Jurgen Klopp

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Jurgen Norbert Klopp





Current Club/Country: Liverpool.

Previous Clubs/Countries: Borussia Dortmund, 1.FSV Mainz 05.



Honours: UEFA Champions League 2018/19. Bundesliga 2010/11, 2011/12. German Cup 2011/12. German Super Cup 2013/14, 2014/15.





A couple of seasons ago and any discussion of Klopp's style of play would have included descriptions such as heavy metal football, crash, bang, wallop, high press, high octane and so on. And that holds true of the way he did get his teams to play, when the players were not as good as the better teams they were to face. He would bridge that gap by using a high intensity, in-your-face, style that stopped the better teams playing their style of football.



Since managing Liverpool, he has evolved his style, believing the team is good enough to beat the opposition without having to go all out to do so. There is still a high press, but it is less frenetic and is not used for 90 minutes, allowing the players to keep their energy through the season and not fade like his teams did in the second half of the season in the past.



Now Klopp is looking for controlled possession, to hopefully take the lead and then draw the opposition on before countering quickly. He is able to do that now he has a reliable defence built on a top class goalkeeper and centre back, meaning he can feel confident that his team can absorb attacks and then spring forward quickly.



One of Klopp's biggest strengths is his ability to find and listen to the best people to help him. The greats of the past always had a right-hand man to bounce ideas off, someone who they listened to and was not a yes man, Klopp has assembled a team of them. While he is not responsible for the appointments of all of them at Liverpool, particularly the statistical analysts, but he does have the sense to listen to them and take notice of the information they give him.



In fact it was listening to the likes of them that saw him lose the man who had previously been his right hand man, as Buvacs felt marginalised by Klopp taking more notice of them. It is not just the analysts, he listens to all the people in his team and it is a coaching team, not just a manager and a bunch of underlings.



This has led to being able to sign quality players for the team, as he listens to advice from the right people, which showed at Dortmund and is again proving its worth at Liverpool. Klopp has also been excellent at developing players to suit the style of play he wants to play, with a significant number showing clear improvement to their game after spending time playing for him.



The most obvious weakness in Klopp's game has been his ability to change the game with his substitutions. There are times when he has been decisive and made a difference, but he has a tendency to wait until it is far too late in the match to make changes. Though, to be fair to him, he has very rarely had good options to bring on due to a weak squad and injuries limiting his choices. When he does, and the need arises, he has acted and titled the game in his favour. So it might be just a lack of trust in the bench players he usually has available to him.



Requested by SkySaleh & Livebird31