How Klopp Changed Liverpool

One of the great things about Liverpool are the club managers. A manager of a club, especially for a club like Liverpool, can be viewed with either a golden halo surrounding them or a dark cloud over their heads. All managers want to be successful but clearly not all are. Usually that happens when the club and the manager are not fit for each other. Managers have their own style, ego, tactics, and persona, much like a player, which makes sense because most managers are former players. Clubs also have their own characteristics consisting of status, tradition and economic value. Trying to find the right manager for a club can take years and most do not work out. Many are fired from their positions by the midway point of their domestic league season which is Christmas time in most countries (it's a brutal and unforgiving sport sometimes). Even though Liverpool's success is largely due to great management, they are not immune from having poor managers and I think that it is important to understand that the past certainly shapes the present in this case.

At the end of the 2013/14 Premier League Season, Liverpool had finished in a close second to Manchester City. The manager of the club at the time was Brendan Rodgers, who hailed from Northern Ireland. He was certainly a modern type of manager as his tactics were rooted in possession and quick ball movement. The season had ended in disappointment since they practically handed title over and during the summer transfer window Rodgers sold Liverpool's best player, Luis Suarez, a striker, to Barcelona for nearly 65 million pounds. Rodgers then signed a handful of players with that money to rebuild the team and go for another title challenge. In October, Liverpool were struggling and in the middle of the league table. Rodgers was fired and left the club with no trophies.

When a manager is fired, the board of the club need to find a replacement and quick. The search can go on for months if they are not prepared enough. However, this was not the case. Almost immediately after Rodgers left, Jürgen Klopp stepped in to fill his shoes. Klopp was a German manager who had just left his club, Borussia Dortmund, on good terms. He was looking for a new challenge. Liverpool, saw this opportunity and took advantage.

Klopp, is not your typical manager. He does have his own persona and ego, which many would describe as a mixture between extremely passionate and borderline crazy. He is very animated on the touchline, shouting, jumping up and down, and making quirky faces and gestures. All of it in good nature though. His tactics are unique and they seem to reflect his personality. His style of play is called Gegenpressing, which features players running high up the pitch to press the opposing team in their own half, winning the ball back quickly after losing it, and counterattacking. It is a very quick and difficult style to play against and Klopp, I don't think, takes credit for inventing it, as Dutch Total Football seems the origin of the tactic. Although he has certainly mastered and reinvented the tactic to fit the modern game.

Jürgen Klopp celebrating a goal scored by Liverpool

Klopp's tactics have certainly benefited him and Liverpool since they have broken numerous records and won the Champions League since he has taken over as manager. Yet, his financial decisions and scouting have served Liverpool well too. He has sold players for well over hundreds million pounds and has yet to dig deep (relatively) into the club's pockets to find the right players to help complete his vision. Not only will Klopp go down in history in Liverpool for winning a major honor, he has gone above and beyond to contribute his best to the club's current reputation and the club could not be more in love with him at the moment. In all fairness to Rodgers, who is a great manager and individual, I do not think Liverpool would be in the position that they are in today if it were not for Rodgers failures and thus forcing the Liverpool to find a new manager.