Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has named the two managers that have most influenced his approach to the game. The fact that Klopp outperformed at three different clubs has led to him being regarded as one of the finest managers of his generation. He helped turn around the fortunes of the struggling club at Mainz after taking over as manager, first guiding them to promotion to the Bundesliga and then to European competition.
Later, he joined Borussia Dortmund, where he led his team to the 2013 Champions League final before narrowly losing to longtime rivals Bayern Munich. During the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons, he won back-to-back Bundesliga titles with Dortmund. Since taking over as manager of Liverpool in 2015, Jurgen Klopp has had tremendous success on Merseyside, leading the Reds to victories in the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup, and League Cup.
Jurgen Klopp hails Johan Cruyff, Arrigo Sacchi influence on him
Jurgen Klopp’s team has struggled this season after coming agonisingly close to an unprecedented quadruple last season. They enter Saturday’s Premier League showdown against title contenders Manchester City seven points out of the Champions League spots. Speaking to BT Sport ahead of the game, Klopp identified the two coaches who had the greatest impact on his approach to the game.
He named Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, who engineered the idea of ‘Total Football,’ and Italian legend Arrigo Sacchi, whose AC Milan team from the late 1980s is regarded as one of the all-time greats. Jurgen Klopp said:
“Johan Cruyff you have to mention as one of the most influential people in football history. Since I started thinking in football he was an outstanding player and coach and he developed a style of football. And the other one for me is Arrigo Sacchi because he inspired my best coaches. I spoke to Sacchi once on the phone. I can’t speak Italian and he can’t speak German but we had someone to translate.
“He is one of the most influential coaches in the history of the game and a complete game-changer for me. He really changed football in a really good way so that we can now organise football teams much better than our previous coaches were able to. Because of him we had to judge the size of the pitch in a new way. I am sure you remember playing with man-marking tactics where you pretty much followed the opponent you were marking to the toilet.
“The pitch always felt incredibly big. Nobody played a high line because many teams played the libero. Before him I was told who to mark and that was it. Too often the team with the better individuals won the game because it was all one-versus-one challenges all over the pitch, so if the other player was better than you, how could you win?”
Jurgen Klopp maintains he is not someone to look up to as a ‘role model’, despite having a long list of admirers in football as result of his success throughout the years. The German has won a total of 9 trophies in his managerial career, standing in the dugout for over a staggering 1000 games across Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool. He continued:
“I’m not a role model, I can’t be. I can only play one role and it’s mine. I’m always 100 per cent myself and that’s good in one way and it’s obviously not good in other ways. My success is because of determination to do what I do. Luck is really helpful – without it we are all screwed. And having the right people around; I don’t believe in individual success in football and I don’t need it. I always love to share the experience.
“Success for all people is different. Nothing is worse than when you are used to being successful, because you have to accept that it will not work out all the time. If you can accept that then you can have a pretty good life. As long as you are healthy, you can go again.”