“We will kill their game and then we will play our game.” With that phrase, first uttered at Mainz more than a decade ago, Jürgen Klopp presented his vision, at once destructive and constructive, of how he expects football to be played.
The blueprint, the cornerstone of his subsequent success at Borussia Dortmund, will be tested in the Barclays Premier League for the first time today, when Liverpool face Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, but whether the Merseyside club are ready to kill or play remains to be seen.
Colin Bell, an assistant at Mainz during Klopp’s spell as coach, heard the phrase countless times. “We worked together for five years,” the former Leicester City player recalls. “Jürgen came in as head coach and I was there as reserve-team coach. He has a fantastic work ethic. He’s always good for a laugh, but he also expects a lot from his players. If a midfield player, for example, is not prepared to run 11 to 12 kilometres in a match then they will have problems with Kloppo.”
That message, more than any other, has been rammed home continuously at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground in the week since Klopp succeeded Brendan Rodgers as manager.
“Always give ten metres more,” has been his mantra, the emphasis being on physical intensity and need for players to work relentlessly for the cause. With a single week of preparation behind them, and a disjointed one at that given the disruption caused by injuries and international matches, Liverpool are unlikely to be the team who Klopp wants them to be, and he knows it.
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A change in mentality apart, instant gratification is not on the Liverpool manager’s agenda. “I am able to wait for each step,” he said. “That is very important. I think you in the media have worked for a long time in the football business and you know how development works, but you are always [putting the manager] under a little bit of pressure.
“We all have to feel confident to make the next step. I have to give the boys things that they are able to do. Of course, I want to see a change in mentality; [to go] from the first second until the last second. Not because it was bad before, but because that is the most easy thing to change. We have to go to London and show what we can do.
“That’s what we are waiting for the whole week. That’s what we dream of. All the tactical things, that’s very important because we do not have to work so much on the physical side. My ideas are not better than Brendan’s. They are different, of course, and so we need time. That’s a big challenge: to find a way [to make] the first step and that you can see that it is better. They have to get better in the games.”
The problem that Klopp has given himself is that he has previously shown an aptitude for instant transformation. On taking over at Mainz, a team who had won once in their previous 14 fixtures, in February 2001, relegation was a growing possibility, but six wins in seven matches followed his appointment and survival was secured. The process that underpinned that revival is one that Bell, who guided Frankfurt to glory in the Women’s Champions League in May, is better placed than most to explain and he expects Liverpool players to discover that, as far as Klopp is concerned, there is no substitute for hard work.
“He’s always able to adapt to his players and understands what they need, although I should stress that it is what the need rather than what they might want,” Bell said.
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“He’ll get into their hearts and then he’ll get into their heads, because he knows this is crucial if you want to be successful over a long period. The first priority was to make sure the players were very, very fit. He wanted to put the opposition under as much pressure as possible, and that began with the intensity of our play. He wanted us to outrun and outwork our opponents, no matter who they were, so that we could win the ball as high up the pitch as possible.
“Whenever first-team players needed game time they would come down to the reserves to work with me, but it wasn’t just about them going through the motions to build up fitness. If a player worked really hard and showed the right attitude, it would be up to me to pass that message on and then Kloppo would put him back in the squad at the earliest opportunity.
“It worked the other way, though. There was one senior player who didn’t show the right attitude and when I told the manager about this, he was left out of the first-team squad for the next fortnight. That’s just the way Kloppo is — he wanted everyone to give everything for the cause and he wouldn’t carry passengers. By doing that, by demanding 100 per cent from everyone, he changed the culture of the entire club.
“But it wasn’t just about fitness; that is the mistake that some people make. The tactical element was key to what he wanted to achieve. The work on the training ground would be built around when and how to go and press, and then what to do when the ball was won so that we would have the best possible chance of doing damage to our opponents.”
Bell has seen the German’s desire at first hand, none more so than when he cradled a devastated Klopp in his arms after Mainz missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga on the final day of his first full season as coach, a situation that repeated itself the next year. Those setbacks, Bell believes, were the making of Klopp.
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“He had the endurance and the psyche to be able to cope with the kind of disappointment that might have crushed other managers,” Bell said. “That, as much as anything else, is one of the main reasons behind how he has got to where he is today. He is exactly what Liverpool needs right now.
“If you think back to the days when Liverpool were the best team in Europe, their style of play was very similar to what you expect of a Klopp team. They were very good in possession but they were also incredibly tough, physically and mentally, and the Liverpool crowd will definitely see a lot of the qualities that they expect from their club when they see his team play.”
How long it takes for that Liverpool to emerge is open to question, but Klopp is not going to waste any time putting his methods to the test.
“Tottenham is not the easiest game to play, of course not,” he said. “It’s absolutely clear they are a football- playing team. They want to pass. This is good for a team that wants to press. We will try to do this, but I do not want to say too much. We will see what happens. If they do their things and we do our things, then we will find who’s better in this game.”
First league game for past five managers — and Shankly
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