‘I can’t walk on water like Jesus, but I do like to dive in,’ says Klopp
LIVERPOOL’S new manager Jurgen Klopp is embarking on a crammer course to learn about the club and its players, saying: ‘I can’t walk on water like Jesus, but I do like to dive in.’
Yesterday morning was spent watching the under18s face Stoke City at the club’s academy at Kirkby.
Tomorrow, those players not on international duty including Daniel Sturridge, Alberto Moreno, Lucas Leiva and Philippe Coutinho have been told to cancel their scheduled day off and report for training so the new manager can look at them for the first time.
In between, any spare moment will be used to study all Liverpool’s matches this season to assess data and trying to identify any weaknesses.
Like Louis van Gaal at Manchester United, Klopp stresses he will be no respecter of age or transfer fee. He says his speciality is developing young players, citing the example of Robert Lewandowski whom he signed from Lech Poznan at the age of 21 and turned into one of Europe’s leading strikers at Borussia Dortmund.
‘When I manage a club, each young player should smile because the chance is bigger for them than it ever was,’ said Klopp. ‘The door is pretty wide open and I don’t care about experience. Experience is an important point, but not the most important.
‘Of course if a player is on a top level already and you can hold this for two or three years, then everything is perfect. But the young guns are very interesting. That’s what I enjoy doing.
‘The will to improve is the most important thing for a Jurgen Klopp player. Character. The biggest satisfaction you can get is when you take a player from Poland, from a small club and watch him playing today.
‘The difference between that player and the player he is today is unbelievable. I’m not self-confident enough to think I have had the only role in his [Lewandowski’s] development, but of course I did play a big part. We all know the best players of today. Tomorrow we don’t know, so we can work for this.’
That will be music to the ears of John W Henry who after spending more than £350million on players, a lot of them duds, would rather rely on the current squad and home-grown players rather than going on another spree.
It also gives plenty of incentive to Coutinho, 23, and a trio of 24-year-old players in Christian Benteke, Roberto Firmino and Nathaniel Clyne to take another step up in their careers.
Not to mention the generation behind them, Jordon Ibe, Divock Origi and Jordan Rossiter. Big- money signings Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana could be vulnerable and James Milner will have to start from scratch having joined Liverpool in the summer on the promise of getting more first-team football than he did at Manchester City.
Sacked manager Brendan Rodgers’ relationship with £29m Firmino was questionable.
He regularly left him out and after he did appear in a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Manchester United last month, the manager pointedly criticised the team’s ‘lack of creativity’.
Klopp, at least, will know Firmino well from Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.
The 48-year-old German has been under siege because of the huge interest from fans and media. Supporters have gathered outside his hotel, paparazzi shots have been taken from every vantage point and his car has been followed.
Klopp, who has his wife Ulla and son Marc with him, is trying to dampen expectations but at the same time his energy gives the impression of someone who is not going to mess around.
‘Liverpool fans have been waiting for many years, I understand they lose patience,’ he said. ‘Some things will change for sure because I am different to other managers, but we can not change the whole world in one day. But I don’t want to be sitting in here in three years saying, “Now we can start the rising”.
‘We must try straight away to do more, learn more invest more.’ Rodgers, who is on holiday in Mallorca, was criticised by so many former Liverpool players it felt like a conspiracy, maybe from the top.
Klopp is safe for the remainder of this season at least but dismisses outside pressure being a factor. ‘It is normal to be criticised if things don’t work but I don’t care about that. I criticise myself enough, so I don’t need outsiders.’
He might have been offered the job in the summer but made it clear he wanted to recharge his batteries after leaving Dortmund following the German Cup final in May.
‘I didn’t want to be in the cup final on Sunday, and on Monday I am sitting in a room somewhere in the world saying “we have to build a new team”.
‘I am ready for this now. I hope we can enjoy a little bit of our time here. At least the next week before Tottenham!’