SO often football clubs – their history, their legacy, their meaning – are discussed as though they are living and breathing entities. Yet, in reality, they are places of work populated by different people at different times. They are organisations. And for any place of work to thrive, for any organisation to achieve its goals, it needs leaders.
Good leaders preach values that inspire, impress and spur on everyone around them. And, in football, leaders are constantly under the severest of scrutiny. The brightest of lights shines on every move and every word. It’s an intense profession that has chewed up and spat out many a man.
And go too far, or get it wrong, and an incoming GIF of David Brent will soon find its way to your door. Just ask Brendan Rodgers. When Jurgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool in 2015 his philosophy was clear. It was built on hard work. It was about never giving up. It was about fancying your chances even when everyone tells you otherwise.
In the past week, the manager’s work over four years at Anfield has been evident in everything coming out of Liverpool Football Club – and not just out of his own mouth.
"I don't know the last time I had so much fun at a football game"
Jurgen Klopp really did enjoy Liverpool's win against Arsenal pic.twitter.com/0T6QQBBjmf
— Goal (@goal) October 31, 2019
Before Liverpool’s breathtaking League Cup tie against Arsenal on Wednesday, assistant manager Pep Ljinders was on press duties. So impressive was the manner in which he spoke that it sparked talk of him being the likely heir to Klopp’s throne when he calls it a day.
Elsewhere, it’s become customary to see Liverpool overcome adversity with the minimum of fuss. First-choice goalkeeper injured? No problem, in comes Adrian and immediately impresses. Issue at full-back? Step up James Milner. Centre half? Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho have deputised minus any moans.
Milner, Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk; all have demonstrated their leadership qualities over and over. They have been moulded and managed into Klopp clones on the pitch. Most impressive of all, perhaps, is the world we witnessed when the curtain was pulled back at Anfield on Wednesday.
What happens behind the scenes at Melwood, and at Liverpool’s academy, is something we only ever really hear about second-hand. We’re told all teams play the same, that Klopp and his staff share football philosophies; that stars of the future are being shaped to play football as the German dictates. This week, though, we saw for ourselves. Ljinders provided the precursor in his passionate stack of soundbites pre-match, complete with table-bashing.
Klopp’s number two told journalists: “If you have Millie, Henderson, Lallana, Gini, Virg, Bobby – players who never whine or make excuses, who never give up, you can't have better examples for youngsters to develop and grow.”
Pep Lijnders on Liverpool defending as a team from the front, and playing a high line.
"Our identity is intensity." pic.twitter.com/MdVFupRwpH
— James Nalton (@JDNalton) October 29, 2019
By the time Anfield’s floodlights faded to black late on Wednesday, it was clear his words were not empty ones. An inexperienced, unfamiliar, Liverpool side had taken to the field. But it had displayed all the traits of the manager, his assistant, and of the world stars many of the young players were deputising for.
The first teamers serve up all the characteristics of winning teams – late goals, hard work, finding a way to victory no matter what. And now we watched another group do just the same. Harvey Elliott, the youngest Liverpool player to start at Anfield at 16 years, 209 days, won a penalty during normal time. Eighteen-year-old full-back Neco Williams recovered from a tough opening to tee up Divock Origi for The Reds’ crucial fifth goal.
The 20-year-old goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, who five times had plucked the ball from the Liverpool net, saved Dani Ceballos' penalty to set up a 5-4 shootout win. And that win was sealed by a spot kick from Curtis Jones, an 18-year-old from Liverpool making only his third appearance for the first team – and his first at Anfield. Jamie Carragher mused that Jones’s technique, a couple of short steps before firing his effort in off the post, could be considered “football arrogance”.
Yet Jones said: “I work on them every day in training. That’s my preferred place – I stuck to that and I was lucky enough that it went in.”
Very little about what is unfolding at Liverpool appears to be about luck. Instead, Klopp, by his will, by his stature, by his way, has lifted a club once floundering for focus into one that looks primed for success – at every level. Further, and in a way that will please the purists, he appears to be preparing for succession, too – just like in the Boot Room days of old. Would Pep Ljinders make a good Liverpool manager? Would Steven Gerrard? Would James Milner?
Time will tell. But all will carry some part of Klopp’s approach into everything they do – just like the young players that did Liverpool proud on Wednesday night.
Click here to read "Steven Gerrard is proving his credentials to eventually replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool"
