ReaL wiLL do it
Klopp’s decision to stay on indicates that he knows it’s one of the best jobs in football, and it also makes clear his ambition to achieve much more with this team.
Pushing
(right)
Never underestimate his ambition. He is as driven as any man we’ve seen in a top job in football.
One story from his punditry days in Germany tells us plenty about the man behind the mask.
Many of us mostly see the smiling Klopp, dispensing hugs to his players and pushing the ‘man of the people’ vibe.
But the reporters on the Liverpool beat say that he has a short fuse. When the TV cameras are switched off, he can be as blunt and acerbic with them as Alex Ferguson in his heyday. iF HiSToRY has taught us anything, it’s that Champions League semi-final second legs have a habit of producing incredible drama. There are so many examples over the years. Think of those successive nights in 2019 when Liverpool and Tottenham came back from the dead against Barcelona and Ajax respectively. Liverpool are in action on the same stage this week and i think they’ll get past Villarreal with a degree of comfort. But Real Madrid are well capable of knocking out Manchester City.
In his biography of Klopp — ‘Bring The Noise’ — Raphael Honigstein wrote about one incident that made it clear he has a tough side.
Much work had gone into a video analysis package for the 2006 World Cup but, on the day before the tournament started, the producers couldn’t get it to work.
According to Honigstein, Klopp was so furious that he kicked a hole in the reception wall.
You need that fire in your belly, the German still has it. Don’t underestimate too the bond between manager and supporters, and the team and the Kop.
“We want to offer emotion and that’s obviously possible with the people who support us,’’ he said.
“We want to deliver excitement, we want to deliver that you really can buy in and understand and
Pep Guardiola’s men should have put this tie to bed in the first 20 minutes at the Etihad.
Real grabbed their lifeline and they have shown on several different occasions that they have incredible spirit and character.
Form
in Karim Benzema (inset), they have a world class striker in the form of his life. Scoring three times at the Etihad showed us that Real can cause City huge problems at home.
A one goal lead can evaporate quickly at the Bernabeu. City will feel the heat. i think Real will do it.
you don’t think ‘they are there and we are here and we aren’t really connected’.
Connected
“We want to be together with our people, we want to really be connected and want to be special as well as a club.
“We all sit here now and in 20 years’ time we will look back and for all of us it’s about creating stories which we will remember easily and think, ‘Wow, that was good’. But we have to do that now — we cannot wait 10 years.
“This is only the start. That’s the plan, that we really, really go for it. There are no guarantees in our situation, our sport. It’s why we have to enjoy the journey.” Liverpool are in good hands. They’ll be building a statue of Klopp when he eventually leaves.