LIVERPOOL, England — When Liverpool booked their place in last season’s Carabao Cup final courtesy of a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage (which sealed a 3-2 aggregate victory over Fulham) on Jan. 24, manager Jurgen Klopp couldn’t stop smiling. “You can never take these things for granted,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Less than 48 hours later, those introspective words had added significance as, after eight extraordinary years in the Anfield dugout, with eight trophies (including the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League), Klopp announced he would step down as manager at the end of the season. Later it was revealed he would take a new job as Red Bull’s global head of football.
“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff,” he said. “I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take. It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy … I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.”
The stunning announcement drew comparisons to the shocking departure of legendary Liverpool boss Bill Shankly in 1974, and almost immediately attention turned to how the Anfield club would fare without Klopp.
“He’s a massive loss to Liverpool and he’s a massive loss to the Premier League because there are very few like him, if any, like him in world football at this moment in time,” former Manchester United defender Gary Neville told Sky Sports in March. “I wish he was not the Liverpool manager, and I can’t wait for him to leave from a selfish perspective because I know whilst he’s here, Liverpool stand a great chance of success.”
Fast-forward to present day, however, and it seems whisperings of a post-Klopp demise were premature. Liverpool top the Premier League table, have won all seven of their games in the revamped Champions League, and are within 90 minutes of another Carabao Cup final if they can overcome a 1-0 deficit in the second leg vs. Tottenham early next month.
Under the stewardship of Arne Slot, who was brought in from Feyenoord last summer, the club have thus far avoided falling into a similar slump that followed the departure of other great Premier League managers such as Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) and Arsene Wenger (Arsenal).
“I want to give people wings,” a revitalised Klopp said earlier this month at a news conference that marked the start of his Red Bull tenure.
The comment was, of course, a reference to the energy drink conglomerate’s famous slogan. But, a year after the beginning of the end of Klopp’s Anfield reign, it is fair to say that Liverpool — thanks, in part, to their former manager’s bold call — are flying high.
Klopp’s exit news greeted “like Royal funeral”
Liverpool exceeded even Klopp’s expectations, which consolidated his belief that it was time to pass the baton to someone else. Though he had told Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon of his decision to leave in November 2023, it wasn’t until the following January — less than an hour before the public announcement — that Klopp relayed the news to his players in a team meeting at the AXA Training Centre.
In an age when every transfer and managerial reshuffle is documented in forensic detail online and in the media, it was one of football’s best-kept secrets. The video confirming his exit was posted, without preamble, to the club’s social media channels at 10.36 a.m. GMT on an otherwise unexceptional Friday morning, a decision that only served to heighten the collective sense of bewilderment.
“The whole feeling was just that it was deeply sad, and I remember doing some media stuff of the evening and the whole tone was like it was a Royal funeral,” Neil Atkinson, CEO of The Anfield Wrap, told ESPN. “I just remember thinking: ‘No, we can’t have this’ and then there was a sense of sheer defiance.
“I think that’s the brilliance of Jurgen is that, from the day he arrived at Liverpool Football Club, he talked about wanting to leave the club in a better place than he’d found it and there could be no argument on Jan. 26 last year that he hadn’t done that.”
“First thing I said is we don’t have to speak about tactics if we lose so many duels and that was what we did,” Slot told TNT Sports. “Not that Jarell lost every duel — many of us lost too many duels. But I think we needed [Ibrahima] Konate to win these long balls in the air from their No.9.”
Across Klopp’s eight-year Anfield tenure, public critique of an individual’s performance was rare. But, while the comments were described as “brutal” by Sky Sports pundit Neville, it is Slot’s clear, no-nonsense approach that has endeared him to fans and players alike this season.
His adeptness at communicating effectively has been reflected on the pitch, with several members of the squad having noticeably developed under his stewardship. Forward Cody Gakpo and defender Konate are two of the players who have flourished this season, though it is midfielder Ryan Gravenberch — signed by Klopp from Bayern Munich for €40m in the summer of 2023 — who has benefitted most from Slot’s arrival, progressing from bit-part player to arguably the most crucial cog in Liverpool’s team.
“We are God-believing people, and we think God sent Arne to us and to Liverpool,” the 22-year-old’s dad, Ryan Gravenberch Sr., told ESPN in November. “Obviously he’s Dutch so when he explains something to Ryan, he can understand it very clearly. He communicates superbly. The main thing he’s said to Ryan is: ‘I’m going to play you and so it is on you to maintain playing.’ He was very clear about that and that has worked for both sides.”
Indeed, Liverpool’s form this season has been so impressive that it is hard to imagine any other coach could have made things work better. So far this term, Liverpool have lost only twice in all competitions, dispatching the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City with ease and establishing themselves as one of the most feared sides in Europe.
“I’ve been massively surprised how well Slot has done because you just thought there was going to be a dip,” fan Andrew Rogerson, 57, told ESPN. “What it has done for me is proven what a good place Liverpool Football Club is in because it’s almost as if anyone could come in now and succeed. I think Jurgen prepared us for that.”
That this season’s biggest frustration has been the lack of tangible progress made in contract negotiations with Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold (who are all available on a free transfer in the summer) is proof enough of how well things are going on the pitch, and Slot — to his credit — has handled the incessant barrage of questions about the futures of the trio admirably.
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Klopp’s departure undoubtedly played a part in holding up those negotiations, with the players having understandably been eager to ascertain the club’s direction of travel without their talismanic manager. It is one of the few major headaches Slot has inherited from his predecessor, though the form of Van Dijk and Salah, in particular, is a testament to how well all parties have done to shut out the external noise.
“At this point we haven’t achieved anything, but we are in a very good place and a place that other teams playing in both competitions wants to be in and is fighting for,” Van Dijk said, when asked by ESPN this week to reflect on Liverpool’s evolution over the past year. “We have to stay calm, and we will. If we have surprised ourselves, I don’t know. I know this squad already for a couple of years so there are not many changes; obviously the biggest change is the manager and the staff and how he wants us to play and I think we adapted to that pretty quickly.
“I don’t think there are major tweaks but what has been changed I think the boys have been doing brilliantly and that has been shown, and we have to keep that going until the end of the season and hopefully we can get the reward for that.”
Indeed, the true litmus test of Slot’s talents will be whether he is able to lead Liverpool to major silverware this season. Having dropped off at the end of last term, neither players nor fans need reminding that there is still a long way to go until the finish line, and there will surely be plenty more twists and turns for Slot to navigate in the months ahead.
The Dutchman’s first January in the Premier League has been an instructive one, with Liverpool having dropped points to both Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, as well as suffering a narrow defeat to Tottenham in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals. While the appointment of Slot’s former Feyenoord colleague Ruben Peeters as lead physical performance coach has, for the most part, kept serious injuries at bay this term, Liverpool have at times looked tired, with some supporters bemoaning the head coach’s lack of rotation.
Slot is also yet to be furnished with his own signings, with winger Federico Chiesa — the sole arrival last summer — having only played a supporting role this season. While it is Hughes who is now largely responsible for the club’s transfer strategy, Slot will no doubt be judged on how the players he recruits in the months and years ahead fare under his management.
That said, the fact Klopp — while still revered — is no longer yearned for at Anfield is an achievement in itself, and one for which Slot deserves enormous credit. Though, if Liverpool do go on to win either the Premier League or Champions League this season, there is a school of thought that the victory will, in no small part, have been facilitated by Klopp’s work.
“We were all devastated that Jurgen was leaving, and I don’t think any of us expected Slot would come in and do the job he has,” Juliana Hodgson, landlady of The Winchester Pub in Anfield, told ESPN. “I think Jurgen left the club in such a good place, with so many good players, and that’s helped Slot a lot.”
Atkinson adds: “If a peak Jurgen Klopp, who felt right within himself, had been Liverpool manager this season and still had the appetite for it, he could have been successful with this team. But he clearly didn’t have the appetite for it. I do feel like the Liverpool 2.0 that Klopp talked about last season still holds sway. Klopp is so vindicated [for his decision to leave]. I think that what he did in terms of setting the club up for the next person was massive. It’s a testament to him.”
