Liverpool vs Tottenham: Jurgen Klopp reveals the secret behind his success at Anfield

Nowadays, we live in the cult of the manager. He wins and loses rather than the players and he is the one placed on a pedestal or thrown into the gutter depending on how the result goes.

The manager carries the burden of the whole club on his shoulders. He faces the pressure from the media and the wrath of his own fans if things go wrong.

So it takes a special character to be able to cope with all that. In Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have the charismatic front man to take on the challenge.

Klopp has felt like the perfect fit at Anfield ever since he walked through the doors to replace Brendan Rodgers in October 2015.

Liverpool’s reputation has been restored as a force in English and European football, even if they are still waiting to add to their trophy haul, and the German has built a team that looks certain to be around at the top for the next few years.

Klopp is the man who receives the adulation of The Kop, but running a club in today’s game is far from a one-man job.

So as the Reds prepare for the biggest game of the season in next Saturday’s Champions League final with Tottenham in Madrid, Klopp has paid tribute to his backroom team, and in particular his assistant manager, Pep Lijnders.

The Dutchman returned to the club last summer after a short spell away managing NEC Nijmegen in his homeland, and the Liverpool boss has been so happy to have the 36-year-old back.

“I could write a book about Pep and what a big influence he has had,” says Klopp. “What a fantastic young coach he is, what a lively presence he is, how big the influence of his optimism is and how lively he is on the training pitch.

“I was like that when I was young but I’m not anymore. That’s how it is. You cannot use the same words again and again, so it gives me the opportunity to watch and to go in the right way.”

Klopp’s Liverpool are known for their fast, incisive football which cuts opponents to ribbons. But in the Premier League season that has just finished as they finished runners-up to Manchester City on 97 points, nobody scored more than their 22 goals from set-pieces.

Think of Divock Origi’s late winner at Newcastle or Georginio Wijnaldum’s opener in the victory at Cardiff on Easter Sunday and you have signs of a team that have been well drilled during the week.

And Klopp acknowledges that a weakness has turned into a strength thanks to the work of Peter Krawietz and the team of analysts.

They even went about improving Liverpool’s play from that most basic of things – the throw-in – thanks to the arrival of specialist throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark.       

“It was clear with the players we have and the talent of the boys who take set pieces and crosses that we didn’t score enough from these situations,” explains Klopp.

“So we focused on that a lot more, in a different way. The analysis department came up with proposals for what we could do and we work on them.   

“We are much more focused on these things and it is just brilliant what the outcome is. The boys enjoy the practice now because when it works out, it’s brilliant.

“Thomas changed our throw-in game completely. It’s not obvious because when people talk about throw-ins, they think it’s a long throw and you head it in.

“No. We have 18 different ones in other areas and we want to have the ball after these throw-ins. It makes no sense if you have a throw and then a 50-50 situation afterwards. How that improves is massive.   

“So many details make it all. I don’t normally speak about it because I will forget somebody and that wouldn’t show the respect that I want to show.

“They all know how important they are because we don’t hide our praise or giving of credit in our daily work. But to speak about it publicly is not always easy because there are so many.”