Adam Lallana Could Be Set for Management After Big Brighton Decision

When Jurgen Klopp concludes the tailpiece of his dewy-eyed farewell speech on Sunday afternoon under the Anfield sunshine, there will inevitably be an outpouring of emotion. All the memories of the great Klopp era will come flooding back – from the early years of rock and roll football never before seen in the Premier League to the halcyon days of domestic and continental trophy-collecting in Liverpool’s finest hours since the Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley aeons.

From Anfield Road to the Spion Kop, the Royal Albert dock, and all the way down to Kyiv and Madrid, there are too many stories to tell of Liverpool’s transition from doubters to believers to ever set foot at the end of memory lane. But what separates the great tales from the good are the ones often rusted by the effects of time and growth. It is easy to forget the humble situation from which Brendan Rodgers left the club in halfway through the 2015/16 season but Klopp’s first-ever lineup managed a 0-0 draw against Tottenham, which serves as a souvenir of how far the German’s reign has taken the club away from such unassuming settings.

Of those who made up that wistful first lineup, there is something deeply poetic about the fact that Klopp will close the book on his Premier League chapter at the same time as the first pupil of his way of football – Adam Lallana. Though not a Klopp signing, he was an archetypal Klopp player, and after leaving the club in 2020 for a free transfer to Brighton and Hove Albion, he too will be following in his former German manager’s footsteps following 103 appearances for the Seagulls, with his announcement this week coming at a time the Englishman desires a period of reflection away from the football pitch.

After a sabbatical, it is expected that Lallana will continue to mirror Klopp’s career by going into management, and it comes hardly as a surprise given his background with the Liverpool and Brighton coaches he’s played under.

Lallana’s Time at Brighton Ends

Already preparing for management

Signing on a free transfer to Brighton ahead of the 2020/21 campaign, Lallana continued to show all that he was worth as not only a talented creative midfielder, but also as a leader during the Seagulls’ rise to prominence as a genuine European football contender.

Frustratingly, injuries still quelled the Englishman’s ability to sparkle quite as much as he did at Anfield. But across four seasons, he was able to play his part in 94 Premier League games under Graham Potter and eventually Roberto de Zerbi. Under two more exciting managers he could learn from, Lallana was able to feel at home in yet more exciting sides, with the midfielder revealing the differences between his current manager and Klopp. He said to the Telegraph:

After announcing he is stepping away from Brighton, it appears likely that, after a well-deserved Indian summer, and perhaps more time with family, Lallana will make the leap from student to teacher once he decides it’s the right time to return to the sport he is obssessed with.

Following the departure of Potter to Chelsea in 2022, Lallana assisted interim manager Andrew Crofts as first-team coach, before playing a pivotal role in the de Zerbi side that qualified for the Europa League. Continuing to learn the ins and outs of coaching under the Italian, the Englishman is well-placed to continue to follow the likes of Klopp closely in his next chapter.

Adam Lallana at Liverpool

Klopp’s first disciple of rock and roll football

In Lallana’s six years at Anfield, nearly five of them were under Klopp’s tutelage. The pair won four trophies together, including the Premier League and Champions League across 178 appearances – while the Englishman’s energetic, third-lung stamina in the middle of the park hailed him as the first A* student of his manager’s high-intensity philosophy.

The now 36-year-old was the first player to truly subscribe to the German statesman’s ideals at Anfield during a period where game management was ditched for the risk-tolerant tactic of blowing teams away with fluid, high-pressing, attacking football. Lallana took all the gegenpressing medicine prescribed to him and covered every blade of grass, chasing the opposition’s possession like a bloodhound. If Klopp’s heavy-metal football had become Liverpool’s default style, Lallana was almost certainly providing the constant bass.

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For all the great sides Klopp managed, there was a time when Lallana was the first name in his midfield blueprint. But as the Reds became a monster of their own creation, and the Englishman’s time on Merseyside ebbed precariously towards the end through repeated injury setbacks, his Liverpool tenure came to an end when his contract was ran down in 2020.

Still, Liverpool fans will always have those rose-glistened memories of Norwich away and Old Trafford, where one man played a huge individual role in the tale of a sleeping giant slowly reawakening. And while Gini Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara, Fabinho, among others, have all come after him, there hasn’t quite been a player like Lallana under Klopp’s missile-strapped wing since. His studious nature and teacher’s pet-like attitude, Lallana learnt a lot under Klopp, and his future coaching potential was there for all to see from the start.