Jurgen Klopp: The manager who has become the perfect fit for Liverpool

On Sunday, Liverpool Football Club will head into their final match of the Premier League season knowing that – while it’s not in their own hands – one more win could see them end the day as champions. That would complete a remarkable treble, having won both domestic cups already this season.

Next weekend, the Reds will be in another all-or-nothing encounter, playing Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris, a day which could see the Merseyside club crowned kings of Europe for the seventh time and add a third – or, improbably, outrageously, a fourth – piece of silverware to the annual collection.

They are right now at the pinnacle of the world game, one of the best-run off the pitch and one of the most enthralling to watch on it.

While that overall progression and growth is unquestionably the work of many, reaching this stage, with this consistency, would be utterly impossible without one binding individual: Jurgen Klopp.

The German manager has guided not just the team toward trophies, but the supporters back into a cohesive, grateful collective. He has improved individuals, convinced a fanbase and, six-and-a-half years into the job, just agreed to extend his stay until 2026. It is all the more remarkable given what came before, yet Klopp’s tenure has always been about the possibility of the future. That’s why regardless of what is or isn’t achieved this week, his iconic status at the club will remain utterly intact, with always one eye on the next success.

Very little needs to be said about the managerial qualities he possesses. The tactical acumen, the dressing room respect he commands, the consistency of getting it right on the training ground – that’s all rather evident in the fact that at the Stade de France, he’ll be taking a team into a fourth Champions League (or old European Cup) final. Only four managers have ever achieved that previously: Sir Alex Ferguson, Marcello Lippi, Miguel Munoz and Carlo Ancelotti. The latter will actually set a new record with his fifth this year, as head coach at Real Madrid.

Of more relevance to Liverpool is how Klopp’s personality and drive has taken the club from a level of inconsistent performances, middling results and no clear direction in team-building to one of the most dominant and future-proofed sides around.

His opening words from the press conference after his appointment have somewhat gone down in folklore: “We have to change from doubters to believers. Now.”

It was a line of intent to win trophies, for sure, but it was also a message that to reach that point, everybody had to pull in the same direction and that all participants needed a positive outlook on the mere potential for success. Everything must be forward-looking, and with gusto. Often he has repeated a version that as long as there’s a chance, that’s all the team – and the fans – should need. It rings true for the final day of the league season.

“At this moment all the LFC family is a little bit too nervous, a little bit too pessimistic, a little bit too much in doubt,” he added back in October 2015 not long after joining the club.

“They all celebrate the game and there is a fantastic atmosphere in the stadium, but they don’t believe at the moment. They only see five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. History is great. But only to remember. Now we have the possibility to write a new story if we want and be as successful as we can be.”

And so, he set about writing that new story.

It took time, near-misses and disappointments – defeats in the finals of the League Cup, Europa League and Champions League all came before the silverware started to rapidly mount up – but Liverpool climbed the ladder under Klopp’s guidance through a consistent message, unrelenting demands and always an acceptance that, as long as the next match was on the horizon, improvements could be made.

Positivity and talent is all well and good, but Klopp has done something to endear himself to the fanbase far more: a near-perfect match with the ethos, the ideals and certain political beliefs of the populace.

It is undeniable that as a city, Liverpool has its own identity, just like many others around the world shaped by industry, conditions and the decisions of those who run countries. Given how some of those latter individuals have opted to regard, treat and even demonise the northwest, it’s safe to say that any person of standing who rails against the establishment is going to receive widespread approval from Merseyside. Jurgen Klopp, then, telling people to look into why royals were booed at a cup final rather than outright dismiss the behaviour as wrong, offers a telling insight as to why he and the denizens of Anfield have gelled so well.

And the evidence has stacked up for years, now, that Klopp – and his family, who have fully embraced the challenge and opportunity of moving to a new locale – and Liverpool have been a match made in heaven.

The 54-year-old is no stranger to a lengthy stay at a club, having spent almost all of his playing career at Mainz 05 – playing games in every season from 1990 to 2001, in the second division of German football. His father, Norbert Klopp, had pushed him hard as a boy – having wanted a boy as well as Jurgen’s two older sisters. Norbert worked as a travelling salesman but had been a goalkeeper in his youth and made sure his son was schooled in sports. “He was ruthless,” Klopp said of his father in an interview with Die Zeit in 2009, talking about his father taking him skiing.

Klopp would move into management with Mainz, taking them to the top tier in Germany in 2004. They would be relegated in 2007 after a couple of solid league finishes. Later joining Borussia Dortmund he would take them to consecutive titles and a Champions League final in 2013. Dortmund would lose that game 2-1 to Bayern Munich at Wembley – a stadium Klopp would see plenty more of.

When he was a young boy he wanted to be a doctor and has said he still has “‘helper syndrome’ to a certain extent”. At Liverpool, he has, along the way, earned supporters’ admiration for using press conferences to highlight the efforts of key workers during the pandemic, for raising the profile of the joint Liverpool and Everton community initiative Fans Supporting Foodbanks and for engaging in a brilliantly open discussion with (now former) LFC Women player Meikayla Moore on the Rainbow Laces campaign and openly gay people in football.

There are countless further examples. Not least joining Common Goal, the organisation that is encouraging players, managers and football clubs to give 1 per cent of their income to change the lives of disadvantaged young people in 2019. “It is only by working together that we can accomplish truly meaningful things in football and in life,” he said at the time. This highlights one fundamental aspect: setting aside Klopp’s job where he leads the team so many care about, as a person he also follows the same values they care about in other aspects of their lives.

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And it doesn’t even have to be always the big issues either: plenty of Liverpool fans admire him just as much for swearing on live TV, for hanging off the back of a bus drinking a beer after becoming champions of Europe three years ago and for giving his players massive hugs at full-time every week.

All of that plays very much into another line from his first press conference: “Does anyone in this room think I can do wonders? No. I am a normal guy. I come from the Black Forest. My mother is probably sat at home now watching this, not able to understand a word of what I am saying but very proud. I am the Normal One.”

Normal he might be and half, at least, of the city of Liverpool has enjoyed that immensely. But he definitely told one lie there too – the work he has done and the success he has achieved so far has been nothing short of a wonder. More could follow in the coming days but even if it doesn’t, Jurgen Klopp is already a Liverpool legend, the man who ended a three-decade wait for a league title and took a quadruple bid to the final day of the season.