Bring the Noise_The Jürgen Klopp Story

by Raphael Honigstein

  Krawietz: ‘The system by itself is not really important in football. The point of coaching is to try to make football, a game based on many random events, less random, to force your luck in a sense. My favourite quote is by Lukas Podolski: “Football is like chess, but without dice.” I’d change that slightly, to make it: “Football is like chess, but with dice.” What I mean by that: every coach spends an incredible amount of time pondering about all the different factors, about the opponent, the weather, and so on, knowing full well that total control of the ball is unattainable. All you can really do then is to find a general order, a system of orientation for your own players that brings out the best of your specific squad. Successful combination football depends on two people having the same idea at the same time. One has the ball, the other starts making a move. A coach’s job is to practise these sequences to instil an idea, repetition and situations, to increase the chance that they will work under real live conditions, when there’s pressure and an opponent interfering. The alternative is to rely on total individual quality, on being simply superior. But that’s not our approach. We can’t afford these players; we have never been able to afford these players at any of the clubs we have worked for. That’s why the idea always takes precedence for us.’

  In those golden autumn months, the succinctness of Klopp’s playing concept threatened to trump all rivals, most of whom had trouble making the most of their players’ potential. Whereas Liverpool’s last title challenge, under Brendan Rodgers in 2013–14, had owed much of its drive to one superstar striker (Luis Suárez), this was a true team, moving and playing as if connected by invisible nerve cords.

  In the slipstream of the strong showings, players who had long been written off suddenly shone. James Milner, one of the most important leaders in the dressing room, was reinvented as a left-back. ‘It was cool to see that players who had already played hundreds of Premier League games were ready to try out a different style, to adapt to it,’ Krawietz says.

  Centre-back Dejan Lovren was another player who confounded his critics. ‘When we came to Liverpool, everybody told us about his problems, about the things he couldn’t do but we were determined to look at him and everybody else with fresh eyes,’ says Krawietz. ‘We felt from the very first day that we had a player here, and his development has been great. I think a new coach, trying out new things and different players, taking responsibility for any failure, was seen as a chance by many to improve their situation. And many have seized it.’ Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino, who found it easy to adjust to the new tactics due to their past at pressing bastions Southampton and TSG Hoffenheim respectively, emerged as real pillars of the side, as did veteran midfielder Lucas Leiva. His experience, footballing intelligence, communicative skills and ability to learn made the Brazilian a key part of the new set-up.

  Klopp had insisted on his first day at Anfield that Liverpool weren’t nearly as bad as vast sections of the media and their own supporters feared. Maybe the squad itself had started feeling that way, too. ‘He would sometimes get frustrated, telling us that we don’t believe how good we are,’ Lallana says. The coach and his staff also feel that the public in England are generally too quick to make up their mind about players and too slow to revise their views in light of evidence to the contrary. Krawietz: ‘Once they have convinced themselves, for example, that a goalkeeper is shit, he remains shit for eternity. They will wait as long as it takes until he does make a mistake and then say: “See, we told you so.” It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a negative sense. It’s quite prevalent here.’

  A late blunder from Loris Karius in the 4-3 defeat at Bournemouth in early December put an end to Liverpool’s unbeaten run and led to the young German getting dropped for Simon Mignolet for the remainder of the term. The timing of the awful result–the Reds had been 3-1 up with fifteen minutes to go–couldn’t have been much worse, either: the team were scheduled to fly to Spain for a Christmas party. Klopp was unperturbed, however. ‘When we landed in Barcelona, music came on in the plane and he got on the microphone,’ Lallana recalls with a huge smile. ‘He was like: “Listen, lads. If we can party when we win, we can party when we fucking lose.” So everyone got off the plane thinking: “You are right, it is the time to party. Let’s party. Let’s have a drink.” Which just shows: there is more to life than football. Yeah, we did our best; we lost. And yeah, it feels shit to lose, but there is more to that. The older you get, I think the more it hurts, but the quicker you get over it.’ Klopp, who lives directly opposite Lallana’s former home in Formby, a genteel coastal town, is ‘just a cool guy’, he adds. ‘You see him having a fag, a smoke…’ Before the England midfielder moved to Cheshire, his young son Arthur would often wave at the tall, blond neighbour across the road, shouting ‘Klopp, Klopp!’, imitating the coach’s touchline fist pump. And Klopp would unfailingly smile back with a wave, to the obvious delight of Lallana Jr.

  Smiles and fist pumps got harder to come by after the turn of the year, however. A horrific run of only two wins in twelve games in January and February saw the team crash out of both domestic cup competitions. Fans awoke from their title dreams to fears of losing out on the Champions League altogether.

  The selection of weakened teams for the League Cup and FA Cup was ‘the only way to approach such a spell of games, to get through it and the one that follows after’, Krawietz insists. Getting used to a fixture calendar with no time off at Christmas has been one of the main challenges for the Germans. ‘It makes a huge difference. You can’t appreciate how big if you haven’t experienced it yourself. It’s really not funny.’

  As embarrassing and disappointing as the exits at the hands of Southampton and Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers were, they also offered up the opportunity to go away for a warm-weather training camp in La Manga in mid-February. After experiencing their first campaign without a winter break, the German coaching staff had come to fully appreciate the almost absurd physical and mental burden of non-stop football. LFC owners FSG agreed with Klopp that the team should have one week together in the sun to recharge their batteries each year, at the earliest opportunity.

  The trip to Spain failed to have the desired effect, in the short term at least. Liverpool suffered a 3-1 defeat away to Leicester on their return to domestic duties, putting in one of the worst performances of the season. Lallana: ‘The Leicester game, we lost 3-1 on a Monday night. That was a bad, bad moment. A bad result. I didn’t see it coming. That game, you felt that you had let him down. You know, you tried your best, but your best was just nowhere near good enough that night. Yes, [the Europa League final v] Seville was disappointing, but… they were fantastic, they have won it three years on the bounce. I will never get over that, but I can understand why they beat us, if that makes sense. Leicester was just really poor.’

  Klopp, well-versed in navigating crises, pleaded for perspective in those difficult weeks. ‘We have to believe in the long-term project. Nobody wants to hear it but losing is a part of football,’ he said. ‘I don’t care about all this talk about reaching a low point. I love driving to training in the morning and working with the boys, even if it’s difficult. You can’t give up because you’re losing. You have to try again in the next game.’ He and the team had fallen victim to their own success in the autumn, to an extent. Liverpool’s winning streak, at full strength, had created the expectation of more of the same to come, but in the absence of the injured Coutinho, and Mané, who played for his country at the Africa Cup of Nations, the lack of depth up front was laid bare in brutal fashion.

  The team’s cause wasn’t helped by a foul air of fatalism that engulfed Merseyside like a rank Victorian pea-souper. Liverpool, as a club, had to rid itself of the attitude that these types of losses were somehow ‘part of the DNA’, Klopp told lfc.tv after the season. He sees changing that defeatist mindset into a much more confident outlook as one of the main objectives for the coming years. He wants a bad result to be shrugged off as a blip, rather than being
seen as a harbinger of inevitable doom. ‘This club and maybe this city have to learn to take moments like that for what they are. Don’t make them bigger. In life, you cannot ignore the negative things that have happened. If you can change them, change them: if you can’t change them, ignore them. That’s how it is. It’s all about the reaction. In football, and in life. If you get up in the morning and the first hour is bad, does that mean you go back to bed? No, it means let’s try another one.’

  After reaching a kind of nadir at the King Power stadium, Liverpool’s form recovered sufficiently to secure fourth spot, with an angst-laden opening half against Middlesbrough at Anfield on the last day of the season eventually turning into a deluge of goals.

  Liverpool director Mike Gordon describes the 3-0 win as ‘one of the happiest moments’ of his tenure. ‘Finishing in the top four, with this group that had worked so hard for it, with my partners John [W. Henry] and Tom [Werner] in attendance, being able to celebrate with Jürgen and his staff… you feel this happiness, to the core. It was really great.’

  But in hindsight, are there any regrets about a big opportunity missed? With the notable exceptions of Chelsea and Tottenham, all the big teams underperformed in one way or another. Could Liverpool have sneaked the league with one or two useful signings in the January transfer window?

  ‘I would regret it if we hadn’t tried to bring in additional players,’ says Gordon, having pondered the question very carefully. ‘But we clearly did try. The availability of players in the January window is continuing to diminish, it’s now an anomaly if you’re able to do something. I don’t know what it would have meant for the rest of the season if we had found the right solution. Would we have strengthened? Nobody knows. But showing discipline [in the transfer market] and staying true to your principles is really important, and that’s one of the reasons we didn’t add to the squad. We tried. And the same goes for all windows. We look for any advantage and opportunity to improve.’

  Krawietz says the coaching staff don’t look back in anger, either. ‘Are we upset [about not doing better]? No. Football is a learning system, a game of constant development. We wanted to give the many young players we had a chance, an outlook. Financially, I don’t know if it would have been possible [to make additions in January]. Spending big money is not exciting. We have wonderful guys in prospect. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Woodburn, Ovie Ejaria. We want them to have the opportunity to train with us, and evaluate their true potential. We knew we didn’t have any international games. We played a great first half of the season, with many great games. In January, we fell into a hole, a little bit. We got a little unlucky with refereeing decisions, and unfortunately we had some injuries. You have to factor them in but we are, of course, trying to avoid them as best we can. We have made outstanding progress in terms of the players’ athletic development, and we’re exhausting all possibilities of injury prevention. Luck and bad luck will always be a factor, though. Would we have liked to win the title? Obviously. That’s what we’re fighting for. But we don’t go around second-guessing past decisions and bemoaning missed opportunities. We take it on board and stash it in our rucksack of experience. And then we make all of that part of future deliberations.’

  For 2017–18, when Liverpool will once again play twice a week, juggling the demands of the Premier League and European football, players, coaching staff and the club hierarchy all agree that an expanded, enhanced squad is mandatory. ‘We understand the importance of depth,’ says Gordon. ‘It’s not just about the best XI. It’s a very long season in an especially demanding sport, and many of the best players also play for their countries in addition to club football. We need reinforcements. That lesson has become particularly acute and relevant over the last season and a half.’

  Lallana’s assessment is equally candid. ‘I think we need three, four more top, top players. No disrespect to our younger lads. But if you look at our bench in the last three months, there are a lot of young players on there. When you look at Chelsea’s bench, they bring on [Cesc] Fàbregas, Willian. At times, just having them on the bench is enough to keep the players in the starting XI on their toes, subconsciously that is. Another three, four top, top players keeps everyone on their toes, raises the quality that bit more. And it is only going to help us. Europe next year, you are going to need more bodies. We’ve had a lot of injuries this year as well. There is no shying away from the fact that we need four or five more top players and the manager understands all that. [Jürgen] is not stupid. He rotated his players at Dortmund quite a lot, for big games. If he has got the squad and he has got the trust in the players, he will rotate. I have no doubt about that.’

  Krawietz agrees. ‘Rotation and a broad squad is the only way forward, that’s the conclusion. We need to be in a position to be competitive in all competitions and rotate at a high level of quality.’

  One interesting theory put forward by English newspapers was that Liverpool could have done with a more orthodox striker to function as a lighthouse during those dark days of January and February, an expert in forcing the issue when the football’s not freeflowing. Somebody you can boot the ball up to when your legs and mind can’t make their way up the pitch themselves any more.

  Krawietz is unconvinced. ‘I won’t deny that’s an option that could work. I don’t want to sound naive, either. But staying true to your own ideas is important. You have to adapt them, of course, but you’re still trying to succeed with it. You can’t say: “Listen, lads, up until now we played one way, but now it’s January, and bad weather, and windy, you should forget all of that. Let’s play shit football and see how we get on!” No. It can’t work like that. There are many ways of winning a game. Sometimes you have to defend all the time, leave one guy up front and win 1-0 with a counter-attack. That can happen. But we won’t make that a strategy going into a game or start bending our own rules. We have our own principles of playing, and we don’t give them up. We stick to the plan.’

  But why does the plan work so much better against the best Premier League sides than it does against those situated in the mid-table or the bottom? Liverpool would have won a mini-league consisting of the top six (five wins, five draws) but they lost to Burnley, Bournemouth, Hull City, Swansea and Crystal Palace, and drew against Sunderland and Bournemouth. Is there an argument that Klopp’s football could do with taking its foot off the gas for everyday commutes to less glamorous destinations and learn to get there with a lower rpm?

  Lallana, interestingly, thinks the opposite is true. He blames LFC’s troubles in nominally easier games on the subconscious belief that 80 or 90 per cent of effort will suffice. ‘It’s a mentality thing. When your mentality is right, your tactical play is going to be better. The manager knows that, and it’s not something that you can change overnight. But he is emphasising that we need to get that right. As soon as we get it right for those games, I feel we can go on and achieve something really special.’

  ‘If Adam says that, we’re one step closer to illumination,’ Krawietz notes contentedly when the midfielder’s thoughts are put to him. ‘I think it’s only human to think [about smaller games] that way. Even for journalists, I guess. You go to Aston Villa v Burnley, you think, “okay, let’s check it out”. But for Chelsea v Spurs, your pencil is sharpened. Nevertheless, it must be forbidden to think that way as a player. We fight against that. We reiterate that the same number of points is at stake, regardless of the opposition. What we want is a consistently high energy. Having the ball and dominating the rhythm of the game comes with a certain level of intensity. That’s just how it is. Ninety minutes of football are a) unhealthy and b) exhausting. That won’t change.’

  Former Liverpool defender and Sky football expert Jamie Carragher points the finger in a different direction. ‘I don’t think it is an attitude problem with Liverpool. You would never criticise a Jürgen Klopp team for its attitude. Every team can have an off day now and again, of course, but I think it is tactical. Liverpool’s game suits playing a
gainst teams who build from the back, who push up their full-backs and leave spaces to attack in counter-attacks. If the possession stats are 50–50, that means Liverpool have less of a chance of getting caught on the counter-attack. That’s what seems to happen in the smaller games. The best two ways of scoring for the smaller teams are set-pieces and counter-attacks. And that’s where Liverpool are really weak. You have to address that, you have to change. Liverpool need to buy a couple of taller players. Even in attacking positions, I think. You can also keep your full-backs back a bit more in some games, to make yourself less vulnerable on counter-attacks. Maybe sometimes it makes sense to let smaller teams have the ball. Because they’re not set up for it.’

  Klopp’s staff are very aware that set-pieces have been an Achilles’ heel. Krawietz, in particular, is full of admiration for the high calibre of dead-ball routines he has encountered in England. ‘It’s a tradition,’ he says. ‘You can look all the way down to the fourth division here, and you’ll find real choreographies, really good ideas. Every team has at least one guy who delivers really dangerous balls and five, six giant guys who’ll attack the ball fearlessly, with pace and unbelievable power. The Premier League is full of these players. They might not be stars but their individual quality is incredible. In addition, the goalkeeper is not protected as much as in Germany. You touch his shirt in the Bundesliga–it’s a foul. Here, that’s part of the warm-up. And then all hell breaks loose in the box. We understand that. We understand the importance of defending dead-balls. On top of that, we spend a lot of time thinking about ways to avoid facing set-pieces in the first place.’