I think Sam is doing the first part of the job well, and everyone knew he would do really
And that is the steadying of the ship, making us a tighter defensive unit who dont concede many goals
He’s got to be given credit for this. Especially when that defence is forged from 2 youngsters, a veteran who we had all written off and a fairly poor quality right back, with no left foot who we are playing at left back
It’s not fair to judge our lack of winning ambition in the derby as sams blueprint for the future. The vast majority were expecting a defeat, a few weeks earlier we had conceded 5 and 4 in consecutive games, to have that defence solid and resilient after 4 games in charge deserves credit, against a side who traditionally hammer us, who we have a Strange mental block against, who had scored 5 and 7 in their previous 2 games
He outwitted his opposite number, despite it being really obvious what our game plan would be. Klopp had a couple of weeks to work on a plan for this really as the second Sam took over in the state we were in, there is only 1 way he was going to approach the game, and he couldn’t out wit him
What is important is if he can reach the next stage, which for me will involve 2 things and will dictate whether he can have the job past this season. First of all to play more attacking football and take the game to teams more. Utilising Bolasie when he is back, plus giving game time to Lookman and Vlasic amongst others would be great. Also we need to start winning away games, and Newcastle would be a great place to start.
If he leaves though in the summer, after guiding us to 7th and he’s managed to give plenty of game time to the younger players and we replace him with a more progressive manager, than I would have to say I’ve been happy with the appointment