2626 THE PREM ERATHE PREM ERAL
iverpool’s Champions League
victory over Tottenham Hotspur
at the Wanda Metropolitano in
Madrid was particularly sweet
forJurgen Klopp. The former Mainz and
Borussia Dortmundcoach had finally
won a final at the seventh time of asking.
Klopp’s reputation as a serial loser
is not entirely deserved; his Dortmund
side beat Bayern Munich to win the
2012 German Cup. But after that he
was a six-time losing finalist: three with
Dortmund and three with Liverpool.
The defeats included three European
showpieces: the 2013 Champions
League final with Bayern at Wembley,
the 2016 Europa League final against
Sevilla in Basel, and the 2018 Champions
League final loss to Real Madrid in Kyiv.
Of course, “serial loser” would
be an unfair tag to apply to Klopp;
“serial improver” would be a much more
accurate description – especially after
his work at Liverpool culminated in a
sixth European Cup triumph last May.
Klopp arrived at Liverpool in
October 2015 as one of the world’s
most-wanted managers, with his
pressing tactics having influenced a
new generation of Bundesliga coaches.
At Mainz, where he spent his entire
playing career, he stepped effortlessly
from the pitch to the dugout, steering
the club to a first-ever promotion.
With Dortmund, he turned around
the fortunes of a club hit by financial
turbulence, taking them to back-to-back
Bundesliga titles and that appearance
in the 2013 Champions League final.
Klopp’s Liverpool have all the tactical
hallmarks of his Dortmund side but at
Anfield – or rather at the club’s Melwood
training ground – he has also embraced
a real commitment to data analytics.That combination of good
coaching and clever transfer
business has helped produce
some spectacular results and
allowed Liverpool to successfully
challenge Manchester City, their
financially-enhanced rivals a
few miles down the road.
Sixteen wins in Liverpool’s first17
Premier League games of this season
stretched their unbeaten run to 34
matches, the best in the club’s history.
Under Klopp, they have won 59 per
cent of their games, the highest
percentage of any managerKing
THE MANAGERS
KLOPP
Klopp reached his zenith as a manager by guiding
Liverpool to a sixth European crown in 2018-19who has been in charge for 50 games
or more. His recent reward was a new
five-year contract until 2024.
Whether he sees out that new
deal remains to be seen. In a recent
interview withKickerhe acknowledged
that at some stage in the future he will
take a year out to recharge his batteries,
explaining: “If I decide for myself that I
can’t go on anymore, I’ll take a break
and in that year I’d have to make adefinite decision.
“I have absolute energy, but I have one
problem: I can’t do ‘a little bit.’ I can only
do ‘all or nothing.’ But the chances are
very high that my energy levels will go
up again [after a year’s break], and that
I can then do the job the way I want to.”
For the moment, though, Klopp is
relishing the challenge of turning
Liverpool into serial winners again.
John Holmesdale