Liverpool is a club I can’t say no to, a world brand that feels like a family WHEN FOWLER MET KLOPP
player and appreciate passion.
I do what I love, I really do what I love and that’s the biggest thing. When I passed my A-levels, the school head said in front of the other students: ‘I hope you do something in football otherwise I’m not optimistic for you.’
How did that go for you? As a a fan, I can your genuine
It was really hard in that moment I can tell you. But I sit here today and I can train a club like Liverpool. . it still feels like a f ****** sensation. It’s unbelievable.
That brings me on to another thing – Liverpool means something more than a football club to you. I think you’re a perfect fit, because your philosophy helps you get the people of this city.
It’s the other way round too. Yes, I felt something special when Mike Gordon called me. I wasn’t ready, I thought it made sense that I had a year off. But I really knew, OK, that’s one club I can’t say no to.
You surely would have your pick of clubs though, there were others. Of course there were other clubs.
It is documented Manchester United made an approach, so why Liverpool?
“I love the history. I really am a football romantic. I knew I probably can help. They maybe really need me. I know what I’m good at. When they told me about the problems I thought, ‘OK, yeah, I’m probably the really right manager for that club’.
A little thing. Liverpool is a world-class brand, big, big, big, but in Melwood, you know it Robbie, it’s still a family, nothing else, and you can go in and feel that. I have to develop and improve, sure, but I don’t want to go into the office in the morning to wear a tie. That is not me. So when you see the pictures – and I realise it as well – I look still like a player. That’s not cool, but that’s me. I go in with a baseball cap and they still respect me, I don’t have to act in a specific way. They took me like I am, didn’t ask me to do anything else, so I could focus from the first day completely on football.
It is a football club. A FOOTBALL club. I had talks with other clubs and they didn’t sound like a football club. It sounded like marketing, image, you need to sign this, to sign that. And I thought wow, that’s not the game I love. It’s all part of football, but it can’t be the No.1 priority. First of all please try to improve the game we play. And that’s what I’m good at. All the rest can happen but it’s not so important for me.
Bill Shankly’s (left) beliefs are similar to yours, he always believed in a common effort delivering a common reward that everyone shares in, but he was prepared to take the burden of delivering that.
I can take the pressure, I really can take it. I don’t know why, but I can take it. That’s very important. Another little agreement with my players – for the good performance, they are responsible. For the bad performance, I am responsible. That is really important. Football players need someone around who is there for them in the decisive moments, and I really feel that is my job.
I like the support you give players. We had a fantastic keeper called David James, but he was given the tag Calamity James, which affected his career. I’m a big fan of Dejan Lovren (right), and you protected him from that.
It’s true sometimes players are unfairly treated. Two positions that are really, really difficult to play for Liverpool: goalkeeper and centre-half. It’s like you can never be good enough, whatever you do, they still say, ‘We need a world-class replacement’.
The Tottenham game I was angry. Really angry. I took Dejan off after 25 minutes and didn’t speak to him afterwards. But a few days later I saw him waiting for my talk, so I said, come in. ‘You took me off after 20 minutes,’ he said. ‘Because you were bad,’ I said.
But I said to him – maybe this was the decisive moment when he got it – I think he’s a world-class centre-half, 100 per cent. Yes with weakness, concentration can lapse from time to time, could be harder here, whatever. But he is a world-class centre-half, otherwise he would not be here any more.
Kolo Toure left, Martin Skrtel left, Mama Sakho left, a lot of centre-halves we had left. He’s still here, I am not blind and I am not silly. But I am completely convinced about him. That is all there is to it.
So he hears I think he’s a world-class centre-half, and that maybe helped him, I don’t know. But it’s really the thing players need in these moments, and they need a clear opinion.
They respect me, so if I think they are good, then they start thinking themselves they are good. And Dejan Lovren is 100 per cent a world-class player.
Little things like that go a long way for players. I know how much it helps them.
Yeah, but it came from him, because I thought he needed to know by himself. It’s not that I go around telling everybody how fantastic they are. I expect really hard work, and I expect they are mature, that they are ready for the fight out there. It’s not that it’s easy. We now play Real Madrid.