Buvac and Klopp had been a partnership for 17 years until their split nine months ago

The trouble with forging a reputation alongside an assistant called the “The Brain” is that the moniker implies a certain level of dependence on that person; that nothing can be achieved without the other.

Jürgen Klopp would never try to rewrite history as to the importance on his coaching career of Zeljko Buvac, his former lieutenant who left nine months ago.

Their partnership was forged when they struck an accord as team-mates at Mainz in the 1990s, agreeing that whoever went into management first would take the other. That arrangement served them well as Buvac became Klopp’s assistant when he began in the dugout in 2001. The pair moved on to Borussia Dortmund in 2008 and won back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012, before