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In the gloomy aftermath of Villa and the Goodison derby, you would have offered me consecutive wins over Ajax, Sheffield United, Midgetland, West Ham, a 5-0 at Atalanta and a draw at City I would have ripped your arm off at the roots, never mind snapped your hand off.

Fuck that, he’d probably put his back out.

He is proving an excellent taker of penalties. And I still never feel confident he is going to convert them.

Love watching footy on my own, Mrs goes upstairs to potter around and she says the whole of the downstairs basically sounds like this.

Must mention that prick Tyler on commentary, speaking about the fuckin rat. Something along the lines of Gomez will he keeping out of the way of Sterling after last time before they joined up for England. Fuck me the delusional prick, it was the cowardly rat who attacked Joe like the fuckin coward that he is. He wouldn't have done that to anyone else in the squad. Tyler is a prick and the rat a coward.

That he looks like a budget DJ Khaled?

We can take our foot off the gas in the CL after the next round of matches provided we don’t get beat. We are 5 points ahead of City (2 minimum when taking into account their game in hand). We will get 85 points this season which might be enough. If we get 90 points that will be enough. What the manager has achieved since the Derby has been outstanding. We’ve had to find a totally different way of defending and therefore of playing. We frustrated one of the best teams in the league and soaked up pressure in a way we haven’t for years. We are very, very well placed.

Just happy that we won the title while still at Melwood. Kind of like an elderly person, once they know something that's long been on their mind has been resolved, and they can now let go and rest in peace. RIP Melwood. Your name will be forever in our hearts and minds.

What did the Evertonian say in the wool shop? We want merino lad.

It's really terrifying how close America came to the brink with a second Trump tenure. I don't think a lot of people who don't follow politics looked beyond his Tweeting and crass stupidity to fully understand the scale of the havoc he was wreaking on its institutions. He was essentially hollowing out its civil service and replacing everyone based on their own personal loyalty to him, rather than their abilities or standing in their professions. You'd have essentially had a State department incapable of doing its job but would be stacked to the rafters with bell hops from his golf resorts. People don't often get how important America is to things like Britain's national security, so it's essential that things like its intelligence agencies are functioning properly. There's also the hugely destructive idea that 'truth doesn't matter', science and facts don't matter, all that matters is what I tell you and wishful thinking. I mean as rabbit holes go, that takes you all the way to the end of humanity, pure and simple. No institution, organisation or social construct, let alone a country, can survive when people will willingly suspend belief in their eyes and ears, that's Poundshop 1984 territory. He's undoubtedly the most malignant political force to have governed a Western nation in any of our lifetimes, possibly far longer. This was a Stalingrad moment, and thankfully we're all now relaxing amid the ruins of the Tractor factory eating borscht while Yevgeny plays the Tetris theme on the accordion, while bloodied members of the Wehrmacht are paraded past to catch a train to the Stalag for a date with some nettle soup and NKVD electrodes.

Should have emailed back saying “Sorry, too late. Vaccinations were at 9am this morning. Did you not get the text?”

It has to be Dylan he’s the most important figure in pop cultural history of the 20th Century . I like Bowie but he’s not even in the same league especially when you consider songs of the power of Blowin in the Wind , The Times they are A-Changin,, Like a Rolling Stone Hurricane etc etc etc

The musical equivalent of the Tory governance thus far...

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Covid-19 vaccine candidate is 90% effective, says manufacturer Interim analysis of vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech far exceeds expectations of most experts Sarah Boseley Health editor Published:11:47 Mon 9 November 2020 Follow Sarah Boseley A vaccine against Covid-19 is in sight, with the announcement of the first interim results in large-scale trials showing the Pfizer/BioNTech candidate is 90% effective, according to the manufacturers, whose analysis shows a much better performance than most experts had hoped for. The high percentage of those protected makes the findings compelling. Regulators have said they would approve a vaccine that is just 50% effective – protecting half those who get it. The company says there are no serious side-effects. “Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent Covid-19,” said Dr Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and CEO. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.” The trial will continue until there have been 164 confirmed cases so there is potential for the efficacy rate to change, but a finding that 90% of infections were prevented will excite politicians and public health leaders alike and brings into view a potential end to the pandemic. The phase 3 trials have involved more than 43,000 people. People from black and ethnic minority backgrounds appear to have been as well protected as everyone else, the company says. Gathering the required safety data will take until the third week of November, says the company. The dossier will then be submitted to the regulators for approval. Speedy licensing could mean the first doses in healthcare workers by the end of the year.

All I remember was our game was cancelled because the daft useless bint managed to get herself killed.

I was at this game last year - happy days! The noise when Milner scored that last minute pen was brilliant.

It’s a heat resistant thingio. For putting pans and trays on when they’re hot. And for ramming up my arse, obviously.

Absolute top "Adrianna vs. Maguire" analysis there, Dave.

Chamberlain is way off being fit, nowhere near Trent’s ability and not to put too fine a point on it, average at best.

Aretha Franklin Kate Bush Madonna Beyoncé Stevie Nicks Diana Ross Linda Ronstadt

Fucking Hell, stick on MTV for 20 minutes, every second song/video is a Michael Jackson rip off. I'm not saying any of it is good or bad but the evidence is all there. His cultural impact is absolutely massive.

If I had to start a list of what Michael Jackson wasn't it would go: Politically relevant. Culturally important.

I reckon someone is setting Facebook groups up for stuff like this to take the piss out of gullible parents, mentioning Unesco is too perfect. "Did you know you're entitled to a motorbike and sidecar if your child has ADD, this was enshrined in law by King Arthur."

*nudges easytoslip's needle*

I've just started Fahrenheit 11/9 and fucking hell. Fucking fucking hell. I knew trump was bad but fucking hell! One creepy racist cunt and that water thing in Flint, Michigan what in the fuck?!

Possibly the wrongest post ever. This is absolutely the correct final. It's a close call between these two and everyone else - even some great artists - are a good distance behind them. Fucked if I know which way to vote, like.

That is a good vitamin, erm mineral.

The whole cosmic Scouser thing. He drawls instead of talks. Swears too much - dunno if he thinks it makes him look cool or something. He's always on the Anfield Wrap and you'd think he was Johnny Cash reincarnated the way they go on. I hate the whole "we're Scouse not English" schtick and he just reminds of that. I used to hate going to away games (not that I do anymore) there'd always be loud mouths exaggerating their accents - proper Harry Enfield Scousers stuff. Seemed to be getting worse as the years went on. It's why I could never warm to Shack. Seen them live a couple of times and just thought it was all a bit professional Scouse. Yeah mate keep swearing it makes you look dead hard even though you're playing a local daytime festival with families here. Don't like his songs either. Dunno maybe he's great and I'm missing out.

Strange there's no mention of any front line workers except care homes. Personally I'd be all in on us vaccinating people in contact with lots of people, NHS, teachers, shop workers, police, hospitality etc. I'd put that before anyone under 65.

Honestly mate so did I, thought he died a couple of years ago, could have sworn it!!

The sad thing is he died not long after we moved in, within a few months so I didn’t really get to know him. She obviously mentioned what he did afterwards as she knew we were Liverpool supporters. I didn’t know his relationship with the club until afterwards when I read Last of The Boot Room Boys. I knew his wife really well though and she stayed there until she passed away too. She was always very kind to us as kids and was a wonderful lady.

Thomas Muller approves.

A chippy is nothing without good gravy.

Happy with the point. Our best chance was (like we have in the past at Anfield) blitzing them in quick succession. We looked good for 2 or 3 in the first 20 minutes... but it wasn't to be. For most of the second half, both sides looked fucked... conditions looked oppressive, but with a long winter yet to come, this is going to be a season of real attrition, I think. So a very good point.

Champ is the glue that binds us all together. Forum royalty.

I’ve not read any of the other posts but I’m satisfied with today. The first half was incredible quality. Peak El Classico stuff. Two great sides, both teams playing really well. Absolutely superb stuff from both side. 2nd half was like a game of chess, and I have to admit, I enjoyed it almost as much. I love these proper tactical battles. Both sides continued to play well and eventually just cancelled each other out. I’d have taken a point before the game and I’m not going to complain about it now. They were missing Aguero and we were missing the best centre back in the world, one of the best defensive midfielders, one of the best central midfielders and one of the best right backs only lasted 60 mins... Slightly frustrating not to take advantage of our early dominance but when you take the above into consideration, plus they missed a penalty, I’m not gonna complain.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye" Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock" Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai" Lebanon, Charlse de Gaulle, California baseball Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land" Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion "Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan "Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire But when we are gone Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it

Jurgen Klopp cherishes the training ground. It is the basis, he thinks, for everything that happens at whichever club he manages; the place where players come to understand what he expects physically, tactically and emotionally. “If a player does not train well, he doesn’t last long in a Klopp team,” a Melwood source tells The Athletic. “In fact, he’s got no chance…” Behind the hugs and the megawatt smile, Klopp places huge demands on his players. The rewards are great but so are the sacrifices. If they are granted the luxury of a day off in the week then there is often a double session waiting for them soon after. “We train the way we play,” is Klopp’s mantra. Assistant boss Pep Lijnders plans each session and goes over it with Klopp in the manager’s office each morning. When out on the grass, Klopp is not shy to intervene when something catches his eye or he senses that standards are not sky-high. “I’ve worked under a lot of managers and coaches in my career and his training sessions are more intense than under anyone else I’ve known,” says vice-captain James Milner. “There’s never a single session where a player can switch off and just go through the session as if they’re on autopilot. He’s a great manager. The best I’ve played under? Yes, I’d say so.” Adam Lallana, who spent five years under Klopp before leaving for Brighton at the end of last season, confirms: “It’s very intense. When you hear people say they dedicate their lives to the football club, that literally is the case. There’s a lot of sacrifice to playing for that football club but it’s worth every moment.” In his book Ask A Footballer, Milner talks about the countless hours of drills that go into perfecting Liverpool’s pressing game. “Training is really hard and it’s complicated,” he says. “When we press as a team and we do it so effectively, we’re not running around like a load of headless chickens. It’s the result of a very specific game plan that we’ve been working on for years.” Klopp is a big believer in scheduling training sessions around the upcoming kick-off time. Previously, players had been used to training in the morning regardless and then having the afternoon to themselves. “Where before you could switch off more knowing that you had everything done by lunchtime, it’s more relentless under Jurgen,” one of his former players tells The Athletic. “You might not be training until 5pm but you’re sat at home in the morning thinking about what’s ahead. You probably get in for lunchtime to do some work in the gym, have some lunch and maybe video analysis before training. We definitely spent a lot more time at Melwood than before.” Wijnaldum says Klopp immediately made him feel special (Photo: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) Team meetings always take place before the sessions. The day before a game it is usually crystal clear what the starting XI will be as Klopp plays 11 v 11. The shadow line-up is set up tactically in the same way as Klopp and his staff expect their upcoming opponents to play. “It’s broken down into how the opponents attack, how they defend, how they react in transition and so on,” adds Milner. “The manager will go into details about those weaknesses and how we’re going to exploit them. And then their strengths and how we’re going to guard against them. If they’ve got a weakness at left-back or if they’re vulnerable to a certain kind of cross, then we work on that.” Players will also be emailed specific clips to watch before each game to reinforce the points Klopp was making. “Jurgen never overburdens you with information,” says Trent Alexander-Arnold. “It’s not so much that he tells you exactly what to do on the ball and says you need to pass to here and here. It’s more about giving you the ideas and helping you see the opportunities to play it in behind when Mo (Salah) runs in behind. Or when Bobby (Firmino) comes to feet, finding that pass instead, maybe. “He’s done so much for me personally. His advice has always been top-notch for me. When you need a bollocking, he’ll give you one. He’s not scared of doing it. But most of the time it’s arm around the shoulder, wanting to help you improve.” Georginio Wijnaldum agrees. “The mind is free, and that is the most important thing,” he says. “The manager does not overload the players with information. Every game is different because opponents have different qualities and different threats, but the consistent element to our approach is we do not man-mark. It would be difficult to counter-press if we man-marked. This means we mark spaces. “There’s a sharp focus on set plays the day before a game both in terms of attacking and defending. There’s also light relief with the traditional older players versus younger players match, with the results totted up over the course of the season.” If Liverpool are playing in the evening, then Klopp holds a light session on the morning of the match to run through the game plan. When Liverpool are playing away, that often means booking a lower-league ground to use. Klopp has changed his approach over time. He is the boss and always makes the final call but he welcomes feedback from the senior players’ committee, led by captain Jordan Henderson and vice-captain Milner on things such as travel plans. Days off have become more frequent in recent seasons when the schedule allows and he has also permitted recovery days to take place away from the training ground at times, with physios sent to players’ homes. One gesture meant a great deal to the squad after Liverpool won the Club World Cup in Qatar last year. Usually, they would have stayed in a hotel on Christmas Day before facing Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day. But with the players having already spent a week away, Klopp decided they could sleep in their own homes and assemble on Boxing Day morning to fly down to Leicester. He also brought forward training on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so they could spend more quality time with their families. It underlined his trust in them and he was rewarded with arguably Liverpool’s finest display of the season as they thrashed Brendan Rodgers’ side 4-0. What hasn’t changed during Klopp’s reign is how brutal pre-season is. “Even the manager’s demeanour changes. He puts on his game face,” writes Andy Robertson in his book Now You’re Gonna Believe Us, referring to the summer training camps in Evian, France. Klopp describes those camps as “my time”, without the distractions that come with the commercial commitments of the overseas tours. It is about creating a base for the challenges ahead. Even when there is a friendly in the evening, he will put players through an energy-sapping session earlier the same day. Robertson says: “I think sometimes the manager tests us in at least one game pre-season where he basically says: ‘If you can play through this, you can play through anything.’ “You play with an empty tank, you play with the tired legs, you play with a tired mind and then during the season over the Christmas period where we have maybe six games in 14 days or whatever, that’s not a massive problem because it’s not as bad as what we did during the summer.” Klopp’s attention to detail is such that he is always looking for an edge over his opponents. The players did not know what to expect when the manager informed them that they had a session in the Hotel Royal pool with German surfer Sebastian Steudtner in Evian in the summer of 2019. Klopp shares a joke with Robertson and Henderson and has revolutionised Liverpool’s training (Photo: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) Steudtner explained that he was there to help with breathing techniques and mental durability and how putting yourself into extreme situations triggers new coping mechanisms. Taking on board his methods, the players all improved how long they could stay underwater — some managed nearly three minutes. “Never mind marginal gains, this was significant pain,” wrote Robertson. “He made us suffer. He made us crave oxygen like we’d never craved it before. But by taking us to the brink he also underlined how much we had to give and how far we could go. The gaffer wanted us to be able to find a happy place under stress. We all got it and bought into it.” The players felt that experiences such as those helped them dig deep during the 2019-20 title-winning season when late goals and gutsy fightbacks sealed cherished victories. Whether it is the appointment of nutritionist Mona Nemmer,throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark or sports psychologist Lee Richardson, Klopp is an innovator, a coach who is unafraid of surrounding himself with staff who know more than him. “This shows you his humility,” Wijnaldum says. “At Liverpool, it never feels like we are lacking something.” Klopp once asked his Borussia Dortmund players to put their name to “a promise” containing seven rules. They agreed to “unconditional dedication”, “passionate devotion”, “a determination (to win), independent of the scoreline” and a readiness “to support everybody”, “accept help”, “put (their) quality wholly at the service of the team” and “take on individual responsibility”. There was to be no distinction between work and play, pain and pleasure: self-sacrificial toiling could be a sensual experience. Klopp, feverishly saluting won tackles and clearances on the sidelines, was the physical manifestation of his teachings. “He said things like, ‘I’m looking forward to this game with every fibre in my body’ and it was so believable that one second later, you felt the same,” recalls the Dortmund midfielder Sven Bender. “We learned to be completely in the moment, to think only from game to game.” The idea that big targets had to be clearly expressed to be achieved was dismissed as counter-productive. “Whoever says that has no idea,” the coach explained. Klopp set his men immediate, achievable goals. They had to win the next game. “A slalom skier would never throw his hands up in the air in celebration after clearing the first gate, would he?” he asked. Table tennis tournaments, karaoke, go-karting and paintballing have all been used to foster the kind of unity and spirit that Klopp regards as pivotal to achieving glory. He demands unwavering commitment but in return, he guarantees honesty, loyalty and openness. He never passes the buck. “The way I understand it, I’m responsible for the defeats, the boys are responsible for the wins,” Klopp says. Bender loved working with Klopp at Dortmund (Photo: sampics/Corbis via Getty Images) Whereas some managers try to put distance between them and their players, Klopp’s door is always open. He believes it’s impossible to get the best out of someone unless you know all about what’s going in their life. Wijnaldum adds: “A friend, but not a best friend; that is the easiest way to describe him. He really cares about the welfare of a player and wants to know you away from football. His memory is very long as well. One of my first goals as a professional footballer came for Feyenoord against Borussia Dortmund during a friendly match in Rotterdam 10 years ago. “Jurgen told me it was his first season as a trainer at Dortmund. This was the thing we spoke about when I came to sign for Liverpool. He remembered me from that day and had followed my career ever since. He could describe the goal — who passed to me — every detail. It showed me that this guy is really serious. “When I met with Jurgen, we had a good conversation, not just about my football but my life away from football as well. It was clear he wanted to sign the person as well as the football player. This was important for me because these conversations do not always happen between manager and player. Jurgen is a manager that wants to have a connection with the players.” Ralph Gunesch played for Klopp at Mainz and he is now a youth team assistant manager at Ingolstadt. He saw Klopp as being totally different from the traditional German coach. “Some of the older ones acted like warrior generals sitting on a chariot, with the team pulling them along. With Klopp, it’s a different dynamic,” Gunesch tells The Athletic. “He doesn’t put himself above anyone but he leads from the front. And those who don’t pull their weight or want to go in a different direction will have a huge problem. He used to say: ‘It’s not necessary to have the perfect game plan but we all need to have the same game plan.’” Liverpool’s players respect Klopp. They fear his temper but they know he is otherwise approachable. Everything is left on the pitch. If he is unhappy about something, he does not carry his mood throughout the rest of the working day. Players know that once a training session or a game is over, life goes on. Around the time Dejan Lovren was dealing with some personal matters in 2016, he had trained badly — so badly that Klopp could tell something was up. The Croatian defender remained in Klopp’s office at Melwood for hours after the rest of the players had gone home and from that point on, he always knew Klopp had his back. Klopp is hands-on. During the close season and international breaks, he remains in close contact with his players. He wants to know everything that is happening. “I tend to text him to say ‘session done’. He normally replies with a thumbs-up emoji,” says Milner. “One time he messaged me back with a picture of him in a hot tub. He’s extremely driven and serious about his work. You know where you stand with him. If you’ve got an opinion or a concern about something, you can speak to him and he’ll listen.” With Klopp, there is always a sense of perspective. Family always comes first. When Robertson’s partner Rachel was rushed to hospital with chest pains before last season’s Premier League clash away to Tottenham Hotspur, Klopp was more concerned about her well-being than who would play left-back in the capital. He agreed with the Scotland skipper that he would be withdrawn from the squad if her condition worsened and Klopp made it clear that the club would have a private plane on standby ready to fly him back north immediately. Thankfully, her condition improved, Robertson played and Liverpool won. After Liverpool triumphed away to Norwich City in February, they were preparing to fly home when the pilot warned that due to high winds it was likely to be an unpleasant, bumpy journey. There was a significant degree of concern. Klopp stood up to make it clear that he would never force anyone to fly and that nobody would be judged if they decided to get off. Several players and staff opted for the five-hour drive instead. Similarly, the players appreciated how he stuck to his guns amid criticism after Liverpool’s FA Cup replay with Shrewsbury Town was scheduled within the Premier League winter break. Klopp refused to backtrack after promising his star names the week off. Many had already made holiday plans. Klopp can also be ruthless when he needs to be. Anyone who does not stick to the rules is shown the door. Just ask Mamadou Sakho, who did not play for Liverpool again after being sent home from the pre-season tour of America in disgrace in 2016. Sakho was late for the team flight to California, late for a team meal and missed a treatment session. It was Klopp’s first pre-season at Liverpool and he felt he could not allow such indiscipline to go unpunished. A marker had been put down. “We have rules and we have to respect them. If somebody doesn’t respect it or somebody gives me the feeling he is not respecting it then I have to react,” Klopp said. Over the course of his Anfield reign, Klopp has invited players’ families along on various European away trips and mid-season training camps. “He always wanted to make sure that the families were happy at Liverpool,” says former Liverpool left-back Jose Enrique. “If they’re happy, then the players can focus more on football. If things aren’t right at home, you can see it out on the pitch.” Klopp’s leadership skills were also there for all to see when football was suspended due to the pandemic in March with Liverpool on the cusp of ending their 30-year wait for the title. Players and staff had been called to a 1pm meeting in the Melwood canteen. “You guys have earned this and you will get your chance,” Klopp told them. “Don’t worry about football for now. You are the best team in England and the most worthy champions there has ever been.” Klopp vowed that the club would provide an extensive support network during the shutdown and a WhatsApp group would be set up for them to share any concerns or issues. He told them to switch off from football and enjoy the time with their families. It is telling how even those who have been cast aside rarely have a bad word to say about Klopp. Loris Karius may have been replaced by Alisson after his Champions League final nightmare against Real Madrid but he always appreciated how Klopp defended him in the aftermath of Kyiv. Klopp was determined that the details of the concussion inflicted on Karius by Sergio Ramos’ elbow would be made public: “We don’t use it as an excuse, we use it as an explanation.” After being sent on loan to Union Berlin this summer, Karius was asked about his relationship with Klopp. He said: “It was always fair and honest. He always tells you what the situation is like.” Klopp was reduced to tears as he went around hugging his players in turn on the night that Liverpool celebrated winning the title following Chelsea’s win over nearest rivals Manchester City. Milner says Klopp he is the best manager he has played for (Photo: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) The 53-year-old had insisted that they all met up at Formby Hall to watch the game after Liverpool’s victory over Crystal Palace had put them on the brink of history. He had told them: “I’ve been in this game long enough to know that tonight is going to be compulsory because if it does happen, it’s not the same if we all FaceTime each other. We have to be together. We meet at 6pm and let’s hope it goes well into the night. If it doesn’t, we go home and we’ve had a nice barbecue.” Klopp has a remarkable knack of being able to make those on the fringes of the squad feel as if they are part of something special. In the dressing room at Anfield after Liverpool beat Chelsea on the night they lifted the Premier League trophy in July, an emotional Klopp turned to salute his fourth-choice goalkeeper. “Andy Lonergan, champion of England, champion of Europe, champion of the world. What a guy!” he beamed. The players responded by chanting the name of someone who had not made a single appearance all season. Klopp ensured that every member of the squad got a medal, regardless of whether they met the usual criteria. Lallana says: “Over the last couple of years in my spell at Liverpool, I didn’t play so much. Of course, at times you’re frustrated, but he has the ability to just like that, have you back fighting for not just the team, but for him.” Simon Mignolet, who left in 2019 to sign for Club Brugge, adds: “Everyone lived that moment when we won the Champions League final in Madrid. With the bond in the squad, we all felt part of it — even those, like me, who didn’t play much. I still keep in touch. Jurgen messaged me to say congratulations after we qualified for the group stages of the Champions League.” Under Klopp, there is a pecking order in the dressing room. Everyone is treated the same. “Jurgen is a true leader. He’s inspirational and motivational,” says Lijnders. “There is a saying that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. And I think everyone who works with Jurgen has the feeling he really cares about you and your development. “When Jurgen speaks to the players, he speaks from the heart and it goes directly into the hearts of the players. He has this remarkable capacity to touch people with the words he selects. That’s not easy, especially with this level of players. “You are dealing with a lot of egos in football but in our club, it looks like there are no egos. Jurgen has created an environment which everyone has bought into. He solves problems before they arise. He has this capacity of making sure that certain things won’t happen because he speaks about them. The level of respect the players have for him is huge. “The character of the coach becomes the character of the team. You can see it throughout the club. That’s the power of Jurgen’s personality.” Klopp’s modest playing career with Mainz meant he was used to dealing with the emotions that accompany defeat. When he was younger, he had let disappointments get to him, but then he found that too much dwelling had the potential to impact on future performances. While his understanding of the game gradually allowed him to pinpoint where things had gone wrong, his protestant faith helped him to become more pragmatic in his assessments. He learned to accept setbacks as fact of life, to appreciate why they have happened, and then move on. Gunesch, one of his former players at Mainz, feels fortunate to have worked with three “excellent” coaches in his own career. Besides Klopp, there was Holger Stanislawski and Ralph Hasenhuttland each he describes as “incredibly empathetic”. There is one line he always remembers from Klopp, who told him: “Don’t let a defeat punish you twice. Don’t dwell on it, don’t take that negative feeling with you into the next game.” Within the framework of one match, Klopp’s instruction was clear. “If you’ve been shit in a certain situation, don’t let that drag you down. Otherwise, you’ll be shit the next time as well. Stay positive.” Klopp does not punish bad moments but he expects his players to follow his ideas — otherwise, they are out. “I remember one player, Markus Feulner, getting substituted early in a friendly game because he didn’t behave in transition as Klopp wanted,” Gunesch says. “He is very in tune with his players. He wants to understand their thoughts and what makes them tick. He’s incredibly open and approachable. I remember my father being impressed with him being so polite and easy-going when he met him after a game once. “These things have an effect on you as a player. You don’t have to pay attention to players’ needs to that extent as a coach but those who do and show that they really care about you will get the extra mile out of players. Players will try that little bit harder for you if they feel appreciated and valued as human beings.” Wijnaldum became Klopp’s first major midfield signing and has been integral to the development of the team. He says Klopp’s “greatest strength” is to read a situation and react in the “best way”. “When I made the mistake against Bournemouth (passing the ball backwards, allowing Joshua King to score in 2017) in the locker room at half-time, he said, ‘Hey, it’s over. We cannot change this. Let’s just focus on the things we can do to change the game for the better’. He will only be mad if you do not use your quality or you do not try 100 per cent. When this happens, he will say things to you. Otherwise, he is always trying to help. As a player, he makes you feel as though he has your back.” Klopp’s win percentage as a manager has jumped each time he has taken on a new managerial role. At Mainz, he won 40.6 per cent of his games in charge, losing 83 times across 270 matches. At Dortmund, his win percentage increased to 56 per cent, with just 70 defeats in 316 matches. His Liverpool career to date has included 279 matches, 170 wins, 63 draws and 46 defeats. This amounts to his highest win percentage of 60.9. Klopp’s average win percentage (52.7) across his entire managerial career is much lower than any of his contemporaries, with Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Zinedine Zidane and Antonio Conte boasting better records. Yet Klopp’s path has been different in the sense that he has managed only three clubs and sticks around longer. His arrival point in each job has been at a moment of either crisis or gross underachievement and this means it has taken more time and patience to get things right, with some of his earliest results indifferent. At his Liverpool unveiling, Klopp famously talked openly about the club “carrying a rucksack on its shoulders”, such was the weight of history. He knew one of his greatest challenges was managing the mood not only of the team and the club, but also the city. This meant his ability to treat disappointment as equally as any success was going to be important, especially in the early years. Klopp anticipated there would be setbacks along the way and it would be at these points that his message and direction to the players had to be at its clearest. There were also occasions when he trusted the intelligence of his players to realise how far they had come, that there was very little he could say to make things better. The Champions League final defeat in Kyiv to Real Madrid was one such occasion, after which he kept his immediate post-match debrief short. He reminded the squad that he was proud of them, that everything that could have gone wrong went wrong that night and in such circumstances, it was going to be almost impossible for Liverpool to win. He was deflated but the players believed him when he told them that this would not be their last final together — that the hurt from Kyiv would push them further next time. When the team arrived back at Melwood at 6am, he reminded the players over drinks: “This is the start, not the end of something. It’s only another step. Life is like this. We only can exist if everything works perfectly, then we cannot survive in that world out there. We have to accept sometimes that there is someone better, there is someone else with a little bit more luck. I accepted it long ago. I know I will be there again. I will try to go to the next final again and then we will turn it. That’s how I see it.” On the day of the final in Kyiv, he had helped diffuse the anxiety in the room before facing Cristiano Ronaldo’s side. “There were a lot of nerves but he started his meeting by showing us that he was wearing some CR7 boxer shorts,” recalls Milner. “He had even tucked his shirt into them. We all cracked up and the laughter got rid of all the tension that was threatening to build up. With our manager, what you see is what you get.” Twelve months later, Liverpool delivered a brutal performance in Madrid against Tottenham. Klopp had told them the team that makes the fewest mistakes and reacts in the most positive way to injustices whenever they happened would prevail and he was proven right. The pressure of playing for Liverpool, he recognised, was even greater than Borussia Dortmund. Liverpool’s history was deeper and the length of time between the last title and his point of arrival was longer. There had been just six years at Dortmund and a quarter of a century at Liverpool, where the build-up of frustration was reaching fatalistic levels. It was important for his players not to read too much into things when results went against them and he would try and guide the squad through such moments. Yet he also knew it was important for the players to think they were capable of dealing with their own anxieties. Privately, he has told friends that he believes a turning point was at Manchester City where Liverpool won in the Champions League quarter-final in 2018 despite a first-half bombardment where City’s domination made it feel possible that they might overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit. If Liverpool lost from this position of promise, then the team’s sense of new strength following the arrival of Virgil van Dijk would be questioned, and with good reason. Normally, Klopp leads the half-time discussion by rushing into the dressing room from his position in the technical area before telling the club’s match analysts what video he wants to use as he waits for the players. This time, he realised a heated inquest was happening as they came through the door and this one was being led by Lovren. He sat and listened, allowed Lovren to say his piece and this led to a disagreement of opinion between the defence and the midfield. The midfielders said the defence was dropping too deep as the defence argued the midfielders were not pressing high enough, leaving the back line with no other option. The confrontation allowed Klopp to point out that either one or two departments in the team were not doing what he had asked them to do and that the whole team needed to remember what they had done to City twice already that season. Above all, he told his team, they should not think about containing City but getting the goals that would secure their passage to the last four. “He was only thinking about winning the game,” a dressing room source tells The Athletic. “If we went out that night, it would have been a big psychological blow. But by letting the players speak their minds and getting everything out in the open, it showed he trusted them to put it right themselves. And they did.” He had dealt with a surprise 3-0 defeat at Watford in 2015 by insisting the Christmas Party went ahead that night, with none of the players allowed to leave until 1am, even though they were expecting the event to be cancelled. “Whatever we do together, we do as well as we can, and tonight that means we party,” read a text sent out to the whole squad and staff. Six months later, there was the misery of Basle where Liverpool were comprehensively beaten by Sevilla in the Europa League final. This prompted him to give a rousing speech back at the team hotel, something he found hard because his own morale was low. He finished the speech by with a rendition of “We are Liverpool”. (Photo: Paul Ellis/PA Images via Getty Images) The most recent bump in the road was at Aston Villa where he said little straight after the game and decided to formulate his words via a text message, sent to the entire squad as they jetted off on international duty. It was the worst result of his Liverpool reign and so much had gone wrong, he decided he needed time to work out exactly how his team could have been so incomprehensibly bad. His players had done so much for him and had rarely strayed from his direction over the years, he decided it would have been unfair to batter them for this — especially not in person. He remembered what he had told the Mainz players including Gunesch all those years earlier. “Don’t let this punish you more than once.” Klopp cuts an animated figure on the touchline, whether it’s barking orders, throwing fist pumps at the sight of a possession-winning tackle or castigating the officials. However, when he gets into the dressing room at half-time, it’s a different story. “He never comes in shouting and bawling,” says Robertson. “It’s always very tactical and if we’re not doing well he shows us two or three clips from the first half and talks about how he wants us to approach the second half.” “It tends to be calm when we first reach the dressing room. He spends the first few minutes of half-time in deep discussion with his coaching staff,” adds Milner. “A lot of what he says to us will be about videos that the analysts have prepared. It might be to tell the defence, ‘You’re not high enough, move up to here’. He’s very clear in the way he communicates with us.” Only rarely does Klopp lose his temper with his players during the break. He was unhappy when they were trailing at Aston Villa 12 months ago and asked whether the team were afraid of getting their white kit dirty. Two late goals transformed a potentially damaging defeat into one of the most celebrated wins of the season. Post-game, Klopp usually only speaks to the players briefly. He saves his in-depth assessment for the following day when emotions are not running so high and he’s had the chance to watch the full game back. Before the game, it is different again. This is where he sees an opportunity to tune into the minds of the players by bringing focus. His use of language is important and he tries to find memorable ways of saying things so that players do not forget what he wants. “His punchlines are perfect,” says Hans Joachim Watzke, the chief executive at Dortmund. “Jurgen is never monotonous or predictable. That keeps everybody’s concentration.” “With every game, Klopp’s team talks got clearer, louder and more precise,” says Bender. “He explained that we were in charge now; it was all down to us. We hardly needed any motivation but his speeches were the icing on the cake. We went out and ran even more.” Before Liverpool’s 4-0 comeback victory over Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final second leg in 2019, Klopp knew he had to say something special. “The world outside is saying it is not possible,” he told them. “And let’s be honest, it’s probably impossible. But because it’s you? Because it’s you, we have a chance.” “Before the game, he did an amazing speech,” recalls Lovren. “It was brilliant, and he lifted us so high. He said, ‘Boys, believe. One or two goals, even if we don’t score in the first 15, 20 minutes, believe in the 65th, 66th, 67th minute that we can score, and then with Anfield behind us, trust me guys, we can do it. We did it once against Dortmund, we can do it tonight. Just show fucking balls tonight.’” Henderson says: “The players could see that the manager believed, which helped us believe in what he said. The manager has ingrained that belief into us: no matter what happens you keep fighting right to the end.” Another speech that left a lasting impression with his players was delivered at the Hotel Royal in Evian before the start of the 2019-20 season. Klopp was keen to focus minds and draw a line under all the fanfare that had followed the club’s Champions League final triumph in Madrid. “In 20, 30, 40 years from now, everyone will know that we were Champions League winners in 2019,” he told them. “That is in the record books and nobody can take that away from us. In Madrid, we made it six times for this wonderful club and that is a fantastic achievement but now we want more. “We want to be Premier League winners for the first time, we want to be European Cup winners for the seventh time. As a group, we want to keep on winning.” Robertson was captivated. “It’s no exaggeration to say the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up as he spoke,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve come across many people in any walk of life who are better able not just to sense the mood but to take advantage of it. “For the gaffer, it wasn’t about taking the memories away from us, it was about keeping them with us and using them for inspiration going forward. Basically, he was creating a hunger in us to become serial winners. The other message was that we were going to need to stick together more than ever and that we had to have that kind of unity, which means that if you cut one of us, we all bleed.” This season Klopp has talked about “attacking the title rather than defending it”. Robertson says this message has helped foster positive energy. “It’s brilliant psychology,” he says, “because it establishes a new target to go at rather than making us fear that we have something to lose.

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