2001, including the Uefa Cup, but lost his assistant Patrice Bergues, who returned to France. The club was unable to maintain the same level of progress going forward.

In 2007, weeks after the club’s Champions League defeat to AC Milan, the assistant manager Pako Ayesteran quit Liverpool after a fall-out with Rafa Benítez. Ayesteran was perceived as crucial to the club’s success under Benitez and the club never managed to replicate the heights they reached in the years after his departure.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/s...week-p8tjfxvwv

[Chris]

He's got great knowledge of both our potential opponents in the CL final

Can do this for a few years then have the job when Klopp has had enough

[spud_gun]

Definitely worrying, just who the **** briefed Castles of all people ffs.

This coupled with the constant leaking of the team