Things have been going well for Liverpool.
Last season, they made an unexpected run to the Champions
League final, only losing to Real Madrid because of goalkeeping errors by Loris
Karius.
Superstar striker Mohamed Salah has been named one of the
three nominees for FIFA’s Player of the Year award.
This season, the Reds have begun their Premier League
campaign by winning five consecutive games, including an impressive 2-1 victory
over Tottenham, their latest triumph.
During the match, it was clear that despite the close
final scoreline, Tottenham were clearly overmatched, as Liverpool proved
themselves to be a formidable team who will be in contention to win titles,
both domestically and in Europe.
It is interesting to note how things have turned around
so rapidly for the Merseyside club.
Between 2010 and 2016, Liverpool only finished in the top
four of the Premier League once, reached the FA Cup semifinals twice, and never
made it out of their Champions League group. The only moments of note during
this stretch were a second-place Premier League finish in 2014, a Carling Cup
victory in 2012, as well as runs to the FA Cup final and Europa League final in
2012 and 2016 respectively.
So how did this turnaround happen?
In my opinion, the person who deserves the lion’s share
of the credit is the coach, Jürgen Klopp.
“Kloppo” has always been a coach who has shunned
conventional strategies in favour of his own idiosyncratic ways.
Before Klopp came to Liverpool, his unique outlook on the
game had already brought great success to Borussia Dortmund.
In seven seasons as Dortmund coach, Klopp led the
Schwarzgelbe to two Bundesliga titles, a DFB-Pokal, and a Champions League
runners-up finish. He had transformed a relatively low-budget team from an
unglamorous city of less than 600,000 into a powerhouse and a perennial
contender for titles, and his unique tactics and coaching genius had won him
many admirers across the football world.
Thus, when he replaced Brendan Rodgers at Anfield in
October 2015, much was expected of him.
Klopp’s first season at Liverpool had mixed results.
Although Liverpool only finished eighth in the Premier
League, they did reach the finals of the Capital One Cup and Europa League.
Furthermore, Philippe Coutinho was beginning to emerge as
the star Liverpool were desperate for ever since the departure of Luis Suárez
to Barcelona.
The following season saw further improvement.
On the field, Klopp’s tactics were starting to work, the
team was beginning to gel, and aided by off-season pickups Sadio Mané and
Georginio Wijnaldum as well as Coutinho’s continued excellent play, Liverpool
made the Champions League for just the second time in eight years by finishing
fourth in the league.
The following season, Klopp would put together arguably
his best season as a coach since his 2012-13 campaign at Dortmund.
The main story of Liverpool’s season was their
acquisition of Salah from Roma and how he had by far the best season of his
career, scoring 44 goals in all competitions including 32 in the league,
leading Liverpool to the Champions League final, and winning multiple awards.
However, it is worth noting that as soon as he joined
Klopp’s Liverpool, Salah went from being a solid striker to a true football
superstar.
That is another testament to Klopp’s greatness as a
coach: how he is able to get the best out of his players.
Some other players whom Klopp has been able to make stars
out of include Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Coutinho, and
Mats Hummels.
All are among the world’s best players today, and none
would be where they are now if it weren’t for Klopp.
Jürgen Klopp has always marched to the beat of his own
drum. He has never coached a team in a way one would expect, his tactics have
sometimes been derided as gimmicky and unsustainable, and he even seems to go
out of his way to cultivate this image sometimes.
And yet, though some may call him crazy, he’s more like a
“mad genius” and clearly one of the best coaches in world football today. With
the man from Stuttgart at the helm, as well as a fully-loaded team containing
the likes of Mané, Salah, Roberto Firmino, and Virgil van Dijk, this could turn
out to be one of Liverpool’s best seasons in a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment