Klopp out to stick it to Bayern again
Anfield boss relishing latest chapter in rivalry
JURGEN KLOPP pulled one of those faces and did his best to move on. He was asked about his personal history with Bayern Munich and what spice it adds to an enthralling Champions League tie.
‘I don’t feel like this,’ insisted the Liverpool manager. ‘I don’t see it as a personal thing for me. It is two big clubs facing each other and I am really happy to be part of this game. It’s a big one. It is a game you want to see.’
That much is true, but the former Borussia Dortmund boss was perhaps not telling the whole story. Bayern, who are not so much a club but a footballing juggernaut, have been so closely entwined with the German’s life for the past decade.
For seven years, Klopp went head to head with Bayern. He twice knocked them off their perch to win the Bundesliga and there was also the Champions League final defeat at Wembley in 2013 that still gnaws away at him. Bayern also had a habit of buying Dortmund’s players.
Klopp caused Bayern problems like no other manager, but this would never have come as a surprise to the powerbrokers in Bavaria. They made contact with him when he was Mainz manager in 2008 and you sense they will try again one day.
‘To beat them was the biggest challenge you could face in German football, always,’ said Klopp, who has concerns about Roberto Firmino’s fitness after the Brazil striker missed training yesterday with a virus.
‘Sometimes we did it and sometimes we didn’t. It is pretty much all true (that Munich wanted me) apart from the claim I was angry afterwards when they called me to say they had decided on the other Jurgen (Klinsmann). I wasn’t angry. I never expected they would go for me.
‘I was a second division manager in Germany — a Championship manager, if you want — and who would expect that Bayern calls you? It was more of a shock in the first moment.
‘Then, a couple of days later, they called to say they had gone with the other Jurgen. All the rest is true.
‘It was Uli Hoeness on the phone. I would never have told the story. It is not a story where you go around telling people: “They asked me if I would go there!” But Uli Hoeness spoke about it (last week) and I can confirm that’s how it was.’
The sight of Klopp will cause anxiety for Bayern, who have lost some of the sheen Pep Guardiola applied to them in the three years after they completed the treble of Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League in 2013 under Jupp Heynckes.
Liverpool ripped them to shreds in the Audi Cup in July 2017, the friendly tournament that Bayern take such pride in hosting, and there is a feeling they could do it for real this evening, with the promise of goals. As Niko Kovac, Bayern’s manager, noted: ‘We probably won’t see a 0-0.’
Klopp would not take the bait when asked if he felt Bayern are a fading force. They might be an old team, but anyone who doubts the quality of striker Robert Lewandowski, metronomic midfielder Thiago Alcantara or goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is being naive.
‘You had Guardiola, one of the best managers in the world and they played fantastic football, won the league three times,’ he said. ‘Then with Carlo Ancelotti, who is doing a brilliant job at Naples, it didn’t work out. They brought Heynckes back and he managed all the trouble and was successful again. Now they have to change it completely, a new manager, and a few very experienced players are injured.
‘But I’ve watched seven games now and I can’t see any obvious problem. For me, they’re even more dangerous. They’ll try everything to win this competition.’
Both clubs have won the European Cup five times, but it rankles Liverpool’s players that they didn’t record a sixth last May. Captain Jordan Henderson feels there is unfinished business.
‘When you lose in a final, it stays with you,’ he said. ‘You use that as motivation to try to get back there and put it right. And if we get back, hopefully, we will go one step further.’
Klopp, meanwhile, has revealed Liverpool were interested in signing Jadon Sancho but were frustrated because top Premier League clubs are unwilling to do business with each other.
The 18-year-old left Manchester City in August 2017 and has become one of the top talents in Europe since Dortmund signed him for £8million. If the Germans ever decide to sell him, he will almost certainly cost more than £100m.
‘Buying English players is a smart idea because we would never have a chance to get Sancho,’ said Klopp.
‘We are not blind. We saw him, we liked him and we thought: “Can we get him?” No. English clubs don’t sell to other English clubs. I don’t know what the reason is for that, but they don’t do it.’