Covering Klopp’s Kop fairytale was one HELL OF A RIDE
From high-fives to tonguelashings, DOMINIC KING has lived and breathed manager’s ‘miraculous’ Anfield tenure
EVEN now, I can still hear his finger tap-tap-tapping firmly into the table and feel the intensity that was radiating from him.
The date — Friday, October 9, 2015 — and time — 1.45pm — is unforgotten. Jurgen Klopp had walked into a lounge of Liverpool’s Centenary Stand and immediately you knew things had changed.
Dressed in a black blazer, black shirt, dark denim jeans, sartorially he had the laidback chic of a Californian tech boss and he was blazing in his mission to reboot a listing club.
‘I’m not the guy who is going to shout, “We are going to conquer the world!” or something like this,’ he explained, perching forward from his seat to hammer home his message. ‘We will conquer the ball. Each f***ing time! We will chase the ball, run more, fight more.
‘If there is a good tackle that gets the ball, it’s like a goal! We have to find our own way to play. I want this to be a special team.’
He’d started those nine minutes by apologising for the quality of his English but nothing was lost in translation. This was Klopp, effectively, telling us to buckle up.
You could tell even in those first few weeks that Liverpool were going to go a different place because the man steering the ship was different. With each passing week, you heard stories about the culture shift that was occurring and the influence he was having.
One involves Jordan Henderson being asked by the squad to go and speak to Klopp about his decision to move training to a 5pm start as opposed to mid-morning.
The move was unpopular, most players wanted something more sociable. When Henderson made the enquiry, Klopp pulled a face and told his captain to go back and get those who had an issue to see him themselves. Nobody came forward — training stayed at 5pm.
Klopp wasn’t to be messed with: he hated questions that he felt would lead him down the line to a cheap headline and he could explode at any given moment.
One happened after a 2-2 draw against Tottenham in February 2018, at Anfield, when Harry Kane equalised with a stoppage-time penalty. Klopp had made a comment about Tottenham’s players going down ‘to cause these kind of problems’, I asked for clarity about what he meant.
The reaction was so volcanic, it’s now the first clip on a YouTube video called ‘When Premier League managers lose the plot’ that has been viewed 650,000 times. If he felt you were wrong, you would be told. You could fight your corner but, like Henderson and the training-time plea, you wouldn’t win.
Don’t for a moment, though, think this was some kind of problem. We had ringside seats for the transformation of a football club and being on the journey was compelling, the kind of ride that, as a reporter, made you want to always be there to chronicle it all.
When he started to warm to those he was seeing each week, his quotes became more colourful and insightful. There was even tourist advice for us, too, when ahead of a Europa League tie in Augsburg in February 2016, he explained where we should stay. ‘Go to Munich,’ he said with a wink and grin, recommending one of the city’s famous beer halls where we should eat a pork knuckle. ‘Very, very good.’
Snapshots like that helped you understand why the players were so eager to follow his lead. He forged a bond and wanted to give each member of his squad the chance to fulfil their potential. Those who never did should look back on it with regret.
For what Klopp has overseen at Anfield has been something quite miraculous. There will be time in the coming months to look back on the great victories and trophies, but, at this juncture, there are two matches — for this observer — that must be discussed. The first was against Manchester City at Anfield in January 2018. The game finished 4-3 but it was the nine-minute spell when Liverpool went from 1-1 to 4-1 that told you the gut feeling they were going to become a serious team would be realised.
HERE was Klopp’s vision of football unfolding: hard running, electrifying pressing, chaos reigning in the opposition defence. Anfield shook that afternoon with delirium, Pep Guardiola shook his head with disbelief.
We must also talk about his greatest night — Liverpool 4 Barcelona 0 — or, more specifically, the night before when he stood in a corridor outside the media room and started speaking about the prospects of overhauling what seemed an impossible first-leg deficit. Away from the cameras, you could see he really fancied Liverpool’s chances. The more he spoke, the more he puffed out his chest, the more you thought it was possible.
Twenty-four hours later I was perched with a laptop on my knee, trying to get all that had happened down when Klopp walked past. We made eye contact, he produced one of those megawatt smiles and we slapped hands spontaneously. No words were necessary.
Words, however, are vital now. The enormity of his decision to leave at the end of the season cannot be overstated and January 26, 2024, is the most significant date at Anfield since February 22, 1991, when Kenny Dalglish called time on his first stint as manager.
Klopp has been the modern Bill Shankly, in terms of lifting the club and being a catalyst for radical change. That compliment is not bestowed lightly but it feels appropriate to fully explain everything that has happened since he jabbed his finger all those years ago.
The last time we properly spoke was six months ago after Liverpool’s first pre-season friendly in Karlsruhe. His family had just had some wonderful news and there was only one way to begin the conversation. ‘How are we grandad?’ I said, before explaining a new opportunity had opened up and I was moving to cover horseracing.
‘Horses?’ he said, eyes twinkling. ‘So this means, finally, you might actually be writing about something you know about?’
Others, certainly, are better placed to answer that question. What I know for sure is that covering Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool was an experience like no other. And he was true to his word from that first meeting: he made a special team.