As Harvard Business Review puts it, one of the most difficult transitions for leaders to make is the shift from leading. Jurgen Klopp is a good coach. But he becomes a better leader because he is willing to accept new people and new ideas.
His Liverpool side has developed tactically, setting trends in the game, but what has made Klopp so successful is beyond the action on the pitch. It’s about a learning culture in Liverpool, open to improvement. This may be his greatest legacy.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited ability in a particular domain overestimate their ability. It has spread in the insular world of football where the tendency is to completely avoid outsiders. Klopp rose above him and reaped the benefits.
Time and again he has shown himself willing to learn from the experts. It is one thing to delegate coaching to someone who is expected to coach in this way. Introducing coaches who are going to change the way things work is quite another.
Perhaps the most infamous example at Liverpool is the appointment of Thomas Groenmark as a specialist hurling coach. There were those in football who scoffed at this decision – Richard Keys and Andy Gray chuckling like schoolchildren at the mere thought of it.
Klopp had no interest in how things were always done. His only concern was whether it could be improved. “When I heard about Thomas Gruenmark, it was clear to me that I wanted to meet him. When I met him, it was 100 percent clear that I wanted to hire him.”
Speaking to Gronnemark in 2020 about his role at Liverpool, the detail that went into his work was immediately apparent. Dean explained in easy-to-understand language how he could improve the team’s results – and the input was strategic as well as technical.
He had a habit of being mocked. “Ever since I started in 2004, people have laughed at the idea of coaching throws,” Grunemark said. Sky Sports. “It’s very strange for some people.” But not Klopp. What does it tell us about him and as people?
“They’re in touch because they’re innovative and they’re open-minded,” Groenemark explained. “They’re always thinking of new ways to improve.” Liverpool dropped to the best in the Premier League to keep the ball under pressure in the last third.
If the throwing example is too granular, it doesn’t have enough impact on the results, what about Klopp’s decision to turn to Niklas Hoessler and Neuro11’s Patrick Hansch? He credits their work on penalty psychology for Liverpool’s two shootout victories at Wembley.
Klopp’s side beat Chelsea in both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals in 2022, converting 17 of their 18 penalties. It was the first season they worked with Neuro11, which gave players a tool to focus in those high-pressure moments.
Speaking to Haussler later that year, he explained the process. “We know what helps the player get into this automatic state, which many people know as the zone. We literally measure the brain waves and feed it back to the player, ” he said. Sky Sports.
“We help the athlete to understand what things help them improve their routine. What is it that helps them and what is it that bothers them? I think it’s unique. Yes. It’s the first time it’s been done in professional sports. The results have shown.”
This work continues with Liverpool. “They work for us,” Klopp said ahead of this season’s Carabao Cup semi-final. “They were here last week because there was a penalty shootout against Fulham. We will definitely do something before the final.”
How about something more abstract? A session with famous big wave surfer Sebastian Stadtner doesn’t necessarily win the Liverpool trophy. But Klopp still invited him to share his expertise in 2020, working with players on underwater breathing techniques.
“It was absolutely unbelievable, the players we had [holding their breath] For almost three minutes,” Klopp said of that experience with Stadtner. “Three minutes!” After half an hour of teaching. It just means that you can do more than you imagine.
“I was very interested in what he had to say about how he deals with stress.” If he surfs the highest wave he’s ever seen, then he’s waiting a whole year for the next one, maybe two years, it’s just so obvious where. It’s the same.”
Maybe it’s just his mindset. Klopp’s plans for a forward that could help Liverpool. In 2021, when speaking to now Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper coach Fabian Ott, he revealed a story about Klopp that provides an insight into his natural curiosity.
Ott was at Burnley, warming up the goalkeepers before the game against Liverpool. “He started smiling at me,” she said Sky Sports. “Obviously, Jurgen Klopp is a big name, I’ve heard about him, read about him and seen him on TV for many years, I just go back.
“When I got back to the dressing room, the keeper said, ‘Jurgen Klopp was just asking about you. He said he read this piece about you and got interested. After that I talked to him for a long time and he was a very nice person, it was a very interesting experience.
“He’s the Liverpool manager, he could have a thousand better things to do than read about me, but he knew a lot of details.
“It’s a very German word, but when someone is immediately like a leader, they call it a Menschenfanger. Literally, it means someone who captures people in a very positive way. People just They come to him.
“It got me thinking. If he is so interested in me, how much interest will he have in the staff members he hires and works with on a daily basis? A good leader.”
As Klopp prepares to leave Liverpool, it is natural to wonder what the impact will be. With the return of Michael Edwards, the club has already worked to continue the culture. But when a leader leaves, there can be a void.
History suggests this can be a problem. If there is hope, it will come not only from the hiring decisions of Edwards and his colleagues, but the environment that Klopp has worked to create at Liverpool. Interesting players who are still open to learning.
When Trent Alexander-Arnold began trying to improve his peripheral vision with ophthalmologist Dr. Daniel Libby, it was, apparently, a marketing project for Red Bull. But speaking to the Liverpool player about it, his approach to the challenge explained a lot.
Alexander-Arnold explained, “It’s about the little one percent. As an individual, you need to find something to set yourself apart from the rest,” Alexander-Arnold explained. Sky Sports. “Margins are fine. It might not make a difference on the day but it might just make a difference in one or two games this season where I’ve seen a pass and I’ve been able to play it because of the extra work. have put in the pitch.”
That could be Klopp talking that day.
His Liverpool legacy will be felt in many ways. Coaches and surfers won’t be the first elements of his time at Anfield that come to mind when invoked. But in their own way, they reveal a lot about the man – and the secrets of his success.
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