Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid: The making of Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool take on Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their last 16 game in March. This is part of our series examining the difference between the clubs.

Jurgen Klopp was born in Stuttgart and began his football career as a boy, following his father into the sport, who was a goalkeeper for a local amateur club. By his own account, young Jurgen ‘had 4th division feet and a 1st division head.’

He was a dedicated, hard working, committed player, starting out as a striker before moving into a defensive backfield role in 1995 with Mainz 05. He knew early on that his strength in the sport would be from the managerial side.

After several years playing in the amateur ranks, he got a tryout with Eintracht Frankfurt. He speaks candidly about the experience. A young Andreas Moller was also at the camp, and when the young Klopp saw him perform he thought Moller ‘was world class, I wasn’t even class.’

This is in direct contrast to Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone, who enjoyed a career at the highest level as a player and represented his country at World Cups.

He did finally get his chance in 1990, with Bundesliga II side Mainz 05 – where he played nearly all of his professional football. Klopp never got a call-up to Germany’s national side, and he never played first flight football.

The gaffer began planning for his future early and received a degree in sports science from Goethe University of Frankfurt in 1995. He began seeking coaching certification, after a stint, coaching in the lower youth leagues earlier in his playing career.

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Once he won certification, and after his retirement as a player, he became head coach at Mainz 05 in 2001. Here, he would manage players he had known and played with for years. It was here, that he would learn how to manage sports egos and the psychology required to get people to work together toward a common cause.

Even then, as during his playing career, he was well liked by fellow players and fans for his solid work ethic, positive attitude, and charm.

In 2004 he would win promotion for Mainz 05, taking them to the Bundesliga and top flight football. He would go on to coach at Borussia Dortmund for seven years from 2008 to 2015, when he would move on to his current placement as coach at Liverpool.

He won two league titles with Dortmund, back to back in 2010-11 and 2011-12. He would see his first Champions League final the next year only to fall to arch rivals Bayern Munchen.

It is quite clear that Klopp learned his trade and craft well in his time in German football, both as player and after retirement as manager.

Jurgen is the mastermind behind what has become famous in the past decade; a footballing style known as ‘gegenpressing’, and by Klopp’s own definition as ‘heavy metal football’. He has described the football played at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger as a ‘silent symphony… but I like noise, heavy metal.’

I can just imagine the lads training at Melwood listening to Metallica on their IPods as they go through their paces.

The principle behind gegenpressing says; to immediately press the ball anywhere on the pitch after a turnover or errant pass. Without dropping back to regroup or reset lines of defense. Quickly recovering the ball and countering as quickly as possible against the run of play.

This requires players to have excellent positioning and knowledge of where other teammates are, at all times; and how they will react given certain situations and circumstances. Fitness levels need to be maintained at a very high level to press in this fashion.

A relatively unknown outside German football, Klopp burst onto the world’s radar in 2008 when he took the helm at Dortmund. Since that time Jurgen has become known as a man-management magician; able to get the most out of his players and turn competent but mediocre players into exceptional ones.

He is lauded time and time again for his knack of developing young talent and taking them from good football players to exceptional levels of skill and accomplishment: Robert Lewandowski, Mario Götze, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to name a few. More recently Andrew Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson have been developed beyond recognition at Liverpool.

Everyone’s ‘favorite flavor of ice cream’ at the moment it would seem, his leadership style and his charismatic personality has certainly captured the sporting world’s imagination and attention. And not just in world football circles.

There are several sports franchises currently studying Klopp‘s methods and the ‘Liverpool model’ as it is becoming widely known. From Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA, to board rooms in multi-national corporations; Klopp’s leadership qualities and management skills have caused more words of praise to be written about him than any other top level manager in any sport in recent memory.

Current Premier League rivals Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea to a lesser degree are all scrambling to emulate his and Liverpool’s success. Imitation is the highest, sincerest form of compliment it is said.

Words by Paul Landwehr.