“For me, it was super, super, super important that I could help get this team back on track.” After “a super difficult season” last year, explained the former coach of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund.
Liverpool finished the exercise with a bang but that was not enough to secure a ticket to the Champions League, the big league in which the Reds are used to playing.
Klopp won the prestigious European Cup in June 2019 against Tottenham in the final, before winning the very tough English championship in 2020, thirty years after the Reds’ last title in the Premier League.
These two feats of arms, among others, allowed him to follow in the footsteps of the absolute legend of Anfield, the Scot Bill Shankly (in office from 1959 to 1974), and other coaches who also entered the history of the Mersey club, such as Bob Paisley (1974-1983), Kenny Dalglish (1985-1991) and Gérard Houllier (1998-2004).
“I can understand that this is a shock to a lot of people, when you first learn about it, but I can obviously explain it, or at least try to explain it“, he said about his planned departure at the end of the season.
“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I like everything. But the fact that I still make this decision shows you that I am convinced that it is the one I must make“.
Mental wear and tear has therefore taken over Klopp’s unconditional love for the club he joined in October 2015, as successor to the less loved Brendan Rodgers.
