What's Klopp's secret?
After Liverpool's stunning victory over Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, manager Jürgen Klopp is the man of the moment. After Liverpool lost the first leg 0:3 the club transformed the return match into a 4:0 victory that takes it into the final. Journalists try to unpick the Klopp magic.
Gung-ho, heavy metal style
The Guardian is in awe of what Jürgen Klopp has achieved at Liverpool:
“Credit must go to so many behind the scenes, but especially to the manager. Klopp has made Liverpool football club about the fans, the footballers and very much about the football. The way it should be. The gung-ho, heavy metal style we were promised when he arrived from Dortmund has fed into the complete control that Liverpool have exercised over countless games throughout this season, and arguably since the turn of last year. They were able to sweep Barcelona up in a whirlwind before applying the brakes and seeing out the game.”
He knows how to capture hearts
The Süddeutsche Zeitung believes it knows the secret to the manager's success:
“Jürgen Klopp is better than anyone else at unleashing passion and turning emotion into goals. If more proof was needed of this then it was in this game. He is a pied piper, he has charisma, he has understood more than any other manager at this level that football functions through emotion and that if you can capture people's hearts, you can achieve the impossible. When he says: We can do it, is there a coach in the world who footballers are more likely to believe? When Klopp clenches his fist, then he clenches it with all the energy of Anfield Road. The fans, the players, they all see their hopes personified in this guy with his toothy grin and his six-day beard.”