For all the criticism of FSG and Liverpool’s hierarchy over the past few seasons, they deserve huge credit for pulling off a coup like enticing Jurgen Klopp to the club - but that is not just down to his exciting quality as a manager. It is also down to the situation that Liverpool are in, which is arguably even more dispiriting than that which Borussia Dortmund were in, fighting an unwinnable arms race against Bayern Munich. Within that, there are a few mild criticisms for FSG too.
There is no question Klopp is the right fit for Liverpool, as has been made abundantly clear with so many appeals to his appearance and attitude. But there are still fair questions over whether even he can stem the tide in the long term without changes to the structure of the club beyond the manager.
Over the past decade or so, there’s been a distinctive pattern at Anfield. Three managers have been good enough to get the club to second in the league, and all have simultaneously had a cult of personality built around their leadership that can’t possibly be lived up to. Liverpool’s more limited resources require immense over-performance in the first place, but that will also inevitably bring an overwhelming emotional hangover, as well as a necessary overhaul as their best players are pulled away by wealthier clubs. Even though that process should bring a certain patience, it is almost as if the exhaustion involved for all parties means neither the coach nor the club can recover without change.
Which brings us, now, to Klopp. It's actually hugely impressive that Liverpool persuaded him to join, given a near-impossible situation where they must battle four super-clubs above them.
It’s still very easy to see him doing something similar to the best seasons of Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers, and possibly even going better than all of them. He's probably a better manager than all of them, and certainly more original. Liverpool are just three points off the Champions League places this season, after all, and Klopp's mere charisma and the excitement he infuses should coax a positive response out of the existing players even before his coaching kicks in.
There’s also the different kind of approach he brings, and the different challenges that can pose opposition and his own players.
Liverpool couldn’t really have appointed a manager more different from Rodgers in that regard. You only have to look at their philosophies, which coaches as vocal as them have only been too happy to pronounce in repeatable soundbites.
Rodgers memorably described his as “death by football”: “When you’ve got the ball 65, 70 percent of the time it’s a football death for the other team. We’re not at that stage yet, but that’s what we’ll get to, it’s death by football”.
You don’t need to listen to the rest of Rodgers’s over-elaborations to think of smooth creative passing that eventually smothers a team before a sword is drawn. Klopp doesn’t really go for that. “I like heavy metal more,” he famously said. “It is not serenity football - it is fighting football. That is what I like.”
Through looking at the average figures from Rodgers’ three full seasons at Liverpool and Klopp’s best four years at Dortmund, those differences are only emphasised. It is possession against aggression. The effects of Klopp’s gegenpressing can be seen, as his side tackle much more (19.1 to 12.5), foul more (14.3 to 10.5) and intercept more (19.1 to 12.5).
The “hunger” Rodgers so often enthused about in the 2013-14 season is likely to become much more routine. Klopp is clearly willing to allow even more risk in terms of possession, though. His teams have the ball less (52.9 possession to 56.3), and make sure of fewer of their passes, with only 78.2% of them proving successful compared to 84.1% in Rodgers’ Liverpool teams. That is undeniably down to the chaos they try to create.
The net effect is also far more goals from counter-attacks per season, at eight compared to Rodgers’s four, and the latter is greatly inflated by that 2013-14 campaign.
These figures inspire memories of both that Premier League campaign and Dortmund’s best football, and should spark life through Liverpool again.
They also spark a few questions.
Ultimately, Klopp has been appointed to take over a squad that has been built for a completely different brand of football.
That is not to say Klopp can’t succeed with them - the German is probably one of the few who can adapt rather seamlessly - but it is to wonder about the exact plan that FSG have, about how realistic their designs on defying modern football economic realities are.
In order to do that, they have often looked to take players and coaches from Swansea City and Southampton. Both of those clubs have kept on their upward path despite those exits, however. They don’t go through the same cycles because the seamless structure means the identity of the coach isn’t as essential as at other clubs, he just needs to fit certain principles. He's not starting from scratch.
That is not the case at Liverpool. It seems only the head coach can now instil team principles of any substance. FSG have not really put them in place at the club, as evidenced by their willingness to rip up and start again with a totally different type of manager.
Liverpool may well have lucked out by getting in a coach as excellent as Klopp, and it is feasible that he could solve their medium-term future by using his brilliance to regularly finish ahead of better-resourced clubs.
The modern reality, however, is that he’s likely going to need luck to complement his qualities in order to stage a coup like that - in order to break the cycle.
How quickly do you think Klopp can get his ideas across to the Liverpool side? Let us know in the comments below
