Jürgen Klopp, who joined Liverpool in 2015, won the UEFA Champions League with his side in 2018/19 and their first league title in 30 years the following year.
As the Reds prepare for the game against Real Madrid, the team that defeated their charges in the 2018 Champions League final, the 54-year-old reflects on his checkered fate in big finals and what the most important things in life are really are.
About Liverpool’s 2018 final defeat by Real Madrid
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First and foremost, they are a world-class team, a world-class club and they know how to win football games. the core [der Teams, die sich 2018 getroffen haben], especially the midfield, is still there. Much is still the way it was before. Their line of defense has changed a lot. In front is Cristiano [Ronaldo] not there anymore, but [Karim] Benzema is still there, with young Brazilians [Vinícius Júnior und Rodrygo] and all those things, so it’s a top team.
It’s definitely good to have played finals. I said it after we got the final [2019] against Tottenham: We played better football in all the finals my teams have played before, but we lost. So we have to learn how to win finals and we’ve won a few, not Champions League finals but a few others. We have more experience and that’s probably a good thing.
Liverpool – Real Madrid: Live-Blog
On Liverpool’s ‘lust for revenge’
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We played against them, we lost. What kind of reaction would you want to show for yourself? The funny thing is that we’re against Madrid in Kyiv [2018] have played, we have it in Madrid [2019] won; it was a different stadium [Atléticos Estadio Metropolitano] and now we’re playing Madrid again. So when we’re in a Champions League final, Madrid are always involved in some way.
There’s a feeling that we want to make things right, definitely, but that can’t be the main idea. If we drive there and “Revenge! Revenge!” trumpeting and all that stuff, it doesn’t work like that. That’s not us. We got to the final in a different way. So we have to play our way, we have to try.
Liverpool – Real Madrid: preliminary report
About Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti
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Just recently I saw pictures of the forwards he has coached in his life and I thought, “Is there any world-class forward that he hasn’t coached?” It’s crazy. On top of that, he’s an incredibly nice guy. He’s incredibly successful and inspires teams to do incredible things, so yeah, he’s a great guy.
About his Liverpool legacy
I don’t know what I want people to think about me. What I want to do for the club is create a structure and a culture for now and after I leave, because the right structure and the right culture shouldn’t depend on people, it should depend on the club. When things are right, they are right, so keep using them in the future. So that’s how it works. That’s my goal, really. OK, I only have time to do that if we win something along the way.
People never ask me what kind of legacy I want to leave with a football club, but I was once asked what I wanted on my tombstone. Honestly, “He was a nice guy.” That would do just fine, because everything else is… That’s actually my only real concern: not having to put other people down in order to be successful. This has never happened before, so I’m not going to start now.
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