How the Reds’ departing manager provoked such strong feelings among players, fans and a city.
Gavin Cooney A THREAD TO all of the end-of-reign tributes to Jurgen Klopp is the idea that he simply got Liverpool and its biggest football club, but that is to tell the story the wrong way round.“His connection with the city was not him connecting with the city,” says journalist Tony Evans. “It was the city connecting with him. I once asked him about it. He said, ‘I didn’t get the city: I don’t go out, how can I go out!? I get mobbed.’ So instead, the city got him.
Daire Gorman met Klopp at Liverpool’s training ground last year, and you are one of millions to have seen their encounter. Jürgen welcomes Seán Cox and his family to Anfield after yesterday's game ❤️ pic.twitter.com/McuSUB8A6I “In football, your past with other clubs buys you some time,” says Richie Partridge, a former Liverpool player who returned to the club as a physio during Klopp’s tenure. “But footballers will give you one or two weeks and if they are not having you, they are not having you. Within two weeks, every player – to a man – would have bent over backwards to do anything he wanted. It’s down to his man-management skills and his personality.
I ask Masterson for his memories of the team-talk ahead of that City victory, but he tells me he remembers the speech before the following game against Everton instead. Jason McAteer was in the room, and recalls Klopp’s speech. “This feeling we have right now is one we never want to feel again. The expectation is for more finals and success and I hope everyone is on board. Now, I’ve done my little speech, everyone get pissed and have a good time.” The atmosphere instantly changed.
Crucial, too, was the return of Pep Lijnders to Klopp’s staff in the summer of 2018, after a brief and unhappy spell in charge of NEC Nijmegen, whom he had joined from Liverpool at the start of the year. Van Dijk and Alisson brought leadership and solidity, while Lijnders some of the tactical detail Klopp lacked.
The relentlessness of the team reflected that of their manager: there’s a reason Masterson found the team-talk before the lower-key Everton league game more powerful than the one before the megawatt Champions League tie with City. There was a lot of turnover behind the scenes, and Klopp could be difficult and abrasive in driving standards. The has delivered enough tetchy TV interviews and snarling tirades in the face of fourth officials for that fact to be no secret.“On a social and personal level, he is one of the most remarkable men you will ever come across. From a professional side of things, he was extremely, extremely intense.
“I know the demands and at that level, the buck stops with him”, says Partridge. “He needs to be like that. What people can sometimes mix up is what’s professional and what’s personal. I can guarantee anything he has said that has upset people, it wasn’t personal. Amid this, Liverpool bucked a years-long policy in becoming drawn into a messy and public saga around Moses Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, ultimately ending up with neither. Those who did arrive didn’t quite hit the same heights: neither Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez were signed by Edwards, and neither proved to be quite as reliable and effective as Mane and Firmino.
Jurgen Klopp Liverpool Richie Partridge Ynwa
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