How Jurgen Klopp's past managerial struggles might inform his Liverpool future
You do not have to search hard to identify a pattern.
Early promise and the construction of both a team and entire fan-base in his image. Achievements of genuinely historic proportions. An unexpected dip and struggle to reclaim past glories. And then a parting of the ways that, by football standards, was unusually amicable.
This was broadly Jürgen Klopp’s story at both FSV Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund following a seven-year lifespan. And so, with the first two phases of that cycle mirrored at Liverpool and the sixth anniversary of his appointment approaching, it would have been reasonable under any circumstances to wonder whether history might further repeat. Add in Liverpool’s dismal form to the news of Joachim Löw’s imminent departure as Germany manager and conjecture about Klopp’s future has become a raging certainty.
So how might the past inform the future? Are we heading towards the final chapter or will Klopp who, at 53 is already a managerial veteran of almost 900 games, fashion a different ending?
One striking aspect of Klopp’s stellar managerial career is that the departures from his two previous jobs were effectively resignations framed by his own expectations and appraisal of what was best for the club. There was no hint of clinging to power or a pay-off.
“He is someone who questions himself all the time,” said Christian Heidel, Klopp’s chief executive at Mainz. “He sees a team, he sees the results. And he asks: ‘Could it be down to me?’”
Context at Mainz was everything. He had spent 11 years there as a player and was appointed by Heidel mid-season in 2001 at the age of only 33. Mainz were heading for the third tier of German football but Klopp inspired six wins in seven games and they survived with a match to spare. By the end of his third full season, Mainz were in the Bundesliga for the first time in their history.
They then qualified for the Uefa Cup but, after relegation in 2007, it was Klopp who set himself the target of an immediate bounce-back promotion or the exit. They missed out by only two points despite having the league’s second best goal difference. Klopp was in tears as 20,000 fans still stood to serenade him inside the stadium and a further 30,000 turned out in Mainz city centre to wave goodbye. But he was unmoved. Having concluded that all sides needed change, he was gone.
Borussia Dortmund was another adventure fuelled by emotion and extraordinary achievement. There were consecutive Bundesliga titles before narrowly missing out on the 2013 Champions League and then signing a new contract to 2018. That Klopp was gone in less than two years again underlined how circumstances can rapidly shift. Yes, Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski had been sold, and Ilkay Gundogan suffered a serious injury, but the pace of the team's slide still remains staggering.
Klopp struggled to adapt his team’s style to Lewandowski's absence and, even with a quality internal replacement in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, results did not follow. By February 2015, after 19 games and only three wins, Dortmund were bottom of the entire Bundesliga.
“Suddenly there were some doubts – and Klopp realised these doubts,” says Oliver Müller, who was covering Dortmund for Die Welt newspaper. “Nobody from the board would have said, ‘Jürgen, listen, maybe it is better to go separate ways’. He came to Hans-Joachim Watzke [the Dortmund CEO] and said ‘I’ve really got the impression that the best thing for both sides would be a change’.”
An agreement was struck and then suddenly Dortmund rediscovered their form to climb from 18th to a final finishing position under Klopp of seventh. “Everyone – fans, board, players – will now say it was a great mistake to not persuade him to stay and build something new,” says Müller. Like Heidel at Mainz, Watzke still talks of Klopp with conspicuous affection.
“We did not try to change his mind anymore – that was maybe a mistake,” he said in his book, True Love: A Life with BVB. “Perhaps it would have been better if we had exchanged the entire team – not the coach. When I said goodbye, real tears came. Such a relationship will probably never happen again.”
Klopp managed Mainz for 270 games. He managed Dortmund for 319. Sunday’s defeat against Fulham was his 305th match at Liverpool and, with injuries to key players amid such a dramatic dip in results, the parallel with that 2014-15 season is obvious. Klopp has even called this the worst moment of his career. “My impression is that it wouldn't cross his mind that he was the problem but, if he came to this conclusion, he wouldn't hesitate to mention it,” says Müller. “That is an item of his character. He doesn't wait for someone to take a decision – he offers solutions.”
There is a feeling in Germany that Klopp has noticeably evolved as a coach since moving to England and is now better placed to find different solutions than when the aggressive Gegenpress gameplan faltered at Dortmund. There is also the question of Liverpool’s respective transfer budget compared to the fiscal limitations with Dortmund. “Liverpool can change the dynamics of the team, bring in new players this summer – there are similarities but a lot of things that make this a different situation,” says Müller.
The sudden vacancy at Germany has certainly brought the subject to a head. Klopp has long been regarded as a future national team manager but, if past history tells us anything, he will care passionately about how he ultimately leaves Liverpool. His emphatic decision to instantly rule himself out of the running represents not just a show of loyalty but a statement of confidence in what can still follow.
But after five full seasons, the first major crossroads is in view. And, if Klopp is to alter the path that he ultimately chose at both Mainz and Dortmund, the challenge is to now demonstrate that he can renew and galvanise even when the momentum has sharply turned.
Klopp rules himself out of contention to replace Joachim Löw as Germany head coach
By Jason Burt
Jürgen Klopp says he is not interested in replacing Joachim Löw as the new coach of the German national team and intends to honour his contract with Liverpool that runs until 2024.
The Liverpool manager was questioned about his future hours after it was announced that Löw would be stepping down after this summer’s European Championships and a year before his current contract expires.
Klopp would be the ideal choice of the German Football Association (DFB) to take over but was emphatic about his intentions.
“Am I available for the job of the coach of the German national team in the summer? No,” he said. “After the summer, no.”
When asked again whether he might be available, Klopp said: “I just said what I would say to people when they mention names like mine. I just said no. This summer or after this summer I will not be available as a potential coach of the German team.”
Ahead of the second leg of Liverpool’s last-16 Champions League tie against RB Leipzig, which they lead 2-0, Klopp was further questioned about his plans for the future. “Well, I have three years left (on my contract) at Liverpool this summer, don’t I? That’s a simple statement. It’s a simple situation. You sign a contract and you try and stuck to that contract, don’t you?
“I had contracts in Mainz where I stuck with them even though there was interest from other Bundesliga teams with more money. It’s just timing and money. If it doesn’t work out then there’s no need to lose any sleep over it. I don’t have a problem with it.”
That might be interpreted as Klopp leaving the door open but the tone of his answers was unequivocal as was his praise for Löw who succeeded Jurgen Klinsmann following the 2006 World Cup and won the tournament eight years later in Brazil.
“Jogi Low did an incredible job for so many years,” Klopp said. “I think he’s the longest servant ever we had in Germany and for sure one of the most successful. He did an incredible job and I understand that he wants to have this highlight for him of a European Championships. And then someone else will do the job and I am pretty sure with the amount of really good German managers at the moment that the German FA will find a good solution.”
Klopp has long been linked with the now-vacant role, but said at the end of last year that he would not consider taking over at Germany until "the future".
Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann definitively ruled himself out of the running to be Löw's successor. Asked whether he would consider himself as a candidate, Nagelsmann's response was an immediate: “No.”
DFB president Fritz Keller paid tribute to Löw , saying the timing of his decision allowed the organisation to take their time in naming the next person in charge. "The fact that he informed us about his decision at an early stage is very decent. He gives us the DFB the necessary time, calmly and a sense of proportion to name his successor,” Keller said.
