James Milner has identified one discernible change he noticed about Jurgen Klopp throughout his time in charge at Liverpool.
The pair spent the bulk of eight seasons together at Anfield before the veteran midfielder left for Brighton last summer, having been one of the last remnants from the Brendan Rodgers era still on Merseyside.
Speaking on The Football’s Greatest Managers Podcast with Jeff Stelling, the 38-year-old was asked if the German has ‘mellowed’ any bit since he took charge of the Reds in October 2015.
Milner replied: “Yeah, he did. At the start there were not many days off, a lot longer and harder training at times. I think to his credit Germany was a lot different as they have the winter break, whereas in England, Christmas is the busiest period, and I think he learnt to trust the team.
“I think he had ideas about players and maybe English players as well, they like to drink a lot, don’t prepare well. I think he saw with the squad he had that it wasn’t like that, and if players got a day off they would look after themselves. To his credit he changed things and softened as time went on, but never lost his edge.
“He was definitely more aggressive at the start, he lost his rag a bit more at the start, but that is setting the standards. It’s probably the players he had wasn’t his squad and he wanted to get his point across.”
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Among the many adjectives you could use to describe Klopp, ‘mellow’ doesn’t instantly jump out as one of them, but we certainly won’t question the judgement of a player who’s made the third-most appearances under the German out of anyone in a 22-year managerial career (Transfermarkt).
As Milner rightly outlines, the 56-year-old came into Liverpool mid-season, inheriting a squad from Rodgers who’d endured a poor 2014/15 and started the following campaign badly.
It wasn’t until the following summer that Klopp had a full pre-season to truly implement his tactical ideology at Anfield and complete signings such as Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum and Joel Matip who’d fit neatly into that project.
Getting back into the Champions League in 2017 was the springboard for the German’s era on Merseyside to properly take flight, bringing with it a succession of major trophies and several campaigns of competing at the business end of the Premier League.
The manager has accomplished all that and ‘mellowed’ over the years without losing any ounce of his passion for the game, as we see on a regular basis when he’s metaphorically kicking every ball in the technical area, one of the many traits which has endeared him to an adoring Liverpool fan base.