Jürgen Klopp opens up on family life, Liverpool's recent form, and that offside goal
Manager talks offside goals, the magic of Merseyside, and the power of losing honourably
Jürgen Klopp is readying himself for a vital clash with Spurs in the Premier League. Photograph: Puma
An hour after the first of Jürgen Klopp's many jokes, interspersed with his worldly insights into football and life, he returns to a more personal memory. It is fitting and evocative because his passionate club's exhilarating play and outrageous drama, painful transfer intrigue and riotous joy, validates Klopp's claim that "this is the most interesting football project in the world".
It was strangely similar for
Klopp at Mainz, the first love of his sporting life. Klopp, who eventually became their coach, used to be a lumbering striker-turned-defender in the German second division, and he suggests that: "Just like every person who works for Liverpool is a fan of the club, it was the same at Mainz. When I was a player there we had 800 supporters on rainy Saturday afternoons and if we died no one would notice or come to our funeral. But we loved the club and we have this same feeling at Liverpool. It's a very special club – a workers' club, even for the non-workers in this great city."
When asked about the recent run of losses and draws, his laughter dies and he looks suddenly stricken, only for a beaming smile to appear again, "Ok this is football. You win and you lose. It must feel terrible for our fans right now but the lows in football is what makes the highs so great. Once we start winning again, that winning feeling is going to be a lot better than if we hadn't gone on a losing run."
Klopp stresses the importance of good football, even if it leads to mixed results in the short term. "Listen a lot of people will say that it is better to be pragmatic, to play the long balls like United, but football is about entertainment. No one remembers the trophies you win or the points you accumulated but they will remember the excitement they felt when they were watching the game. There is also something very empowering about losing while playing the better football, it gives your team self belief. Losing honourably can give you the kind of momentum that you don't get by winning sometimes."
Family, Emotions, and that goal
Klopp's wife, Ulla, has seen his emotional side one too many times.
Klopp comes from a small village in the Black Forest – "There were 1,500 people there when I left and 1,499 live there now." He is the father of two grown-up sons and his wife, Ulla, is a writer. "She wrote a book for children," Klopp says. "It's like Harry Potter – but it's about football. There's no Harry Potter flying on his fecking stick – just football. She has been through all the emotional rollercoaster with me. She understands the frustrations that come with being a football manager." The couple recently separated, something that Klopp partially blames himself for but mostly blames a great injustice that happened on that day, "The day when we drew with Manchester United because of that offside goal, I got really emotional. We had talked about how I should act when I am frustrated and emotional. The passion and anger I felt from that offside goal in a game we clearly deserved to win spilled over. She was right to leave."
Liverpool, the club for neutrals
"We are a club, not a company," Klopp says, "but it depends on which kind of story the neutral fan wants to hear. If he respects the story of United, and how much they have won since the 1990s, he can support them. But if he wants the new story, the special story, it must be Liverpool. I think, in this moment in the football world, you have to be on our side."
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