It is apparent in Raphael Honigstein’s biography of Jurgen Klopp (“Bring the Noise”) that one of the challenges of managing a club like Liverpool is the weight of history. The argument is that there is a disconnect between where the club should be given the five European Cups and 18 English titles and where it can be, given the current revenue and landscape of English football, with heavily-resourced rivals who simply weren’t around in Liverpool’s hey-day.

It is nothing Klopp has faced before. Mainz were a historically small club that he took to the top tier. Borussia Dortmund did have a Golden Era in the 1990s - with two league titles and a Champions League - but what followed was near bankruptcy. Klopp was the man who led the rebuild and ultimately delivered.

At Liverpool, it is a bit different. Few sets of supporters have as much of a sense of their own club’s history. Between 1972 and 1991 Liverpool finished first or second 18 of 19 times, becoming English champions on 11 occasions. In the 26 seasons since, they have never won a title and finished second just three times. This period of boom followed by decline has had two effects. On the one hand, the decline has lasted so long that it has imbued supporters with a sense of hope, a need to believe and support whichever manager was handed the reins. You get your own banner and song very quickly at Anfield and the honeymoon - unless you’re Roy Hodgson - lasts a long time.

The flip side is that the memory of the glory years is still strong and when you lose momentum, you are reminded of it. Not least because the actors of that glorious era are all around you, populating the airwaves and the punditocracy.

This is the crossroads at which Klopp stands as his team travel to take on Bournemouth today. They are coming off two home games - against Everton and West Bromwich Albion - which they dominated and yet dropped four points. It is the difference between lying in third place alongside Chelsea heading into the weekend, within striking distance of Manchester United in second or getting sucked into the battle for a place in the Champions League. Which, inevitably, translates into the battle to get that extra big signing next season.

It is true that Bournemouth have lost half their home games this season. But it is also true that a trip to the Emirates against Arsenal follows and, if they don’t get three points at the Vitality, the prospect of four games without a win heading into the holiday period is not a pretty one.

Klopp knows this and part of the reason he has rotated his squad in the past few fixtures - to much criticism - is precisely to have a fresher group come January. He is mindful of the fact that between New Year’s day and the first week in February last season Liverpool won just one game and that was against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup. In the Premier League, they took just two of a possible 12 points, slipping from second place (six points off the top) to fifth (13 back).

The critics will say that being fresh in January won’t do him much good if he is dropping points now. Few are as adept at ignoring the criticism and sticking to his path as he is though his reaction with the Sky reporter after the Merseyside derby, out-of-character as it was, makes you wonder whether it was a mere blip.

More than most jobs, the one of manager is as much about perception as reality. His predecessor, Rafa Benitez, used to say that “football is a lie” and the table is dishonest too, because it doesn’t correlate to the work you do and the events on the pitch. That is what makes today so important. A win away to Bournemouth will help ensure the “lie” doesn’t become a little more real.

WE live in an era of super agents. Folks who are more powerful on their own than a handful of football clubs. It’s not knocking the likes of Mino Raiola or Jorge Mendes - they do their jobs within a system that allows them to do what they do - but sometimes it is still worth taking a step back and surveying just how much power they wield.

Last week, AC Milan were shaken after multiple outlets reported that their most prized asset - goalkeeper Gigio Donnarumma, who at 18 has been a regular for two seasons and is already an Italian international - had written to the club via his lawyer complaining that the contract extension he had signed in the summer had come “under duress”. This prompted all sorts of speculation that his deal might be cancelled (unlikely) and that, just six months after signing a deal worth close to £200,000 a week (at 18!) he was planning an exit. Real Madrid and Paris St Germain were quickly linked and when he took the pitch in a cup game on Wednesday, he was mercilessly booed by Milan fans who displayed a banner inviting him to get the hell out of their club.

Donnarumma then took to Instagram to say he never claimed he had been forced to sign his deal (though he stopped short of addressing whether his lawyer did, nor did he say he wanted to stay). Milan tried to minimise the affair, expressing their love for the player. As for his agent, Raiola (who also looks after Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a host of others) he simply invited folks not to blame the kid and said there was a “personal issue” between himself and the club’s sporting director, while reiterating his admiration and love for the club. Notably, he didn’t deny instructing the lawyer to send the letter either.

Raiola, of course, has a history of engineering moves and commissions in the tens of millions. He often gets his own way which is why he probably doesn’t mind playing the villain here. The obvious question concerns Donnarumma: given that what happened last week is down to Raiola, if he didn’t approve of it, why doesn’t he get himself a new agent?

Only he can answer that. And it may be that he is a confused 18-year-old, pulled in different directions by competing interests, telling everyone what they want to hear.

As long as he stays within the law, Raiola’s methods are fine when he is dealing with a certain type of player: an Ibrahimovic or a Pogba, somebody who is clearly emotionally tough enough for it. Donnarumma’s behaviour suggests he is not like that. And it is sad to see him caught up in something so much bigger than he is.