Melissa Reddy - Believe Us: How Jürgen Klopp Transformed Liverpool Into Title Winners

Contents

How Jrgen Klopp transformed Liverpool into title winners

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First published by HarperNorth in 2020

Copyright Melissa Reddy 2020

Jacket design Steve Leard HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020

Cover photograph Laurence Griffiths / POOL / AFP

Melissa Reddy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008441951

Ebook Edition November 2020 ISBN: 9780008441975

Version: 2020-11-24

To the family, friends, colleagues and readers who believed in me.

This is a product of your support and encouragement.

Liverpool notched up a 25-point lead at the top of the table this season, the biggest ever gap in English top-flight history.

Liverpool achieved 24 consecutive Premier League home wins in the 2019-2020 season, beating Man Citys record of 20, achieved between 2011 and 2012.

Claiming the title with seven matches to spare, Liverpool bettered Manchester Uniteds earliest title win in 2000/01, and Man Citys in 2017/18 both won the league with five games to spare.

With their 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur on 11 January 2020, Liverpool set a record of 104 points over 38 consecutive Premier League matches, beating the 102 achieved by Manchester City and Chelsea, ending in 2018 and 2005 respectively. Liverpool extended their record to 110 points from 38 matches (W36 D2 L0) after beating West Ham United 3-2 in February 2020.

The 3-1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion on 8 July was the Reds 30th this season, and they achieved that mark in a Premier League record of 34 matches.

With 61 points from their opening 21 matches, Liverpool won the most points ever accumulated at that stage in any of Europes top five leagues.

They went on to extend their record, winning their following six fixtures to rack up 79 points from their first 27 matches, before losing at Watford.

Liverpools 5-3 victory over Chelsea means they joined the Blues, Man Utd and Man City in winning 18 home matches in a Premier League season.

With the 3-1 victory in their final match at Newcastle United, Liverpool equalled the 32 victories claimed by Man City in 2017/18 and in 2018/19.

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He reached games in charge (in all competitions) in fewer days than any other Liverpool manager in history (217 days).

Klopp won of his opening league games only Kenny Dalglish and Bill Shankly had a better win ratio.

He was unbeaten in his first games in all competitions the longest run without defeat since Bob Paisley and the third longest ever at the helm of Liverpool as a football league club.

Liverpool took league games to reach the milestone of goals under the German. It was achieved in the joint fewest number of top-flight matches, shared with Kenny Dalglish in 1986.

Klopps first goalscorer as a Reds manager was also a German Emre Can against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League in October 2015.

He became the first Liverpool manager in history ever to win his first derby matches in charge.

His team took games to record goals faster than any other Reds boss.

Liverpool accumulated league points in games the fewest games required by any Reds boss to reach the landmark.

Klopp oversaw more victories () in his first league games in charge than any other Liverpool manager in history.

In 2019 he became the 5th German coach to win the European Cup/Champions League after Dettmar Cramer, Jupp Heynckes, Ottmar Hitzfeld and Udo Lattek

He was the 1st manager ever to take an English team to three European finals in his first three seasons of European competition.

Games Liverpool came from behind to win under Klopp (all competitions):

2015-16 6 of 22 (27%)

2016-17 5 of 11 (45%)

2017-18 3 of 14 (21%)

2018-19 5 of 8 (63%)

2019-20 6 of 11 (55%)

We are still in the process of reversing the errors of previous regimes. It will not happen overnight.

John W Henry

Football was no longer enjoyable, no longer an escape. Liverpool Football Club were once the greatest team the world has ever seen, but they hadnt been for a while. For 25 years, the club watched as others chiefly Manchester United displaced them as the cream of England. The obsessive desire to win the league increasingly began to wear on players and staff, while disillusionment enveloped the fanbase. Near misses were followed by complete fall offs. There were triumphs in cup competitions and moments to eternally savour, but it was never enough. By September 2015, according to one long-serving employee at their Melwood training facility, Liverpool had been reduced to a bunch of parts that didnt feel like they belonged together. It was a miserable place to be. You knew the fans were fed up, you knew the players were drowning and there was bickering among the coaching staff. Nothing felt right.

Liverpool had entered the month on the back of a demoralising 30 defeat by West Ham at Anfield, closely followed by a meek surrender and 31 defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United. When manager Brendan Rodgers was quizzed about what was needed to change the teams fortunes, his words were empty football-speak we need to want the ball more, we need to train harder heightening the concerns of Liverpools owners.

Fenway Sports Group feared the stench of the 201415 season, which featured an abysmal non-performance in an FA Cup semi-final exit at the hands of Aston Villa and ended with a 61 humiliation at Stoke City, would linger well into the new campaign. They circled the October international break as the perfect window to shred the script and start afresh. With the exception of the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, which was the final fixture before the hiatus, there was a list of very winnable games coming up with four at home for Rodgers to earn a stay of execution.