I LIKE Jürgen Klopp.
You can’t really know a “celebrity” but I think I’m not miles away with Jürgen. I’ve watched, I’ve listened, I’ve learned. He’s exactly the same age as me — give a take a month — and I feel I’ve got a decent sense of his “journey”. Loyalty towards a manager is one thing, believing in his abilities is another, but liking and respecting him as a human being, that’s a rarer ask. To my mind, at any rate.
Others who have moved me the way Klopp has have been few and far between. And it’s not them, it’s me. Kenny Dalglish got under my skin. Maybe Bill Shankly would have too, but I wasn’t of that generation. I loved uncle Bob Paisley, but none of us ever knew him. He wanted it that way, and that’s entirely reasonable. Kenny D was special. He was dignity and nobility personified. He was the ultimate hero. Your best player. Near enough Europe’s best player for a while. Did he think of leaving Liverpool for riches to be had elsewhere? Did he fuck, and in an era where his ilk did.
I used to lie awake at nights fretting about Kenny’s waning and ultimate retiring. Would any of it mean the same without him? Then Heysel happened and everything was broken. Everything ruined. But then Kenny stepped up and saved a football club. In the darkest hour in the club’s history it’s greatest hero revealed he had even more to give. Stepping up. He was always stepping up. Even up to the point where his final act of stepping up led to his ultimate stepping down. And no one begrudged him doing that. I think we all just cried a bit. Quietly to ourselves.
Did I know Kenny? Such a private stoic man. Yeah I think we may have come to know Kenny better than he even knew himself. We always knew he would never ever let us down. But maybe we pushed him too hard.
Another football man I’ve always really admired isn’t an Liverpool FC icon. I’ve always been a huge fan of Arsene Wenger. I look at the wreck of Arsenal’s psyche as a club and I think as things stand I’m probably his biggest fan still standing. His Arsenal flock have long since deserted him. There are no true loyalists left. Why do I love Arsene? That’s hard to quantify.
I see Kenny in him. I see a brain and a personality that could have functioned in so many other disciplines. The sport of football is blessed that he chose it. I like that Wenger is relentless, unerringly intelligent, calm and strong when the pressure is greatest and yet you know he’s also an incredibly gentle human being. He’s all man to me.
Klopp may yet fail as a manager at Liverpool. It’s always the likeliest outcome for any Liverpool manager in the modern age, given our context and expectations. It would be no big failure to fail with us. I dearly hope he doesn’t fail for Liverpool, but if it happens, and I almost sense there is a core now half wishing that on him, then at least he will always have Mainz and Borussia Dortmund. In those towns they will forever speak of Klopp, in the tones my generation speak of Kenny.
Klopp was a winner for me from very early on in his Liverpool career. I liked everything about him. I felt that all of it was real. None of it for the cameras or mere public consumption. The way people responded to him was a thing to behold. I have cynical friends who think Jürgen is given too much leeway, but it’s for reason. If he makes so many of us feel the way we do, what must he make those lads in red shirts feel like?
I found myself once saying to a friend that I’d rather we fail with Jürgen than succeed with someone else. It seems a stupid thing to say, I know. But I also know intuitively what I mean by that and that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain why I see it this way.
Klopp feels like he has the values I came to associate with my football club from a young age. He embodies them the way Kenny did. The way Wenger does despite having never worked for us. And like those two men he has all the attributes to be a massively successful manager. Well, he already is one. Whether or not he can continue to mark his talent with tangibles while at Liverpool is not entirely within his control.
Klopp has been questioned a lot lately. God knows I wondered what the fuck he was up to with his Sevilla team selection. By Saturday I had an answer of sorts. Not the whole picture, not total satisfaction, but just the hint of an insight into the thought processes of someone a) with much more pertinent information than me, and b) someone really good at their job.
Lots of fans like to muse about what actions or selections they may have made. I prefer to try and work out why the manager has made the choices he has. I don’t feel I can criticise until I’ve at least tried to walk in his shoes. Maybe I’m just a default blind loyalist. I hope I am actually.
Klopp gambled with his strongest team on knocking Sevilla out and finishing top of the Champions League group. He felt they were there for the taking and that a win, ahead of a credible draw, might ensure the Spartak Moscow game became a dead rubber. A vital seven days worth of respite, in the midst of the most congested fixture programme most of us can recall, was the prize.
In a parallel universe two very fortuitous late goals in the space of four days aren’t conceded and Liverpool are on a six-match winning streak, top and qualified in their Champions League group, and up to third in the Premier League, with Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in their wake.
Yes, in this reality Liverpool came under pressure in the games against Sevilla and Chelsea and ultimately conceded goals against each. Yet neither goal is the consequence of pressure. Liverpool have regained control and composure at the point they are conceded. Of course it’s not mere bad luck that Liverpool didn’t win those two matches, but football is a sport of fine margins, and if in situations that can be expected to be tight things go against you, well, sometimes, that’s simply the breaks.
If Liverpool beat Chelsea having rested star players the universe looks very different today. And let no one pretend we would have begrudged the manager the scrappy manner of a win over the champions.
The hand that fate has actually dealt may adjust Klopp’s thinking once again. Had Chelsea been defeated I suspect he would’ve given the likes of Jordan Henderson, Phil Coutinho and Mo Salah a chance to refresh and benched them for Stoke City. But Chelsea’s late goal did feel like a kick in the pants and confidence may need lifting.
To this end I think Klopp will go strong at the Britannia — specifically in attacking areas — and maybe use his squad more fully at the weekend. If Salah starts it will be his fourth in 11 days, but he did enjoy a two-week break before then. Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, who barely featured on Saturday seem near certain starters. My best guess is that Daniel Sturridge will be benched with a view to him being back in the 11 for the trip to Brighton.
Any which way we seek to preempt the Liverpool boss he will know that this fixture is now very much in the must-win category. So many are, if you’re a Liverpool manager. Klopp is used to this now and he will prepare a team to take a fourth league win in five fixtures. Stoke are there to be beaten.
Predicted 11: Mignolet; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Klavan, Robertson; Can, Wijnaldum; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mane; Salah, Firmino.
Kick off: 8pm
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Odds: Stoke 11-2, Draw 73-20, Liverpool 4-7
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Rotation is the name of the game for the next 11 days. Everyone needs to be used in an intelligent way. Squad looks strong. We have options here. Personally like the look of your team. Coutinho and Lallana can change the game. Oxlade-Chamberlain ready for more minutes now. Team here largely shapes who plays at Brighton. As long as no injuries then perfectly happy to rotate. Even Salah. They can always come on if needed. Perhaps that’s the legitimate criticism of Klopp recently. Not the lineups but the timing of the subs. But it’s nit-picking.
Brilliant Rob, moving in places. Kenny was my idol too. I think a few Reds have lost a bit of their sense of romance with regard to the football. The idea of the ‘journey’ has long since been devalued by the multitude of god awful TV talent shows, but it is something fundamental and real for Klopp and Liverpool at the moment. Jurgen has made us competitive again, a real and tangible threat, certainly to the top 4 hegemony of the huge spending clubs, if not ‘yet’ to the title itself. The journey will either end in glory, or glorious failure I feel. Let’s try not to forget to enjoy it along the way.
Thanks Rob.
Particularly liked the “Klopp may yet fail as a manager at Liverpool” bit. I was trying to put that sentiment over at the pub on Saturday and achieved none of your eloquence!
The only thing I would comment on is the “must win” thing. This seems to be used more often these days. I don’t think any game in the league at this stage of the season is really “must win”. We’re probably not going to win every game between now and New Year (odds are that no-one will) and when the disappointing result comes doesn’t matter too much in my opinion.
I’m all for taking your “default blind loyalist” approach (especially given that we can’t influence the situation in any case) and see where we get to at the end of the season. That seems like a Kenny thing to me.
Sense. I find myself protecting a man who embodies all I want to see in our manager. I feel it’s because patience in football has ceased to have any meaning I can relate to – there doesn’t appear to be any. That alongside a mentality that all goals can be prevented (or scored) as if we’re not all human. Well I am human and Jurgen is the sort of human I want to lead our club. I see absolutely no reason to lose the faith though maybe I’m just old fashioned like that?
Very nice article Rob. Thank you.
I like your perspective of Arsene, as I had the some of the same thoughts on him over his tenure as manager. He has achieved so much more than what the fans give him credit for these days, and still he manages to help them win a trophy (mickey-mouse one or otherwise), it is harder for LFC these days to even manage that, so their fans should accept that as a token of his generosity and time.
Klopp is like Daglish and Arsene, in the way that he is a grown up, and acts like one, despite his sideline antics. I never got this from Brendan Rodgers, though I was hopeful in the beginning for him to really show his true quality.
Klopp will be a success at LFC. I don’t know if it will be with winning trophies, but he will be with paving the way for other managers to build on a very positive note for the club, if/when he leaves.
We still have a full season to go, and the dog fight isn’t over yet. So I’m not throwing the towel and worrying about failure, instead I’m one for embracing it in order to succeed further. I bet you and Jurgen being older and more experienced than me, might see it this way too.
So let’s go give Stoke the game of their lives now!
Up the Reds!!!
I suspect Salah and Coutinho might get a rest and Mane and Firmino start in the front 3 with the Ox. Wijnaldum and Can seem certain to start in midfield. Lallana could do with some game time but not sure if he is fit enough to start. It would be nice to see the manager use his subs to rotate and maybe make changes on the hour whether it be out of necessity to change the game or just to keep the legs of the starters that little bit fresher.
Although I don’t think the games are must win at this stage, its getting to that point. A few wins up to Christmas would relieve the pressure the manager seems to be under from some sections and should see us climb into the top 4 rather than sitting just outside.
Lovely piece, Rob. Touched a cord.
I for one feel very defensive of Klopp, not because he’s faultless (he certainly isn’t), but because he’s so perfect for us. There’s not a manager in world football who would get us like he does. Yes, questions must be asked when things don’t go right, of course, but I am concerned at the nature of the criticism in some quarters. Anyway, thanks for a wonderful article.
Klopp didn’t get Keita or VVD last summer despite them being his top targets. We saw the impact Salah has had, so maybe they would have been huge for the team too. Next season will be Klopp’s title assault. This season is about top 4, a good Champions League run and maybe an FA cup.
Fans must show faith in him. With such a difference in spending between us and City/Utd and FSG’s continued failure in transfers, it’s a very difficult job.
Love these, Rob. Look forward to them every game. When football is awash with money and cynicism, your articles, like Klopp, are totally free of negativity. Always looking forward and on the bright side. Always to the next game, the next three points. If other football writers were more like this, and not always looking for a line, or an angle, football would be all the better for it.
I’ve not come across any other writer who reminds me of the joy I felt as a kid when playing or watching football.
I also really like Klopp. And I feel the same way about Kenny. I really liked your description of Wenger too.
Straying dangerously close to Evertonian territory here, when they wholly embraced a manager who ‘got them’ but got them no trophies in a 11 year spell.
I do like Klopp. However this type of fawning can be ridiculous sometimes. At the end of the day, he is a man being paid a lot of money to do a job he loves. And in such a scenario, any errors in his decisions can rightly be questioned. Doesn’t mean he is loved any less. Of course, I am excluding those who only criticise him because they have a personal agenda.
Klopp is doing well enough. But he can do better. Likening him to Wenger isn’t something I consider a major positive. I would rather have managers who are more ruthless on and off the pitch, more flexible during games and less idealistic as a whole. Wenger adopting all of those traits I mentioned would have seen him win more league titles rather than still waiting since 2004. That’s what separates him from the kind of success Ferguson and Mourinho have achieved.
Needless to say I absolutely disagree with that ‘I would rather fail with Klopp than succeed with someone else’ statement. A bit puke inducing, that.