Klopp will do things his way at Liverpool
Jürgen Klopp accepted the keys to Anfield’s Shankly Gates and delivered his Liverpool mission statement: “We have to do it one way and that is my way.” Liverpool’s players were left in no doubt about their responsibilities under their new German coach, as he vowed to lay down the law to bring “emotional, full throttle football” to Merseyside.
Klopp may have declared himself “the Normal One” at his unveiling but his opening address was anything but ordinary in a packed room in the Reds Suite in Anfield’s Centenary Stand. He said his first objective was to put a smile back on the faces of players and supporters.
“The atmosphere in the stadium is good but nobody is really enjoying themselves. It’s never good enough,” said Klopp.
“You are winning and then you hear ‘well the defence is a problem’. This is not what I want. I am not the guy who is going to go out and shout ‘we are going to conquer the world’ or something like this. We will conquer the ball. Yeah? Each f------ time. We will chase the ball. We will run more, we will fight more.” Klopp jabbed the table to emphasise the point. He revealed that he had watched Liverpool’s last three games on TV and would spend the next 48 hours watching 17 others on DVD.
“We will work more together, better together. We will have better organisation in defence than the other teams. We have to find our own way to play. Our performances have to be enjoyable for ourselves. I don’t want to tackle too rough but if there is a tackle that is legal, that is a good tackle that gets the ball, it’s like a goal. What I want is to be a real special team.
“The only thing I need is players that want to help the team. They have to listen to what I say. That is very important. I believe it is better to have 11 players doing the same thing wrong than everybody doing what they want. We have to do it one way and that is my way. Then we have to go through it. Then it is more probable that you win and become successful.”
Certain comments inadvertently demonstrated the difference in tone and methodology to his predecessor, Brendan Rodgers. “Now we cannot talk about football philosophy and ball possession, playing like Barcelona, playing like whoever,” he said. “No, this team needs to create their own style. If you have the ball you have to be creative but you have to be prepared that if you lose the ball the counter pressing is very important. It is not a proposal, it is law – you have to do it and you will.”
Klopp banished ambiguity regarding transfer policy, explaining that he would have the “first and last word” but insisting that he needed help identifying new signings.
“I am always involved, of course, in transfers. But I was never the guy who spoke about the money. That doesn’t interest me,” he said. “If someone says to me 100 million is too much, I don’t care about it for one second longer. I don’t want to buy a player for £100 million or €100million. The best thing is if you have a player and you can sell him for £100 million. Only two times a year do you want to talk about transfers. You have to train on the pitch much more. That is what I love most. I am the boss of many people. You call it coach or you call it manager. It is the same thing.”
Klopp was asked about a former player, Marco Reus, and how realistic it was to lure players without Champions League football.
“I absolutely don’t care about this,” he said. “If we cannot sign a player like him we are not interested in him. We will have to take other players. Why should you look for players that are so expensive? The whole world plays football – there are players here and players there. It is only here that money is such a big thing. It is money, money, money. OK, there is much money. You don’t have to spend all the money. You can hold it and make something else.
“Of course not having Champions League football is a problem, of course it is a negative. Absolutely. Of course it should be a target for all ambitious teams to play in the Champions League, for sure. But only four go in. You have to fight for it, not just talk about it. You have to go there and then look at which players are reachable and not dream of this player or this player and then always be ‘but they don’t want to come to Liverpool’.
“If a player doesn’t want to come to Liverpool then stay away. Really. If you think about the weather, stay away. If you think about other things, stay away. If you want to come here you are welcome.”
Source: Telegraph
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