Jürgen Klopp is regarded by many fans of football around the world as one of the best managers in the world. He joined Liverpool on the 8th of October 2015 after the English club fired their then manager, Brendan Rogers after a string of poor performances.
Klopp joined Liverpool from Borussia Dortmund where he beat Bayern Munich, Bundesliga champions at the time, to the title in the 2010-11 season and successfully defended it the next season. Since then, Bayern regrouped and won the trophy 11 consecutive times. He also won the DFB-Pokal, and the DFL-Supercup, and finished as runners-up to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League in the 2012–13 season.
In Liverpool, in nine years, he won eight trophies before he decided to hang up his managerial boots earlier this year. The eight trophies he has won at Liverpool include the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup, the League Cup twice, the FIFA Club World Cup, the FA Community Shield, and the UEFA Super Cup.
Liverpool’s Transformation Under Jürgen Klopp
Before Klopp joined Liverpool, the club had finished outside Europe and almost went bankrupt the next season. As a result, John W. Henry, owner of the Fenway Sports Group and Boston Red Sox, won a bid to take over the club.
After finishing in 8th position in the 2011–12 season, then manager, Kenny Dalglish got replaced with Brendan Rogers. Brendan Rogers mounted an unexpected title challenge against Manchester City in the 2013-14 season in which Liverpool scored 101 goals. After a poor following season where the club finished 6th in the league and a poor start to the next season, he was placed by the club in October with Jürgen Klopp.
Jürgen Klopp led the club to finish runners-up in the EFL League Cup and UEFA Europa League in his first season. In the 2018-19 season, the club finished second with 97 points, the highest number of points any club has ever achieved in the Premier League without winning the league. The club also won the UEFA Champions League that same season after beating Tottenham 2-0 in the final. This was the second consecutive season he had led them to the final.
The next season after winning Europe’s most coveted club trophy, he led the club to their first Premier League trophy after 30 years of trying. The club also had the longest unbeaten and longest winning runs with 27 and 18 matches respectively. The club won the trophy seven games to the end of the season.
Since he joined the club, the club has only finished outside the top four twice, once in his first season when they finished 8th, and when they finished 5th in the 2022-23 season. Twice they’ve finished 2nd one point behind Manchester City with 97 and 92 points both times.
Jürgen Klopp’s Final Liverpool Season
Liverpool’s first match of the season was away to Chelsea in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge. Before that, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold had replaced Jordan Henderson and James Milner as club captain and assistant after both players left in the summer.
The club also won the EFL League Cup in a 1-0 win over Chelsea. Van Dijk had scored the game’s only goal in the 118th minute of the game. The club has also had to go through Leicester City, Bournemouth, West Ham United, and Fulham to get to the final.
The club was also actively in the title race with Arsenal and Manchester City for the 4th time in 9 years until a dip in form saw them lose and draw twice each in five games. The club also got to the quarter-final of the Europa League but lost out to Atalanta 3-1 on aggregate.
After announcing his decision on the 26th of January to leave the club at the end of the season, the club went on a run of seven wins and a draw that kept their title charge alive. This included a 4-1 home win against Chelsea. The club then drew 2-2 at Old Trafford to Manchester United and dropped from 1st position. After losing to Crystal Palace in the next game, the club dropped to 3rd on the table.
Liverpool will give Jürgen Klopp a hero’s exit in the club’s final home game of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers on the last day of the season.
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Will Jürgen Klopp Return To Management?
When Klopp announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season, he attributed his decision to “running out of energy”. To him, it was an opportunity to leave football and try out a normal life with his family. He said he would take a total break from management for at least a year, and won’t manage any team in England again.
Ryan Babel thinks Klopp would get bored eventually due to his love for the game and would be back to management in six months.
“He’ll try to release all the stress, in a good environment with his family, before he inevitably goes back to work. Judging from the outside, and knowing Jurgen Klopp, he’s far from done. I think he’ll get bored within six months and he’ll want to work again.”
The club’s captain, Virgil Van Dijk, thought the same thing when asked by The Times.
“I think he made that decision for him and his family and he needed that year off. I think he will definitely be back quite quickly because he lives and breathes football. We’ll see.”
Jürgen Klopp is regarded as one of the most elite managers in the game at the moment due to his style, capacity, and emotions for the game. If he returns, it remains to be seen which caliber of team he would choose to be involved with.
About the Author
Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management.
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