Jamie Carragher has named Liverpool’s next manager as Klopp’s exit edges closer

Jamie Carragher thinks Xabi Alonso will succeed Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool after comparing the Spanish manager’s career to those of Jose Mourinho and Klopp.

The 42-year-old is presently the favorite to replace Klopp, who declared he would be leaving the role following a stellar nine-year tenure at Anfield.

After joining Anfield in 2004, Alonso played for five years and became a crucial part of Rafael Benitez’s Champions League winning team in 2005.

Since taking over as manager of Bayer Leverkusen in 2022, Alonso has turned a relegation threatened team to potentially a league winning team. The Spaniard’s team leads the Bundesliga standings ahead of Bayern Munich and could finally become the team to end Bayern’s dominance in Germany.

With a 3-0 victory against championship rivals Bayern on Saturday, Leverkusen extended their winning streak to 31 games across all competitions and took a five-point advantage atop the Bundesliga standings.

Carragher acknowledges that he is reminded of Mourinho and Klopp’s underdog victories at FC Porto and Borussia Dortmund before receiving their big breaks in Europe by Alonso’s “remarkable” performance at the BayArena.

“We’re going to look at it because I think there’s a great chance he will become the next Liverpool manager, he seems the standout favourite. When you think of the great managers and where they start, a lot of them do something pretty remarkable at maybe a lower level,” Carragher said on Monday Night Football.

“You think of what Jose did at FC Porto, winning a Champions League there, you think of Jurgen Klopp, winning two titles with Borussia Dortmund and now I think of Xabi Alonso and if actually achieves what it looks like their favourites now to achieve – to win a Bundesliga – and the result that they had at the weekend, I think it will be really insightful to actually see, if he is in the Premier League next season, what is his way of playing? How does he go about it and how would it be different to Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool team?”

Leading the Premier League at the moment, Liverpool have advanced to the round of 16 in the FA Cup and Europa League and will play Chelsea in the League Cup final later this month.