Klopp’s Liverpool vision

With Jurgen Klopp having brought up one year as Liverpool manager, Adam Bate caught up with him at the club’s academy to discuss how it’s gone so far and the plans for the future. Speaking at an event for the Seeing is Believing charity initiative, Klopp’s vision was clear…

Liverpool go into Monday’s game against Manchester United having won five games in a row. After finishing eighth last season, they are now second favourites to lift the Premier League title. Fans are excited as much by the team’s tempo, direction and style as by any particular personnel change. One year into the job and Jurgen Klopp has made a big impact.

Speaking to the Liverpool manager on a windy day at Liverpool’s academy training ground, there are the customary glimpses of the charismatic character who so shines through on television. But he’s also eager to convey a sense of seriousness that the job is barely begun let alone done. Asked if he’s satisfied with his first year’s work, his response is a firm one.

“Actually not,” says Klopp. “Everybody asks me about it. So, it’s a year. Quite a busy year. Intense. Yes, with a few ups and a few downs and a really optimistic view of the future that we still have. Nothing else happened.” Nothing? “From my side it was a bit … a really short year. It was really like this,” he adds, with a click of his fingers. “Hopefully there’ll be more.”

Not that he’s setting a time frame on the team’s success. “I never thought about the tempo or the speed of our progress,” he says. “I only knew that we have to get better. But that’s how life is because even when you are good you need to get better because all around will get better too. To stay in a race, it’s development. It’s everything.”

The reference to development is appropriate given the surroundings. Banners of academy graduates such as Steven Gerrard billow from the masts around the pitch. A dressing room is named after Jamie Carragher. It’s not merely decoration. That this place is a living, breathing link between past and present is underlined as Steve McManaman walks by.

This is the Liverpool that Klopp wants to embrace. He is a coach who has already got under the skin of the Liverpool supporters and perhaps even the city, but he’s still getting under the skin of the club itself. Having spent seven years in charge of Mainz and a further seven at Borussia Dortmund, his only itch is to get on with the task ahead.

When Klopp calls it a short year, he really …

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