There has been plenty of goodwill for Jurgen Klopp since the former Borussia Dortmund coach took over at Anfield.
The German’s charisma and the promise of a new style seem set to ensure he has plenty of time to work his magic at Liverpool, even though early results haven’t provided the overnight turnaround some of the more optimistic supporters had anticipated.
But BT Sport’s German football expert Rafa Honigstein, a man very familiar with Klopp’s Bundesliga achievements, believes a combination of factors will mean the 48-year-old will be given plenty of time to get things right.
Honigstein spoke to JOE ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League meeting with Chelsea to explain what he thinks Klopp can bring to the table.
With the exception of Klopp’s final year at Dortmund, when he had already built up a huge amount of goodwill for his achievements at the club, he has never really had to endure a poor run of form.
Honigstein acknowledges this point, accepting that a poor start at Liverpool would be relatively unprecedented and appreciating that it’s tough to gauge how he’d respond if the fans lose patience. But he is confident that it won’t come to that.
“I think because he’s following Rodgers who was relatively unsuccessful and had three-and-a-half years there, and because people look at him and understand what he’s done with Dortmund, I think people will give him time,” Honigstein says.
“At Dortmund the club, the fans, the players never turned on him as they knew what had come before and appreciated the work he’d done.
“I think Rodgers hadn’t quite done enough to buy himself more time; if he’d won the title probably people would have given him last season and the start to this one, but he didn’t have that much in the bank.”
Klopp’s style of play also ought to help, in Honigstein’s view, especially when compared to an approach from Rodgers which at times may have been tougher for less discerning fans to warm to when things weren’t going to plan.
“The way his teams play, which is very up-and-down and quite entertaining, will make it easier to accept when results are not so great,” he says.
“You’ll always see his teams try and that leaves you with a different feeling from that slow, almost negative football that doesn’t go anywhere, where you’re trying to understand what they’re trying to do.”
There has been some speculation about certain players being poorly suited to Klopp’s preferred style, with Christian Benteke among those to have been singled out, but Klopp doesn’t necessarily seem to have a specific ‘type’ of player.
Admittedly some less mobile number nines struggled to make things work during his tenure at Dortmund, with Alex Frei and Ciro Immobile two examples from opposite ends of the manager’s BVB reign, but other players have shown an adaptability that surprised outside observers.
Ilkay Gundogan is one player who Honigstein identifies as having taken some time to get comfortable with Klopp’s high-intensity style, and Liverpool have a number of midfield players – Joe Allen chief among them – who might need to make some changes to their game in order to hold down a starting place.
What is wrong with Allen? Every time Klopp goes in for a high 5 or hug, Allen looks like he's sulking cos he misses his dad.
— Red (@TaintlessRed) October 28, 2015
But Klopp is not one to make wholesale changes to a squad, struggling or otherwise. He has only brought in more than five senior players in a season on a couple of occasion, and has never come close to the £117m that Rodgers spent on eight new additions following the departure of Luis Suarez.
Instead, the new Reds boss has consistently preferred to make the most of what he’s got, promoting players from the youth team and even bringing others in from the cold, as he has reportedly attempted to do with loaned-out midfielder Lazar Markovic.
Key to this process will be assistant Peter Krawietz, a man who Honigstein speaks very highly of.
“A few years ago Dortmund were looking around for a left-back and couldn’t find one, but Krawietz said ‘we have a left-back, he’s playing in the youth team, Marcel Schmelzer, give him a chance’ – in the space of a couple of years he was a German international. So you need someone with a really good eye to have good judgement and I think he’s got that,” he notes.
But while Krawietz can help to some degree, it will be just as important for Klopp to see his new charges in action –Â meaning extra fixtures in the League Cup and Europa League could prove very beneficial.
“One of the problems foreign coaches in particular have [in England] is to work out how reserve players should be evaluated,” Honigstein says.
“They only see them in reserve games, it’s not real competitive football so it’s really hard to see how these players will function. But what you can do is give them opportunities in the League Cup and perhaps in the Europa League – these games will give him the opportunity to see as many players as possible.
The club might not have started out brilliantly in Europe, while their uninspiring league form was part of the reason for Rodgers’ departure, but we wouldn’t put it past Klopp to turn things around sooner rather than later and give Liverpool fans something to cheer about again.
After all, he’s done more with less in the past.
Watch Chelsea v Liverpool live on BT Sport 1 from 12pm on Saturday 31st October. Visit btsport.com for more information
