Liverpool FC: Jurgen Klopp Unveiled As New Anfield Boss, But How Will Klopp’s Tactics Work?

It was a sense of history as Liverpool football club unveiled Jürgen Klopp as their new manager on Friday morning. Much of the buzz from Klopp’s appointment during the week was amplified as the press finally formally received an introduction to the charismatic German. Liverpool released an exclusive interview with Klopp two hours before his first press conference as a Liverpool manager.

Jürgen Klopp revealed his excitement on becoming a manager of Liverpool after a four month sabbatical from the game after his highly successful time at Borussia Dortmund. Klopp was quizzed on a variety of topics and spoke briefly about what to expect during his reign. It has been confirmed that three of Brendan Rodgers’ backroom staff will leave Liverpool to make way for Jürgen’s coaches.

Assistant manager Sean O’Driscoll, head of performance Glen Driscoll and head of opposition analysis Chris Davies have all made way for Jürgen Klopp’s trusted appointees. Zeljko Buvac has been confirmed as the new Liverpool assistant manager while Peter Krawletz will become the video analyst. First team coach Gary McAllister will now take on an ambassadorial role at the club.

“My two ‘brothers-in-mind’ – Zeljko and Peter, great guys. You will feel it when you see them – they are cool, they are football maniacs.”

During his first interview, Klopp talked about his pleasure to finally take on the role of Liverpool manager and has promised to bring belief back among the Anfield faithful.

As the Mirror reported, Klopp said, “It’s an absolutely great feeling for me and a big honour to be here. It’s one of the best moments in my life, I have to say. I’m here together with my family – not the whole family, one son is still at home – but we are here together and it feels like a dream.”

The charismatic German was also formally introduced to the English press for the first team as a Liverpool manager.

While Jürgen Klopp’s personality will win the headlines, Klopp’s tactics have been widely praised for their effectiveness and efficiency. His noted “gegenpressing” style of football has won over fans, not just in Dortmund and Germany, but throughout Europe.

Jürgen Klopp’s philosophy of winning the ball high up the field and counter-attacking rather than relying on a smooth transitional passing game won him two German league titles and a runners-up medal in the Champions League.

Klopp stated, “The kind of football [I coach] is emotional, I like this, I like the emotion in the game. I like the speed in the game, you have to be a real man or woman in the game – it’s hard, all things are like this.”

“If it’s possible, can we be the hardest team to beat in the world? Let’s try to be this. If you are this, it’s not that far away to be a team who can win games. First of all we have to talk with all LFC fans, talk about what are expectations. Because expectations can be a real big problem, it’s like a backpack of 20 kilos, it’s not so cool to run with this! We have to talk about this, we have to think about this, and then we can start.”

At Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp should not find it hard to transition his current squad to the rigors of his gegenpressing. Already, Klopp has noted that the squad is good enough to take to his tactics. Klopp is known for playing a 4-2-3-1 formation or a 4-3-3 formation. One similar to Brendan Rodgers’ system, especially during their famous title challenge in 2013-14.

Jürgen Klopp will be introduced to his new players later today and he is already pleased with what he has to work with including the much talked about transfer committee at Liverpool. Klopp will have to wait until after the international break to be introduced to all his players, and a little while longer for his first match against Tottenham; but, today marks his first day in charge of Liverpool football club.

[Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images]