Jurgen Klopp a coup that reminds Liverpool of how large they have been, and can be again

Richard Jolly writes 'throwback and revolutionary, manager and morale booster' Jurgen Klopp will leave Liverpool 'feeling wanted again'.

Jurgen Klopp shown during the German Cup final earlier this year. Patrik Stollarz / AFP / May 30, 2015

It was only six years ago, according to Uefa's official rankings, that Liverpool were the best team in Europe.

They certainly looked that way as they demolished Real Madrid 4-0 before, four days later, beating Manchester United 4-1. Fernando Torres, who had come third in the Ballon d’Or voting three months earlier, scored their first goal in each game. Steven Gerrard, who would win the Footballer of the Year award two months later, scored the second. Anfield seemed the place to be.

Jump ahead six years and Liverpool sit 55th in Uefa’s coefficients. Their 1984 European Cup-winning captain, Graeme Souness, said he fears they have become a selling club.

Their prized assets, whether Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez or Raheem Sterling, have been bought by wealthier clubs.

Read more: Ian Hawkey profiles Jurgen Klopp, bringing radical football with a 'populist touch' to Liverpool

A range of top-level targets, with Alexis Sanchez the most prominent, but Diego Costa, Willian, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Yevhen Konoplyanka also among them, have not ended up at Anfield.

Liverpool have become accustomed to rejection. One of Europe’s grandest, greatest clubs has seemed mired in the ranks of the second rate. Since the heady days of March 2009, their only Champions League wins have come against Hungarian and Romanian opposition. They have qualified for the competition once in six seasons.

And then they hired Jurgen Klopp as manager.

The German’s appointment will be welcome for many reasons. The first, before talk of tactics, is emotional. He has restored a downbeat club’s self-esteem. Just as Manchester United, after finishing seventh in 2014, welcomed Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao with open arms because they provided proof they still possessed pulling power, so Klopp’s arrival offers a reminder of what Liverpool was.

He is a double Bundesliga winner and a Champions League finalist. Liverpool can sense more similarities with Rafa Benitez, who joined in 2004 as a double La Liga and a Uefa Cup winner, than Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers. Two came from lesser clubs, in Fulham and Swansea City, and the other from semi-retirement. The most recent trophy any had won was the 2001 Danish Super Cup.

Now Klopp has arrived. A man tipped to be the next manager of Barcelona and Bayern Munich has plumped for Liverpool. He represents an obvious upgrade on Rodgers. Those who believe Fenway Sports Group acted strangely by investing in some of the Northern Irishman’s chosen players in the summer only to sack him eight games later have nonetheless to applaud Liverpool’s American owners for an overdue show of ambition.

They have spent money – some £420 million (Dh2.36 billion) in transfer fees over the five years of their ownership – but, since Suarez became their first signing, rarely an A-list talent.

Klopp represents the exception. For different reasons, it was hard to imagine any of Europe’s superpowers appointing Hodgson in 2010, Dalglish in 2011 or Rodgers in 2012. It was altogether easier to envisage them choosing Klopp now.

His allure lies not just in his CV, but in his outsized personality.

If the long-term tests include enticing players of his stature to Anfield, shoring up a porous defence, getting his new charges to adopt his high-speed pressing game and competing against four clubs with bigger wage bills and, in most cases, larger transfer budgets, Klopp’s immediate impact involves an injection of charisma. A larger-than-life figure is particularly welcome at a club stripped of some of the bigger characters from the playing staff in recent years. It explains why Liverpool have looked rudderless at times.

Klopp is a moderniser who has revived one historic club, harnessing the power of its huge fan base and generating a unity to enabled Borussia Dortmund to turn back time.

His belief in the power of the people and his bond with them had echoes of the relationship Bill Shankly, the founder of Liverpool’s winning dynasty, established at Anfield in the 1960s.

Klopp is throwback and revolutionary, manager and morale booster. The real challenges begin at Tottenham next week but for now, Liverpool can savour a coup that leaves them feeling wanted again.

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