MR MOTIVATOR
On paper, Klopp’s first year at Anfield has not eclipsed his predecessor so if Liverpool are to win the title, it will take all the skills of the man hailed as…
JURGEN KLOPP is doing his best to manage expectations. The perception is that Liverpool appear to be on the cusp of something and that Manchester United are, at best, stagnant. Klopp, who faces Jose Mourinho’s team at Anfield tomorrow, has a vested interest in playing things down but his point is pertinent. ‘I know that at this moment everybody has the feeling that we are in a good way and they [United] are not in a good way but there are only three points’ difference,’ he says. ‘That’s absolutely nothing.’
Later he is asked about fans comparing him with Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, which he dismisses. ‘Nobody should compare this time with the good old times. This is a different time in a wonderful club in a difficult league.
‘A lot of good teams are around and the old times will not come back just because we wish them too. It is positive we had them and all these great personalities and guys and coaches and players, but it doesn’t help. And all the things which don’t help, you shouldn’t think about.’
He is right but his problem is that in his first year in charge — he took over on October 8, 2015 — he has made such an impression that no one quite believes him. At the end of this season, assuming Liverpool do not win the title, it will be 27 years since they last did in 1990; that is one year longer than United had to wait, between 1967-93, in their years of title-winning drought.
Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner was a team-mate at Mainz during their playing days and was Under-23 coach when Klopp was at Borussia Dortmund, so he is familiar with the euphoria Klopp generates. ‘Sometimes you catch a wave for a month or two,’ says Wagner. ‘At Dortmund we caught a wave for three years. Every single week, every single day was so unbelievably successful that you always thought: “OK. This is the highest level we can now reach. Nothing more is possible”.
‘First season, title, second season, title and cup, third season Champions League final. It was unbelievable. And the club grew as well, the atmosphere in the city: everyone was wearing a yellow shirt, even businessmen. It was crazy.’
Just to add to Klopp’s messianic aura, Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke once referred to him as a ‘Menschenfischern’ — a fisher of men. And Guido Schafer, a team-mate of Klopp and Wagner at Mainz, says: ‘In Germany we call him Menschenfanger — people catcher. They love him. He’s a great motivator and a charming person.’
Wagner echoes Schafer. ‘He can catch people and give them excitement. He has a lot of qualities but this is one of them.’
Klopp’s year has been impressive in parts. In fact, his 12-month record reads: Played 37, Won 18, Drawn 10, Lost 9. Brendan Rodgers’ final season at Liverpool, deemed broadly unacceptable, read: Played 38, Won 18, Drawn 8, Lost 12.
But never was Klopp’s ability to seize the mood and change it more apparent than at a post-match party after the Europa League defeat by Sevilla. Picking up the microphone he told his team: ‘Two hours ago you all felt s***. Now hopefully you all feel better. This is just the start for us. We will play in many more finals.’ He then launched into a chorus of: ‘We are Liverpool, tra-lala-la’. It was pure Klopp.
It echoed his speech outside Mainz town hall in 2003 after the club had missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga for the second year running on the last day of the season. ‘Someone, somewhere wanted to show to the world that, when you get knocked down, not once, not twice but even three or four times, you can get up again and keep fighting,’ he had said.
‘And that person decided there is no better town to show this to the world than Mainz. Which club have been through what we have been through? And now which club are going to have the story we’re going to have next season when we come back even stronger?’
He has a way of articulating a vision and making people believe it is their destiny. Business studies have been made of Klopp in Germany referring to Professor John Kotter of Havard Business School who distinguishes between managers, those who maintain performance in the short term by imitating others, and leaders, who want to change because they have a vision for the future. Klopp clearly falls into the latter category.
There is, of course a flip side to the positive passion, demonstrated when he was screaming in the face of the fourth official at Napoli in a Champions League tie against Dortmund in 2013, an incident about which he is embarrassed. ‘I have to accept that for a long time in my life not everybody is 100 per cent happy with my performance on the sidelines,’ he said. ‘But I think I’m not as intense as I used to be.’
His players can see that side of him too. ‘As a player, also as a coach, he is, sometimes, hysterical,’ says Schafer. ‘During a match we played in Saarbrucken in 1991 I made a mistake and he was one centimetre from me, nose to nose and shouting very loudly. Sometimes he is also unfair. But the great advantage of
Jurgen is that afterwards, it is forgotten. He says you’re an a***hole and one hour later he gives you a big hug. He’s a repairer of relationships.’
For years it has been accepted that the Premier League is likely to be won by the club with near enough the largest wage bill. Before even Leicester challenged this orthodoxy, Klopp was doing so in Germany. Admittedly Dortmund have the third largest wage bill in the Bundesliga, but it is dwarfed by Bayern Munich’s.
It is why his famed gegenpressing, the ability to run further, be fitter and win the ball back more effectively than any other team, is a crucial component of the Klopp package.
It is a style he developed from his mentor Wolfgang Frank at Mainz and which was honed by Ralf Rangnick, a managerial opponent in Bundesliga 2, who is now sporting director at RB Leipzig and which has been taken up by Thomas Tuchel, Klopp’s successor at both Mainz and Dortmund.
Wagner is attempting to implement something similar at Huddersfield. ‘Smaller or low-budget clubs with a poor starting point are able to compete with the bigger ones if you are able to implement this style of football,’ he says. ‘Mainz was one of the smaller clubs. When Jurgen joined Dortmund they had just had two years which were very unsuccessful, they were 13th and ninth in the Bundesliga, but he brought his new idea to the club. This has shown that it’s possible with this idea to be more successful compared to where you might be from your budget.’
When questioned about United’s record signings, the Paul Pogba transfer and obvious economic strength of Mourinho’s team, Klopp sends out an unmistakeable message. ‘I don’t care about how much money another club can spend,’ he says. ‘Absolutely not one second of my life did I worry. Having more money, or all the money in the world, is not in my dreams for the manager’s job. I never thought about this.’
It is hard not to feel The Kop, Anfield, the club, the city and the manager are the perfect fit. ‘You are only able to play this energetic, intense style over the 90 minutes if you get support,’ says Wagner. ‘You get that from the supporters. If not, you can make those runs six out of 10 times, but not 10 out 10 times.’ Schafer agrees. ‘It is possible to be successful. Dortmund twice won the title with much less money than Bayern Munich because of the tactics, the power. So it’s possible to win the title with Liverpool, with this Jurgen Klopp, with this team and with these fans.’