After almost nine years in charge and seven major trophies, Jurgen Klopp is leaving Liverpool.
He has been one of the most transformative managers in the club’s history and in English football’s modern era.
To mark his departure, The Athletic is bringing you the Real Jurgen Klopp, a series of pieces building the definitive portrait of one of football’s most famous figures.
For part five, James Pearce spoke to more than a dozen current and former players, staff members and executives to reveal his managerial secrets.
Read the rest of the series here:
Pep Lijnders takes his time as he ponders how best to sum up the scale of Klopp’s contribution to Liverpool.
What a vantage point he’s had. The Dutchman was there to greet Klopp when he first arrived in 2015 and has been beside him almost every step of the way ever since on his coaching staff.
“In the past 30 to 40 years, not many coaches have changed a club like Jurgen,” Lijnders tells The Athletic. “Louis van Gaal at Ajax, Johan Cruyff at Barca, Pep Guardiola at Barca, Arrigo Sacchi at Milan. Then, for me, Jurgen here.
“Wherever we would have gone in the world, even if we had worn different colours, people would have recognised what they saw and said: ‘Ah, this is Liverpool Football Club’. As a coach, you cannot get a bigger compliment than that.”
Ask the same question about Klopp’s impact at Anfield to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson, the dynamic full-backs who will forever be associated with his reign, and you get a similar answer: this was about far more than trophies.
“Look at the stories that we’ve written, the journeys we’ve all been on,” Alexander-Arnold says. “He’s helped us all develop into what we’ve always dreamed of. He took us to the pinnacle.”
Robertson, nodding in agreement beside him, agrees. “From the moment I walked in through the door, I could sense the belief everyone had in him. It’s been a fun ride. There’s always been excitement. He’s pretty decorated when it comes to silverware, but it’s more a story of how he got a club and fanbase believing again.”
For owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG), there’s also a huge debt of gratitude. “He enthused the club with a competitive spirit that’s really quite unmatched,” says Liverpool chairman Tom Werner. “There’s something in his philosophy of life that bled into the storyline of Liverpool over the past nine years. Here is a man who is not even born in the UK, yet he’s become the Scouser we all love and admire.”
No managerial appointment in Liverpool’s history had created such a sense of fervour.
It was just after 5.30pm on Thursday, October 8, 2015, when Klopp arrived at the city’s Hope Street Hotel. After the Mercedes V-Class he was travelling in had battled past the supporters outside, he headed for The Sixth boardroom to sign a three-year contract alongside Werner, chief executive Ian Ayre and agent Marc Kosicke.
A week earlier, Klopp had flown to New York to meet Liverpool’s owners at the New York offices of law firm Shearman & Sterling after deciding to cut short his sabbatical, five months after leaving Borussia Dortmund.
Werner: “My first impression was that he uses humour in order to make people feel good. Obviously, the position was important to him, but he was also just enjoying a trip to New York City. You could sense his great love of life when we said goodbye.
“After that first meeting, we turned to each other and said: ‘Forget his tactical strategy, he’s absolutely the right person for this club’. We had interviewed other coaches but he was just extraordinarily charismatic. He could be the CEO of any number of big companies outside of football. He has this remarkable ability to motivate people.”
First-team development coach Lijnders, goalkeeping coach John Achterberg and academy director Alex Inglethorpe were among those invited to have dinner with Klopp at Hope Street Hotel after he had signed his contract.
Klopp is unveiled as the new Liverpool manager with chairman Werner (left) and managing director Ayre (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Achterberg: “The conversation just flowed. I felt like I’d known him for 10 years. I thought, ‘Yeah, I’m going to enjoy working for this guy’.”
Inglethorpe: “The day after he came to watch the under-18s play Stoke at the academy. It was clear he had a genuine interest in what we do. An awful lot of managers talk about being committed to the development of young players but only some of them mean it. Jurgen’s commitment never wavered. He made our jobs easier by ensuring that pathway was always clear. I can’t think of another manager who has done it in quite the same way.”
At his Anfield unveiling, Klopp described himself as “the normal one” and urged fans to “change from doubters to believers”.
“If we want, this could be a very special day,” he said. “If you are prepared to work for it, if you are patient enough. If I’m sat here in four years, I think we will have won one title in this time. If not, the next one (job) may be in Switzerland.”
Liverpool were 10th in the Premier League with 12 points from eight matches. They had won just a solitary League Cup since 2006 and had only qualified for the Champions League in one of the previous six seasons as Brendan Rodgers’ reign unravelled following the heartache of missing out on the title in 2013-14.
Klopp waited until the club’s internationals had returned to their Melwood training base before assembling the squad in the media room. Each member of staff on site was asked to pass through and describe their role.
Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet: “They all came through like a train. Jurgen said: ‘Who are all these people?’ Everyone said: ‘They’re the staff.’ He said: ‘No, we’re all one family: the Liverpool family. Everyone has to know everyone’s name. These people are here to help you perform.’ Jurgen’s point was that everyone is a part of the puzzle. That set the tone for everything that came after.”
Melwood gateman Kenny Grimes: “There’s no doubt that the players’ attitude changed towards us. Previously, sometimes they used to drive straight past you but after that (meeting with Klopp), they started to let on a lot more. Everyone just seemed happier, more relaxed. There were never any airs and graces with Jurgen. The culture changed. He made you feel part of Liverpool FC to a much greater extent.”
Klopp, who brought assistants Peter Krawietz and Zeljko Buvac with him, felt that the squad he inherited was talented but weighed down by expectation levels and pressure. He told them: “The only criticism which is really important is mine.”
He brought in new rules about players eating together and reinforced that Melwood was a place of work, not for hangers-on. Time off was reduced as the training schedule became more intensive in order to adapt to his gegenpressing strategy.
As he stood addressing his players, he wrote on the board:
T – TERRIBLE
E – ENTHUSIASTIC
A – AMBITIOUS
M – MENTALLY-STRONG MACHINES
Mignolet: “I remember him saying that ‘terrible’ was how opponents were going to feel after going up against us for 90 minutes. He talked about how we were going to out-work and out-run teams.”
The defining image from his first game in charge — a 0-0 draw at Tottenham — was the sight of a shattered Adam Lallana falling into his arms after being substituted.
Lallana comes off exhausted during Klopp’s first match, at Tottenham, in 2015 (John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Lijnders: “I loved his team talk before that game. He said that Tottenham’s confidence was like a little flower. He stood up and then started stamping his foot down on the floor! That was what he wanted the team to do to the flower! I thought: ‘It’s going to be fun working with this guy’.”
Achterberg: “His force of personality quickly changed the mood around the place. What I liked early on was that Jurgen talked up the standard of the players he inherited. He knew the transfer window was shut and he couldn’t change anything. He immediately got a lot more out of players who had been struggling. He told everyone that everyone would have a fair chance.
“The mantra was: ‘Don’t run forward if you can’t run back’. He said: ‘I’m responsible for the defeats, you boys are responsible for the wins’. He didn’t bulls*** anyone and he was demanding, but working for him was so rewarding. He trusted you to get on with your job and people were prepared to go into battle for him.”
Defender Martin Skrtel: “There was something about the way he talked us as players, the way he motivated us. With Jurgen, he’s real. He’s not playing games. He’s not talking behind your back. That’s why players love him.”
Striker Daniel Sturridge: “It was hearing his voice on the training pitch more than anything. The way he would give his messaging resonated with everyone. It’s hard to get players thinking they’d run through a brick wall for this guy, but he did that.
“With every top manager, it’s teetering on the line of fear and respect. The players need to respect the boss — but the boss needs to command the respect of the players. You have to control the situations at big clubs, and he did that.”
It wasn’t just on the field where Klopp had to alter the mindset. A month into his tenure, he declared he felt “pretty alone” as fans left early when Liverpool trailed Crystal Palace 2-1 at home.
Achterberg: “He felt like the supporters were not fully behind the team. They didn’t really believe. He spoke a lot about that needing to change — how he needed everyone on board.
“Gradually, Anfield became a lot more positive. Critics said Jurgen was celebrating a point when he got the players to hold hands in front of the Kop after Divock Origi got a late equaliser against West Brom, but they missed the point. That was his way of saying: ‘Thank you, this is what’s possible if we all stick together’. The first big example of that was the fightback against Dortmund (in the Europa League). That underlined how he had tapped into the power of Anfield.”
Liverpool trailed 4-2 on aggregate in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-final with just 25 minutes to go but goals from Philippe Coutinho, Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren stunned Klopp’s former club.
Lijnders: “I believe that the character of the leader becomes the character of the team. You get a passionate guy coming in who really knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. He had the experience of knowing what works and came with new football ideas. People started seeing development and the people around him were able to express themselves freely.”
In December 2015, the players had expected their Christmas party to be cancelled after a 3-0 defeat to Watford. Instead, they received a message from the manager that read: “Whatever we do together, we do as well as we can and tonight that means we party.” Nobody was allowed to leave Formby Hall, a golf resort and spa complex near Liverpool, until 1am.
By the end of the season, Liverpool had competed in but lost two major finals: the League Cup to Manchester City (on penalties) and the Europa League to Unai Emery’s Sevilla.
Determined to lift spirits at the post-match party in Basel’s Novotel, Klopp grabbed the microphone and said: “Two hours ago you all felt s***. But now, hopefully, you all feel better. This is just the start for us. We will play in many more finals.” He then launched into a defiant rendition of “We Are Liverpool”.
Klopp wanted to share in his players’ celebrations — such as at Norwich in 2016 (Lindsey Parnaby/AFP via Getty Images)
Achterberg: “Jurgen was adamant that the party