Buvac: Why I couldn't turn down Reds chance
Zeljko Buvac has admitted that the opportunity to help Jürgen Klopp mastermind Liverpool's resurgence was just too good to turn down.
The Bosnian reunited with his former Borussia Dortmund colleagues Klopp and Peter Krawietz at Anfield in October, taking up the role of first assistant coach.
The trio had been enjoying a break from the game after they brought an end to a successful period at the Westfalenstadion at the end of last season, but were ready to return should the right job present itself.
And Buvac believes Liverpool is the perfect destination for him and his long-time colleagues given the clear potential for success at Anfield.
“I was enjoying the sunshine, but I always knew that I could get a call from Kloppo if he had been contacted by an interesting club,” he told the Express.
“Liverpool is more than an interesting club that is clear. I knew that after Dortmund this was a good step as the next club. I don’t think he needed a long time to think about Liverpool. You must say ‘yes’.
“Liverpool has big tradition and the feeling was that with hard work you can create maybe a new era, new successes. That was part of the attraction.”
Klopp and his coaching team took Dortmund to league finishes of sixth and fifth in their first two seasons at the helm before claiming back-to-back Bundesliga titles.
But Buvac insists the trio have inherited a far healthier situation at Anfield than that which greeted them when they took charge of BVB in 2008.
“It is difficult to compare Liverpool and Dortmund, but when we went there it was 2008 the quality of the players was not as high as it is in Liverpool now," he added.
“There were very young players. Subotic was 19, Hummels was 19. We took these young guys in the centre of defence where before we had Robert Kovac and Christian Worns, who were both experienced. The quality of the players here in Liverpool is higher.”
The Reds coach also opened up on his relationship with Klopp, whom he met when the pair played together at Mainz 05 and has coached alongside since 2001.
“As players there was a direct connection straight away,” he said. “Kloppo as a player was the same as he is as a manager. His character was the same, he wants to win, you cannot help but like him.
“Both of us were looking to become managers and we promised each other, ‘If I am the first manager, I will take you and if you are the first manager you will take me.’ He came first. It is a friendship.
“Before every training session and after every training session we talk together. Before every match and after every match we talk.
“In training I am observing and watching and if I have the feeling something needs to be changed I will speak to Kloppo. We discuss it, ‘Why should this be? Why that?’ But it is a decision we come to together. That is the way in training and that is the way in the match.
“If it is necessary, I get up from the bench and that is okay. I don’t need to ask. Together with Peter we have six eyes. You see more than if only one man is looking.”