Jürgen Klopp : Reds’ Last Hope or Marriage of Equals?

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Sam Wanjere

I don’t look good in no Armani Suits
No Gucci shoes – or designer boots
I’ve tried the latest lines from A to Z
But there’s just one thing that looks good on me

The only thing I want
The only thing I need
The only thing I choose
The only thing that looks good on me…is you

Much has been made of the Kop Nation’s reaction (or overreaction) to appointment of German tactician, Klopp as the latest manager. To some it borders on hysteria, to others he is the great hope, perhaps what forced the new man at the helm to dissociate himself with any Messiah analogies.

One of the more interesting articles was Graham Ruthven’s piece in Bleacher Report, posing the question of whether Klopp is indeed Liverpool’s last shot at a return to the top. It is a fair argument, all things considered, but is the premise strictly true?

The End

Just like Rafa Benítez’s last season at Liverpool, the German saw his side finish 7th in the Bundesliga in the 2013/14 season, flirting with relegation at times. The first half of that season saw the side record four wins and sit bottom for three weeks. Losing 0-3 to Juventus in the second leg of their last 16 UEFA Champions League clash, for a 1-5 aggregate loss, merely added to that period’s lows. Similarly, Rafa’s troops finished seventh, the club’s lowest league position since the 1998-99 season, and endure their third straight year without a trophy to show. The Reds were ousted in the fourth round of the League Cup, and third round of the FA Cup, punctuated by finishing third in the Champions League group stage.

Milan legend Arrigo Sacchi’s final season at the San Siro, 1990-91, saw his Rossoneri ousted by eventual finalists Marseille in the European Cup quarter finals, and finish as runners up to Sampdoria in Serie A, also losing to Roma in the Coppa Italia semis. In Spain, Pep Guardiola might have lifted the Copa del Rey, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup, but relinquished their La Liga crown to Real Madrid, in addition to losing to Chelsea in the CL semi final stage.

 

Inauspicious Start

Having left Mainz following failure to secure promotion to the Bundesliga, Jurgen Klopp would join a proud Borussia Dortmund side that had clearly lost its way. Beset by financial problems, the club with the biggest stadium in Germany still offered an upgrade over his modest Mainz. From having finished 13th the previous year under Thomas Doll, BVB would improve to 6th in the new man’s first year, then 5th the following season, before securing back-to-back Bundesliga titles, playing some swashbuckling football.

While hated and reviled, dependent on your persuasion, Alex Ferguson’s reign at Manchester United, 1986-87, began inauspiciously, with an 11th place finish, exit in the 4th round of the FA Cup and already out of the League Cup. His first trophy, the FA Cup, would come in the 1989-90 season, buying him enough time for the history-making process that is now the stuff of legend.

Perfection is clearly a lofty concept, even for the most diehard fan; emotion hovering a thin line between rabid belief and vitriol.

 

The Builder

What perhaps makes Klopp more Wenger than Mourinho is his track record of building from ground up. Names like Benítez and Ferguson would fit in here too.

Enter Shankly, the alchemist who turned base Liverpool into historical gold. Not all of us fans know that there was an inquest during the club’s AGM, after failure to win promotion in 1961. Solly Isenwater, chairman of the shareholders’ association, having demanded to know if Shankly had been letting his teams take it easy, tried to hold a vote of no confidence in the board. Average attendances had already dropped from around 40,000 when Shankly took over to fewer than 30,000.

What a turnaround that followed. Shankly won promotion within a year. Supported by his Boot Room – Paisley, Joe Fagan and Reuben Bennett – he would, in the words of Kevin Keegan, put “his character into the club in every facet from the bottom to the top”. He instilled pride, discipline, loyalty and a relentless work ethic. He bought astutely and galvanised those new players, while ruthlessly ridding himself of those who had kept the club in mediocrity. He made everyone involved believe that Liverpool were the best team in the world even at a time when they were, quite palpably, the second best in their city. The First Division title was won in 1964, just two years after promotion, and again in 1966. Liverpool won their first FA Cup in 1965.

It would be easy to go on and on but there are many parallels with today’s Liverpool side. While not quite the place Bob Paisley called a “happy-go-lucky, slap-happy” environment, with directors content, a well supported club with second-rate infrastructure, today’s Liverpool is a sorry place without clear on pitch direction and in need of leaders. Shankly found a second division club with directors that would routinely meddle with team selection. Is that totally different from today’s Reds?

 

Conclusion

Rather than see Klopp as Liverpool’s knight in shining armour, the last hope if you please, why not see the two as a marriage based on old fashioned, romantic love. A club that adores its managers to deity levels, meets the epitome of passion and idealism on the pitch. These are two forces that might have lost a bit of their old lustre, perhaps parties that badly need each other. It doesn’t matter how divided opinions get, at day’s end the roller coaster should be fun riding.

 

In the words of Bryan Adams:

The only thing I want
The only thing I need
The only thing I choose
The only thing that looks good on me…is you