Jurgen Klopp - good read.

[dockers_strike]

Good read.

 

Jurgen Klopp walks into his private lounge at Anfield. He grabs a cookie from the table and takes a bite. He jokes around a little and sits down. Even amid cold chrome, shiny table-tops and sleek glass with hard edges, warm energy pours off him. I ask if his joie de vivre is ever an effort. ‘Is it a choice?’ he asks. ‘I was never different.’

Klopp gets a vape machine out and fiddles with it a bit. ‘I am not always in a good mood,’ he says, ‘but it’s not long that I am in a bad mood. A bad mood is a waste of time. It’s not useful. You suffer. It’s like you have an open wound. You don’t like it but when it’s fixed, you don’t think about it any more. So keep on going. That’s my attitude.

‘I hear people when they meet me in hotels... the guy who showed me to my room in Huddersfield a couple of days ago told me: “You are always smiling.” And I said: “I’m not. You should have seen me after West Brom.” It’s an image but I have no problem with that. It’s not that I’m constantly smiling but I like my life, that’s true.

 

 

‘I didn’t always have the circumstances I have now and I was still rather happy. If I am not a happy person now, I would be pretty silly and I am not silly. I have a fantastic family. All are healthy, in a good place in life, I work for a fantastic club and I do a job I love, so how could I not be happy? Happy child, if you want. Not too smart but not silly enough not to come through.’

 

So Klopp leans back on the sofa in the corner of the room and takes the odd drag on his vape machine. And he talks about the magnificent 4-3 win over Manchester City last month. And he talks about the Spurs team his Liverpool side will face on Sunday and his admiration for Harry Kane. And he talks about the England team and how they can overcome their fears and how we are cutting our young players off in their prime.

And he talks about the Black Forest, where he grew up, and the characteristics of the people there. It is said they are modest folk who park the Mercedes in the garage and leave the Beetle on the drive. And that they are careful with their money. Klopp nods. ‘Every pound is a prisoner,’ he says.

 

 

And he talks about his clubs, Mainz and Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, and how his teams have to over-achieve because, one way or another, they often seem to be underdogs. And he talks about the transfer window that has just gone. And he puffs out his cheeks and smiles when I mention Manchester City flirted with the idea of paying £60million for Riyad Mahrez to help them deal with the six-week absence of Leroy Sane. 

‘Next level, eh,’ says Klopp with a grin. But he does not say any of it with envy. Or bitterness. ‘I never moaned about my circumstances once in my whole life,’ he says. That is part of the key to understanding the Liverpool manager. Envy and bitterness are not in his make-up.

People watch his touchline antics and call him ‘crazy’ but if he is a madman, he is the most serene madman I’ve ever met. He laughs again about money and transfers and Virgil van Dijk. ‘We bought a centre-half for quite a few pounds ourselves,’ he says.

 

Klopp refuses to get envious of the money spent by his rival Pep Guardiola at Manchester City

 

Table-toppers City are 19 points in front of Klopp's men ahead of Liverpool's clash with Spurs

Klopp carries the air of a man who has discovered the secret. Remember that sign that Arsenal fans used to hold up in happier times? ‘Arsene Knows’, it said. Now Klopp knows. With Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino, he is one of a holy trinity of managers reshaping English football. These are fast times on the Anfield Road.

Klopp is content, self-contained. He does not stand on his tip-toes and peer over the garden fence so he can glimpse the new extension his neighbour has built. He does not covet what others have. Liverpool might have paid £75m for Van Dijk last month but they do not have the resources that City or United have. Klopp does not rage against that. He accepts it.

It does not mean his ambition does not burn fiercely. It does. He believes he will lead Liverpool to the title. But the quest is not destroying him. The job will not turn him into a walking storm cloud like Antonio Conte, a man tormented by resentment.

 

Klopp on signing Virgil van Dijk: 'We bought a centre-half for quite a few pounds ourselves!'

Liverpool signed Van Dijk for £75million, making him the world's most expensive defend

Liverpool and Chelsea are level on points but one man is building and the other is disintegrating.

Klopp’s philosophy flies in the face of modern society’s obsession with instant gratification: be happy with what you’ve got, don’t measure everything against your rival, think about the players you watch in your own team and keep the faith that things will grow, do not be silly enough not to come through.

In Voltaire’s satire Candide, the hero decides at the end that, after witnessing all manner of horrors and excesses, after seeing jealousy and avarice, he has the antidote. ‘Il faut cultiver notre jardin,’ he says. Look after your own garden. Don’t worry about others. Klopp smiles again at the mention of it.

‘It is always like this,’ he says. ‘You can be a millionaire and your neighbour is a billionaire and you are not happy only because you live in the wrong neighbourhood. Maybe you want to move your house to where there is no billionaire and then you are the king of the road. Please, I cannot be like this.

 

Klopp was speaking exclusively to the Mail on Sunday's Chief Sports Writer Oliver Holt

‘I’m not only thankful for my life, I’m thankful for the circumstances we have. We have to use it. It’s just exactly like it should be. If we can really develop, then we can be more successful. There is not much of a gap any more. It’s not as if there are eight places between us and the top. One team has been outstanding this season. 

 

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'We have to accept City as our neighbour and say they play fantastic football and it’s nice to watch and that’s OK and it’s well deserved. We have the chance to do it similarly. That’s what we’re building towards. The only problem here is that the people are waiting so long, otherwise they could be happy with the situation. But we cannot change our history and we don’t want to, so we have to deal with it.

‘If we talk only about the money City have, you cannot compete. We said it already: we have two clubs in world football which are owned by countries. We cannot compete with that. It would be easy for me to say that, in comparison, “we have only FSG (Fenway Sports Group)”. But I don’t think that because we have FSG and they are fantastic.

‘We have Mike Gordon, the FSG president, and he is the most supportive person I have ever met. It’s crazy. He says: “Sorry, they can do that and we can’t.” I know that’s impossible. So I don’t think about how we can compete. We can beat Man City like we did last month. We need to play at our very best. We didn’t need too much luck that day. That’s football and I love it.

‘In the long term, did Man City have a one per cent influence on the results which led to the 19-point gap between us? No. Only us. We could have won games. With a little more luck we would be closer and could have made more pressure but we didn’t. That’s OK. Only if you compare are you not happy.

 

 

But the Liverpool manager is a lot more serene when he is away from the Liverpool touchline

‘The only chance we have is to use the time we have. Nobody puts us under pressure from the side. The owners don’t say, “next year, you be champions or you can go.” It’s outsiders who say, “if he doesn’t bring silverware in, he’s under pressure.”

‘If the people here want to work together for that one moment when we can succeed and that’s possible, then everything is fine.’

After back-to-back defeats against Swansea, in the league, and West Brom, in the FA Cup, Liverpool dragged their season back on track with a 3-0 win at Huddersfield on Tuesday night that restored confidence ahead of Sunday's clash with a Spurs team who outplayed Manchester United at Wembley on Wednesday evening. Liverpool are only three points behind second-placed United now but Klopp says the clash with Spurs will not define their season.

He doesn’t deal in sweeping statements. He does accept it is a big test against a team packed with talents like Kane, Dele Alli and Eric Dier, who will be leading England’s World Cup campaign this summer.

 

Klopp lavished praise on his striker Roberto Firmino ahead of Sunday's clash with Tottenham

Klopp, 50, does not share the pessimism that is ingrained in so many England supporters about the team’s chances in Russia but he knows that doubt, and self-doubt, has become part of the English psyche. ‘What did you think when England qualified?’ he says. ‘I thought, “we’ll get knocked out in the second round”,’ I tell him. Klopp laughs. ‘In Germany nobody thinks that,’ he says.

‘Kane is one of the best players in the world, 100 per cent, if not the best pure striker in the world at the moment. (Romelu) Lukaku is a fantastic striker but Kane is top in this league with Roberto Firmino. In Germany, it’s (Robert) Lewandowski. I worked with him and he is a fantastic striker. It’s a close battle.

‘Look, for England to win the World Cup everything is there that you need. You have fantastic players. You have youth players coming up. There is no side like Manchester City in the World Cup that is ahead of the rest. Why has England a chance? Because they don’t have no chance. There are a bunch of teams who can go through. You always need a bit of luck.

‘Maybe it’s fear that holds you back. The penalty shootout. For Germany it’s quite simple: they say, “Let’s go to the penalty shootout and then you’ll see”. For England, the fear starts inside like a little worm and then it gets bigger and you think, “Wow, that goal is really small”. Quality is not a problem. 

 

Klopp believes the failures of the England team are down to their lacking a winning mentality

'You have to learn a winning mentality. The good thing is not to read any newspapers and stop watching on social media. Stick together, stay by yourself and start believing as a group. That’s how it starts. All successful history starts with a dream. So let’s go for it. And if there are any doubters out there, tell them where to go.

‘In English football you cannot have it all. You cannot bring in the best foreign players from all over the world to the Premier League and give your home-grown players enough space to grow. It doesn’t work. 

'They need to play. Now the first few English players go to Germany. Jadon Sancho is good at Dortmund. (Ademola) Lookman went to Leipzig. This is an island but there is a world out there, so go and come back stronger.

‘Maybe we can talk about education, too. In England, the focus is so early on pure football. Even when they are at the academy, they have this agreement with schools. In Germany, you have to go to school until you finish school. In Germany, during the week, they go to school and they train when they come back. Here, they train like professionals.

 

 

‘That’s good for football but you don’t get confident people. You get good left foot and good right foot but they have pressure like hell. My credit card was cut three times in my life and it was not for fun. I know how it is. 

'The money is so important for them that they plan for it before they’ve earned it. There is so much pressure on the boys that they can’t enjoy it. They need to bring something home early and that is always the enemy of improvement.’

Everybody needs time. Klopp is no exception. Ending Liverpool’s long wait for a title was never going to be a quick, easy job. But his history is the history of a man whose teams over-perform. His history is the history of a man who is not cowed by facing down an opponent who waves a wad of cash in his face.

‘My first team in Mainz, we had to over-perform constantly,’ he says. ‘And we did. Until we went down. Going to the top league was crazy. Getting promoted was crazy. Not possible, actually, with these guys. Nobody wanted them. They were all third, fourth-chance. We did it. Fantastic. Friends to the end of my life.

 

 

Klopp hugs his former assistant David Wagner before Tuesday's 3-0 win over Huddersfield

‘Dortmund was similar. They were so young they had to over- perform constantly. And here, we have to over-perform, too. That’s no problem. That’s the point where we are as a team. That’s why we drop some points sometimes. Mo Salah, world class, but not every day. Sadio Mane, world class, but not every day. Roberto Firmino, world class, pretty much every day.

‘In an ideal world, the game against Spurs will be comparable to our game against City at Anfield because the two games for us against City and Spurs are, from a football point of view, the most nice to watch. It’s got nearly everything. It’s like when the two knights pull down their face armour and ride at each other in a joust. Go for it. I really like that. It’s an open fight.’

And so Klopp’s march goes on. The march upwards. The march onwards. The refusal to be deflected. ‘We live in our own little cosmos,’ the Liverpool manager says. ‘So far so good. Not perfect. We know that. I have to say this all the time because people say I’m happy with that. I’m not overly happy but I’m fine with it. I’m ready to use it.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5348547/Liverpool-boss-Jurgen-Klopp-matching-moneybags-Man-City.html#ixzz565bcplbq
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[The Guest]

Excellent read. He’s the perfect man for the club and I think we are the perfect club for the man.

[Chip Butty]

We've spent 5 million quid on nets! No fuckin wonder people are so mad about our money spending and it's all lies, the naysayers in here could be on to something, no one's that fuckin happy without having something to hide.

[lifetime fan]

Decent article but those figures are way out.

 

We’ve made a £38m profit under Klopp, we don’t have a £5m net spend.

[suzy]

Great read thanks

[amli]

Thanks.

[Sweeney287]

Love his analogy of to team going for the win.

 

Come on you might reds.

[Jennings]

Thanks for posting. Good stuff on philosophy.

 

I can't be arsed with net spend tables. It's like people use it as a measure. Results are the measure. And net spend doesn't guarantee results.

 

His views on life are good and he talks about that sort of thing a lot. Helps put the bad days (footy and non footy) into perspective.

[lifetime fan]

Thanks for posting. Good stuff on philosophy.

 

I can't be arsed with net spend tables. It's like people use it as a measure. Results are the measure. And net spend doesn't guarantee results.

 

His views on life are good and he talks about that sort of thing a lot. Helps put the bad days (footy and non footy) into perspective.

 

Not wanting to drag you into a net spend debate...but do you not think we could have improved the squad/team and actually achieved more if we had?

 

I know net spend doesn’t guarantee anything but I’d rather we tried absolutely fucking everything to win every single day.

 

It’s the way I approach all sport and believe we should approach football that way as a club.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Best manager for the job. Frustrating as our transfers can be.

[lifetime fan]

It’s an interesting read, I love Klopp but I struggle to understand the acceptance of a bad result etc.

 

It’s probably best for his health but I don’t have the ability to put a poor result behind me and then just be happy.

[Jose Jones]

I prefer johnb’s stuff myself.

[Jennings]

You make a good point LT but I think that you can improve the squad in lots of ways and buying new players is one of them. But I guess you only need to replace the ones who won't be able to improve quickly enough, and then you have to replace them with someone who will clearly make a difference. Someone who is a big step improvement. For this replacement you may have to wait.

 

In this market it would be quite easy to spend and not improve.

[lifetime fan]

You make a good point LT but I think that you can improve the squad in lots of ways and buying new players is one of them. But I guess you only need to replace the ones who won't be able to improve quickly enough, and then you have to replace them with someone who will clearly make a difference. Someone who is a big step improvement. For this replacement you may have to wait.

 

In this market it would be quite easy to spend and not improve.

 

I’m not advocating spending for spending sakes.

 

But when up against the spending power of City, United and Chelsea ‘trying’ to win the title and making a profit on transfers it doesn’t sit well.

[Jennings]

It’s probably best for his health but I don’t have the ability to put a poor result behind me and then just be happy.

We gotta find a way to be happy even if LFC lose. Not let it affect our interactions with the people who really matter.

[lifetime fan]

We gotta find a way to be happy even if LFC lose. Not let it affect our interactions with the people who really matter.

 

I’m not saying that approach is necessarily wrong, time and trophies will determin that.

 

My automatic reaction is to want someone who is as hurt as I am am and are then using that pain to drive themselves forward to ensure we do win.

[Anubis]

Envy and bitterness are not in his make-up.

 

No shot at the Everton job for Mr Klopp, then.

[dockers_strike]

I do not know why people think Klopp just accepts defeat or even accepts it. He says in that article where the guy showed him to his room after the west brom result. Klopp does not accept defeat he just does not dwell on it to the extent fans do. He has to start picking the team up and organising them for the next game which is frequently a matter of a few days away. You cannot run a team where the manager has a constant cob on. You end up with a Souness like team and performances if you want that. I prefer Klopps methods any day.

[Pureblood]

Excellent read.

[an tha]

Klopp is a class act, clearly a superb manager/coach and he seems to have absolute belief in himself, his methods and his ability to get the maximum out of his team...he has a proven track record.

 

Ultimately though there is one measure and one measure only that matters and that measure is winning football matches and ultimately winning enough of them to win titles/trophies.

 

He has done that elsewhere - he hasn't done it here yet...it is still early in his tenure here though and he appears to have a plan he is implementing...I have my doubts about the backing he gets/will get off the owners but time is going to tell on that one isn't it as it will ultimately tell on Klopp here.

 

He is probably the best we could hope for right now lets hope he turns out good enough. We have been a club in seemingly endless transition for so long, for too long - we all hope is the man to change that.

 

Time and what he puts in our trophy cabinet will show whether he is or not.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, he's a football romantic. We can complain about him rating his players too highly, seeking to coach them into something they're not, or having faith in those we see as having a longer yellow streak than the Sahara, but if he were any different he wouldn't have taken this job in a million years. If he were a regular manager, getting his knickers in a twist that his net spend was too low and using that as an excuse for poor performances, he'd have taken the Madrid job that was waiting for him.

 

I may have doubts whether it's an approach that'll yield trophies, but I still find it refreshing.

[TheHowieLama]

I dont know if we could identify an approach from the managers that would necessarily yield anymore trophies tbh. Ancelotti is not going to do much different in our situation is he?

 

So I would much prefer we play good football with a good spirit and see where the chips fall. At least we are more often than not - one of the best teams to watch at this point.

 

We could go through three treadmill managers and still not win anything.

[dockers_strike]

Good shout that.

[Ranxerox]

I dont know if we could identify an approach from the managers that would necessarily yield anymore trophies tbh. Ancelotti is not going to do much different in our situation is he?

 

So I would much prefer we play good football with a good spirit and see where the chips fall. At least we are more often than not - one of the best teams to watch at this point.

 

We could go through three treadmill managers and still not win anything.

Agree

 

Until we have owners that have money to compete with the top teams (and tbh we may never get such owners) the prospects for trophies remain limited.

[an tha]

The thing is it is one thing thinking you can turn AOC or Lallana for example into a player as effective and influential as Coutinho was because you believe you can and it is another having to because the resources aren't there to go out and get better....

 

Same thing with choosing to have Ings as first back up to Firmino et al or having Ings as back up because that is all you can have.

 

The arguments do and will rage about which Klopp is doing/will do and the arguments will rage about what could/should have been done or what has/will be "allowed"

 

But still after all that the ultimate end barometer is titles and trophies.