Former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann has slammed the club's "strange" decision to award Jurgen Klopp a new six-year contract less than 12 months into his original deal.
Klopp replaced Brendan Rodgers in October 2015 and went on to lead Liverpool to the EFL Cup and Europa League finals in his debut campaign, but lost both to Manchester City and Sevilla respectively.
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Liverpool's performances in those competitions seemingly impressed the club enough to offer Klopp an extension in July, and the German appeared to vindicate that decision by overseeing a strong start to the season.
But they have won only one of 10 games across all competitions since the turn of the year and have gone from being title challengers to having a top-four fight on their hands, with Hamann thoroughly unimpressed.
"You don't get stability from a six-year contract - you get it from good work in the transfer market," Hamann told the BBC. "I found it strange.
"He had an impact and has improved some players but if you look at the pure facts, the points average didn't improve dramatically from Brendan Rodgers' time.
"They have lost two finals - both they could or should have won - and then the club make a decision with their heart and not their head and extend the contract.
"I hope he is there for six years, that means the club will have been successful. But if you look at the table, they were one of the favourites for the title six or eight weeks ago and now there is a big question mark whether they will finish in the top four.
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"In recent years whenever the chips have been down the team have failed and that hasn't changed with Klopp.
"Whether Klopp can change it with this team, or another, I am not sure, but something has to change because the way the team is going in recent years is not good enough."