Jurgen Klopp press conference LIVE: Liverpool manager addresses shock departure

Win record

Jurgen Klopp arrived in October 2015 as Brendan Rodgers’ replacement and while he made a low-key start in a goalless draw with Tottenham, and draws in his first three games overall, it was the precursor to one of the club’s most successful eras.

He has won more than 60 per cent of his 466 games in charge – with a minimum of 21 remaining this season – and provided Liverpool’s greatest Premier League performances since the competition’s rebranding.

They won the 2019-20 title with 99 points, just one fewer than Manchester City’s record 100 two years earlier, while their 97 as runners-up in 2018-19 is a record for any team who did not finish as champions. They lead this season’s standings, five points clear of City having played one game more.

Klopp’s next Premier League win will be his 200th, with his record currently standing at 199 out of 317 games. In all competitions he has won 283, drawn 105 and lost 78 and the club have scored 972 goals on his watch, a number that will surely hit four figures before the season is out.

It is rare in the modern game that news completely stuns the football world but that’s exactly what happened with Jurgen Klopp’s resignation. There was shock among major European managers and players.

It is, with an odd sense of appropriateness, the modern equivalent of Bill Shankly retiring in 1974. That can’t quite feature the incredible clips of a successor to Tony Wilson literally informing Liverpool fans on the street that their patriarch had left. They will have no doubt checked their smartphones, given everyone in the Premier League was sharing the news with exclamation marks and emojis within seconds.

Unlike Shankly, too, many of the consequences are immediately apparent. This is a very different and more financially defined game.

Jurgen Klopp has promised Liverpool fans he will never manage another English club after he leaves Anfield in the summer “even if he has nothing to eat”.

The 56-year-old German has shocked the football world by announcing he will stand down as Reds boss after nearly nine years in charge at the end of the season, having steered the club to six major trophies including the Premier League title in 2020 and the Champions League in 2019.

Brighton boss, Roberto De Zerbi, is sad that Jurgen Klopp is leaving his post as Liverpool manager and claimed the German was one of the best managers in the world.

He said: “I’m very sad because, if he changes league, changes country, the Premier League loses one of the best coaches in the world.

“I consider Klopp, (Pep) Guardiola, (Carlo) Ancelotti, (Marcelo) Bielsa the best coaches in the world and I’m sad for it. I can understand it very well. I think our work is the best work you can do but it is very tough.

“You need energy. You have to push every day. If you don’t work with the right energy, you lose everything.”

Ruben Amorim

Another young coach making waves on the continent, Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim is regarded as a sharp tactical thinker.

His positive mindset has also drawn praise during his time in Lisbon, and a step up to a higher-profile job in the future feels a formality for the 38-year-old, who has time on his side.

Ange Postecoglou

Surely not? It seems unlikely that Ange Postecoglou will leave Tottenham after his early success in London but the Australian was a Liverpool fan growing up, and has made a success of virtually every role in a long and varied career.

Julian Nagelsmann

Now in charge of Germany, a jump to the Premier League has long been rumoured for managerial wunderkind Julian Nagelsmann.

Things turned a little sour towards the end of his stint at Bayern Munich but Nagelsmann was once European football’s hottest coaching commodity after success with Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.

Steven Gerrard

There was a time where a return at Anfield seemed a certainty for ex-club captain Steven Gerrard, who guided Rangers to a Scottish league title after departing a role in Liverpool’s academy.

A difficult spell at Aston Villa has caused his managerial stock to fall, while the Saudi Pro League is not perhaps the place to rebuild a reputation, but Gerrard remains popular with the fanbase and impressed Klopp while in charge of Liverpool’s Under-18s.

Roberto De Zerbi

If Liverpool favour a manager familiar with the Premier League, Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi might fit the bill.

The Italian’s progressive coaching style has proved a neat fit on the South Coast, taking the club into Europe for the first time during his first campaign in charge.

The former Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk manager has been praised by Klopp, and the two managers share a mutual respect for one another.

Xabi Alonso

The favourite for the role is Xabi Alonso, the former Liverpool midfielder who has done fine work with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.

The 42-year-old is regarded as one of Europe’s most promising managers having impressed previously at Real Sociedad and taken Leverkusen to the top of the Bundesliga. He spent five years at Anfield during his playing career.