The stuff of Champions: How Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool ended 30 years of hurt
Liverpool Football Club’s first league title in 30 years
The wait is over; Jürgen Klopp, first of his name, delivered Liverpool’s first league title in 30 years. In his first press conference, he anointed himself ‘the normal one’ but in the 5 years since he has proved to be anything but. Klopp arrived with the team languishing in mid table and turned them into English, European and World Champions. In this article we’ll take a close look at how he did it.
Change in culture
“I think Jürgen would be a brilliant psychologist if he wasn’t such a great manager. He brings out the best in players.”
This, one of many quotes from Liverpool Chairman Tom Werner on Jürgen Klopp to The Athletic, sums up the German brilliantly. Perhaps unbeknownst to some, Klopp is one of the most demanding managers to play under in world football. The constant motion and shouting on the touchline should be a telling clue. And yet, rather than suffer burnout from his methods, instead we see giant bear hugs after games, big slaps on the back and emotional celebrations. Klopp’s charisma gives him the ability to rinse every last drop out of his players and have them turning up the next day ready to give more.
As told to The Athletic by his captain Jordan Henderson, “The manager always finds the right words at the right times,”.
Jürgen Klopp and Sadio Mané
But not only is he great at getting the best out of his players, he also has created a culture whereby his coaching staff feel empowered to challenge his decisions and add value in different ways. The much maligned throw in coach Thomas Gronnemark has nothing but glowing praise for Klopp. Speaking to The Athletic, he said: “I had all this knowledge about how to keep possession from throw-ins and create chances, but people didn’t really want to listen.
“The first club that really took it all on board was Liverpool. That was the big breakthrough for me. This is the first club where I’ve been able to use all my knowledge. That says a lot about the mentality and the culture at Liverpool.
“Jürgen is an innovator. He’s a leader who says he doesn’t know everything and is willing to listen to people if they have the knowledge to take the club forward.”
This is a manager who is happy to look outside of himself for solutions for the team. The lack of ego Klopp shows by opening himself up to many sources of information, speaks to the humble and marginal gains culture he has fostered at the club.
“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 Jürgen has the feeling he really cares about you and your development. There is no ego, he purely searches for the right thing to do”
Deal Or No Deal - Sales and Signings
Notable Outgoings
Danny Ings - £20,000,000
Joe Allen - £13,000,000
Christian Benteke - £32,000,000
Mamadou Sakho - £25,000,000
Dominic Solanke - £19,000,000
Jordan Ibe - £15,000,000
Philippe Coutinho - £142,000,000
Total - £266,000,000
Notable Signings
Mo Salah - £45,000,000
Sadio Mané - £34,000,000
Gini Wijnaldum - £25,000,000
Andy Robertson - £8,000,000
Naby Keita - £59,000,000
Oxlade-Chamberlain - £35,000,000
Virgil Van Dijk - £75,000,000
Alisson Becker - £66,800,000
Fabinho - £39,000,000
Total - £386,800,000
Is Michael Edwards a wizard!? Since Jürgen Klopp's appointment, Liverpool have managed to sell Dominic Solanke for £19M, Jordan Ibe for £15M, Benteke for £32M and the list goes on. When you add to that Barcelona’s incredible (read ridiculous) transfer fee for Philippe Coutinho, and fees preceding Klopp’s time including transfers for Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez, you can see how Liverpool have raised funds incredibly well over the last few years.
Mo Salah has 93 goals and 36 assists in 152 games…world class
What is perhaps more impressive is the way they have actually spent the money. We will talk more about Robertson, Van Dijk and Alisson later, but for now The Egyptian King...It is easy to say that Mo Salah wasn’t given a fair chance at Chelsea, but even if he showed great promise at both Fiorentina and Roma, no one and especially not Jürgen Klopp saw what was coming next: a record breaking 32 goals in 36 Premier League games, a PFA Player Of The Year Award and two Champions League Finals with one winner’s medal. Of course, let’s not forget the holy grail of a Premier League title. He has become an iconic and talismanic figure for both club and country, and transcends the game with his impact off the pitch. While the style of play, achievements and impact of Mo Salah deserve an article all on their own, let’s not forget the impact of others around him too.
“The way we play helped him, the status he had from the first day in the team helped him. It was different for him than in other years, at Roma, he had Edin Dzeko next to him. [Here] he is the main man in the decisive situations, it’s ‘give the ball to him’.”
The signing of the mercurial Mané was met with equal parts optimism and scepticism, with some questioning the signing of another Southampton talent following the likes of Lovren, Lallana and Clyne. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but clearly he’s the best of the lot. Forming a deadly front three alongside Firmino and Salah, he has excelled on the left, devastating right backs and centre backs with not only his pace but also his technique, direct play and powerful finishing. A shared African golden boot in the 2018/19 league season with 22 goals was a testament to his improvement and newfound consistency.
Speaking of consistency, it is only right to highlight the impact of Gini Wijnaldum. Bought by Newcastle as a goalscoring midfielder, he has turned himself into an all action midfielder, trusted with marshalling the midfield, winning the ball back high up the pitch and keeping it circulating. His athleticism, adaptability and eye for a goal have seen him become an automatic starter in all of Liverpool’s biggest games in the last few years. The two goals in the Semi Final 2nd leg vs Barcelona come to mind as particularly critical moments in their recent success.
The signing of Fabinho is one that perhaps goes unheralded, understandable when you consider the other outstanding signings made, but he has helped take the team to the next level. While it is true that Henderson did quite well in the no. 6 role, he is not the ready made, fit for purpose defensive midfielder that Fabinho is. He has given those around him the confidence to roam and raid in midfield more freely while also pressing at the right time to stop opposition attacks in their tracks. Not content with being a destroyer in midfield, he is also capable of threading lovely through balls from deep while also smashing thunderous drives into the top corner from distance.
Tactics
““He likes having the ball, playing football, passes. It’s like an orchestra. But it’s a silent song. I like heavy metal more. I always want it loud.””
Schadenfreude, kaput, and gegenpressing - all German words firmly part of our lexicon in 2020. Some of us knew Klopp from his time at Dortmund - his heavy pressing, exciting team shook up European Football when they beat Real Madrid 4-1 on their way to the 2013 Champions League Final. This was the football Klopp initially brought to Liverpool in October 2015. Liverpool were the first team that season to outrun Pochettino’s hard running Spurs side, immediately buying into their manager’s ideals.
With gegenpressing, the press is ‘better than any no. 10 in the world’, according to Jürgen Klopp. The idea is to press the ball in such a way it exploits the weaknesses of the opponent, making it easier to steal the ball and launch an attack in the final third. This style made them incredibly effective against the big teams who favoured a possession based approach, which we can see in their mauling of not only Arsenal but more surprisingly Manchester City.
As mentioned by The Athletic’s Michael Cox, the 4-1 defeat of Manchester City in November 2015 was a first glimpse of how effective Roberto Firmino could be as a False 9, combining with Coutinho and Emre Can to great effect to score 1 and assist 2. The team’s evolution then led to a ‘Fab Four’ with Firmino, Coutinho, Mané and Salah all dangerous in the final third. This culminated in the must win 7-0 demolition of Spartak Moscow in the Champions League group stage. While the attacking potential of the quartet was clear for all to see and delighted the Kop, the team still had significant issues; firstly they did not have a leading centre back to hang their hat on, and secondly they had goalkeepers, in Mignolet and Karius, who were seemingly competing in a race to the bottom. The remainder of the 2017/18 season would see the team resolve one of those issues, but pay the price on the biggest stage for not solving the other.
Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino
While Coutinho was and indeed still is an incredible talent, in his departure the team began to find more consistency, not only with the consequent signing of Van Dijk, but also the change from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3, meaning the team had more solidity in the middle of the pitch. The emphasis changed, with creativity now coming from the flanks in the form Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, with the midfield now charged with providing defensive security.
While gegenpressing had made Liverpool such a threat in the big games, they continued to struggle against teams in the bottom half of the table, who would sit deep while simultaneously refusing to play out from the back and give Liverpool the chance to steal the ball off them.
Thus they evolved their style - the change in emphasis from Coutinho’s smooth creativity to the chaos created by inch perfect crossing from the wings allowed them to break these deep lying defences down. Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander Arnold have changed the game, with the latter in particular emerging as one of the most incredible crossers of the ball ever seen. The pair of them have combined for an unbelievable 48 assists over the last two Premier League seasons from fullback. The quality and consistency of their play has left teams from Manchester City to Norwich struggling to cope, and negated the ability of lower ranked teams to simply pack the defence to stifle them.
If there was one game to sum up the evolution of the modern day fullback, Liverpool’s 5-0 annihilation of Watford in the 2018/19 season would be it. All 5 goals were assisted by either Alexander-Arnold or Robertson - revolutionary. Another example would be Mo Salah’s goal in this season’s 3-1 victory over Man City in November 2019; Alexander-Arnold’s left footed cross field pass opened up the pitch, and arrived at Andy Robertson’s feet, allowing him to whip in a devilish cross for Mo Salah to head home and double the lead.
Add this to the constant running in behind from out to in of Mané and Salah, along with pinpoint long passes from the back provided by Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Fabinho, and lightening fast counter attacks, and it is easy to see how this Liverpool team have become a multi faceted threat. Watch Van Dijk’s assist for Mané in their Champions League tie vs Bayern Munich in 2019 for evidence of just how deadly these combinations can be.
The pace and awareness of Van Dijk and Gomez has also meant they can push high up the pitch and squeeze teams, safe in the knowledge that if they do get exposed they can rely on two sensational athletes at the back to bail them out if needs be.
Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson Becker
Virgil Van Dijk’s £75M signing from Southampton in January 2018, after a protracted transfer saga, completely changed the team’s fortunes
One of the two most prominent Virgil’s of our time, Van Dijk’s swift entrance after Coutinho’s exit stage left immediately galvanised the team and provided the fans with another hero to idolise. His confidence and calmness in defence allows the team to continue to play in an aggressive manner, knowing that they have his pace, strength and reading of the game behind them. His ability to completely discourage an attacking player is astounding, and makes him truly unique in the modern game. A debut winner vs Everton in the FA Cup in front of the Kop didn’t hurt his status, either.
The numbers don’t lie - 7 clean sheets in his first 14 games, 10 goals conceded in the 20 games after his signing compared to 25 conceded in the 20 games before.
But it wasn’t just his defensive class that he brought to the team, it was also his technique and composure on the ball. As mentioned earlier, his unreal pass for Mané’s goal vs Bayern Munich is a brilliant illustration of his talent on the ball. This means teams can never be complacent against this side, as they are still very dangerous even when the ball is being passed along the backline.
Alisson, well...I’m not sure I need to remind anyone of the necessity of his signing. This is perhaps the only area where Klopp could’ve been criticised; his faith in Mignolet and Karius to carry the team through was ultimately misplaced and cost his team in the Champions League Final vs Real Madrid, concussion or no concussion. The mistakes Karius made in the first preseason game of the 2018/19 season sealed his fate - Alisson was being presented as a Liverpool player very shortly after.
This filled a problem position the team had ever since Pepe Reina’s slow decline and eventual departure from the club some years previous. The speed Alisson comes off his line is perhaps only second to his compatriot Ederson, allowing Liverpool to play with a very high line, and his shot stopping ability surpasses his Brazil teammate. His assuredness and confidence is heavily missed when absent, as seen in the 2nd leg vs Atletico Madrid in the Champions League this season, where Adrian’s costly mistakes ended up dumping his side out of the competition.
If one moment could sum up his importance to this team, it would have to be his save in the dying embers of Liverpool’s must win game vs Napoli. The point blank range stop won Liverpool the game and confirmed their entry to the knockout rounds; without that, there is no 6th Champions League title, no redemption in Madrid a year on from heartache. He has been the final piece of the puzzle, and made Liverpool into a formidable defensive force.
Conclusion
Liverpool have been on a long journey, not just under Jürgen Klopp, but under Souness, Evans, Houlier, Benitez and more over the past 30 years. Who can forget the near mutinous atmosphere under Hicks and Gillett? The club has come a long way under the German, and he deserves huge credit for achieving what he has in the past 5 years. However, others within the club also deserve credit; in particular, Michael Edwards, Tom Werner and Pep Lijnders have all played their part in driving the club forward.
To secure 196 points over two consecutive league seasons, along with European and World success is a mammoth achievement. The challenge for Liverpool now is, having tasted glory on all fronts after falling short so regularly, will they still be as relentless, as hungry? Can they use this as fuel to experience more success, or will they start to fall away? My guess is that they will be right back up there again both domestically and in Europe next season, competing on all fronts. The impact of the coronavirus has hit them hard, seen by their lack of desire to part with £50M to sign Timo Werner, and it may be the case that the rest of the chasing pack will catch up next season. However, with an 18 point margin of victory, it is safe to say that they will still be the team to beat next season.