Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is set to draw curtains on his decorated spell at Anfield at the end of the season. The German manager has helped the club enjoy tremendous success both domestically and on the European stage over the past eight seasons since taking over the helm at Anfield in 2015.
Klopp was recently featured in an exclusive interview with former English footballer Rio Ferdinand on TNT Sports where he spoke about his decision to quit the Liverpool job.
When Klopp announced his departure a few days back, he claimed to be “running out of energy”. During the interaction with Ferdinand, the 56-year-old referred to the same reason as he doesn’t want to be “a passenger” at Liverpool in the coming seasons. Klopp believes he does not have the same stamina right now to push his team to fight for the biggest prizes. Thus, he feels it is better to leave the space for someone more deserving.
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“It’s not that I want to leave, it’s more that I have to. If I cannot do it like that, if I cannot be the guy to push the team to the Champions League and stuff like that, then why should I do the job? I don’t want to be a passenger. The job is too important, the club is too important, so that’s why I decided to leave,” Klopp told Ferdinand ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League clash against Chelsea on Thursday.
Klopp deserves enough credit for helping Liverpool return to its iconic shape. The club had waited for a European top-flight title for nearly 30 years before they won the sixth UEFA Champions League title in 2019 under Klopp’s guidance. They lost the Premier League title to Manchester City by just one point in that season.
Liverpool could turn the tables in the next Premier League edition as they beat Pep Guardiola’s men by 18 points to become the English champions. The Reds also secured a domestic double in the following season, winning the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup.
Despite achieving these milestones, Klopp refuses to call himself a “born winner”. During his tenure, Liverpool has reached two more finals of the Champions League in the 2017-18 and 2021-21 seasons. But they failed to get their hands on the title, with Real Madrid having the last laugh on both occasions.
Klopp, however, seems not to be bothered about the defeats as to compete in the final means a lot to him. “I cannot say I’m a naturally born winner, I’m not. I had to do it the hard way.“Losing a European final is not my top 10 of the worst things that can happen. It’s something you don’t like and you want to avoid and you want to win these finals,” he told Ferdinand.
In their recent Premier League clash against Chelsea, Klopp’s Liverpool thumped the Blues to register a 4-1 victory in the home fixture. The win helped the Reds hold the top spot in the league standings with 51 points.
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