Ask most Liverpool supporters, and pretty much any football fan, what they most admire about Jürgen Klopp, and they'll talk to you about his personality.

"He's such a laugh!", would be a common response. So would, "He's so animated on the touchline; he's great to watch." Plenty would likely round off their responses with a simple, "He's mad!"

And you know what, they'd be right; an awful lot of what makes Klopp brilliant is down to his qualities as a human being. He is ebullient, expressive, and tireless, and those qualities have most certainly helped reinvigorate the Liverpool supporter base from the foundation of languid apathy he met when he arrived in October 2015. The German values footballers as human beings more than mere athletes, and you only have to watch some of the content produced from Melwood to see how he treats the day-to-day staff there with the same kindness and respect as those on seven or eight figure salaries.

Neither Liverpool nor Klopp would be anywhere near as successful if his character was different. But he's also so much more than that personality.

Earlier this week, Klopp won the prestigious German Coach of the Year award, as voted for by the Association of German Sports Journalists, for a record-equalling third time. He was typically effusive in his praise for those who work under him, telling German magazine Kicker: "I know who I owe this great award to: my team and my coaching team. Only as a collective can we achieve the successes we have achieved."

(Image: Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

The manager is right to honour those who contribute to the club's success, of course. But the fact remains that he is the figurehead, it is his philosophy and his decision-making that has allowed Liverpool to ascend to the very highest echelons of world football, and his brain that means Liverpool's tactical setup is the most relentless and intense on the planet.

Klopp has adapted his gegenpressing system from Borussia Dortmund, where he operated predominantly with a 4-2-3-1 shape and a traditional striker at the tip of the attack, to suit the Premier League and the tools he has at his disposal in the Liverpool squad. The result has been unmitigated success, and almost four years in, few teams in England or the continent as a whole seem capable of even coming close to stopping Liverpool in a one-on-one battle.

Klopp will of course have taken inspiration from managers' whose styles of football and management influenced him in his early days, but he is now certainly one of the most intelligent and successful coaches in football history.

With all of that in mind, it seems only fair to credit Klopp for a few of his best tactical decisions since joining Liverpool. Here are a selection of what I think are the most important:

Creating a front three that can score any kind of goal

Without doubt the most vital aspect of this Liverpool's sides play. In Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, Klopp has formed an attack which never allows the opposition a moment to breathe, and is capable of pummeling them into the ground at any given moment, in a plethora of different ways.

The trio can score goals on the break, headers, shots from inside the six-yard box, long distance efforts, and whatever other kind of goal you can think of. All three have had their position changed by Klopp; Firmino had arrived as an attacking midfielder, Salah had been a second striker at AS Roma, and Sadio Mané played mostly as a right forward at Southampton.

(Image: Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

The manager realigned all three, positioning them based on what he believed to be their biggest strengths (Firmino his link-up play, Salah his dribbling on his left foot, and Mané his shooting with his right foot) and subsequently created what is now the most varied and exciting front-line around. That is the hardest thing to do in football, and only a coach who truly understands every fact of the game and his players would be capable of it.

Converting Gini Wijnaldum from an attacker to a central midfielder

He might not be the most glamorous of Liverpool's current crop of elite footballers, but the rise of Gini Wijnaldum since his arrival in 2016 has been crucial to Liverpool's drive to European glory. The Dutchman signed for the Reds from Newcastle as an enigmatic player used to starting in the front-line, predominantly either on the left-wing or as a number ten behind a traditional centre forward.

Immediately, though, Klopp moved Wijnaldum to a much deeper role in central midfield. Having clearly recognised some of the player's base ability during his previous career, the manager believed he could mould those component parts into exactly the kind of player he needed. And it worked brilliantly.

Bringing on Divock Origi in the Merseyside derby in a new role

This isn't just about the goal.

When Divock Origi came on against Everton last December, very few people would have expected him to have any genuine influence on the rest of Liverpool's season, and even fewer would have thought it would come by telling the Belgian to play as a left-sided forward.

(Image: Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

But it worked perfectly that night, and so many times more until June, when he scored the final goal in the Champions League final after coming off the bench to play on the left. His pressing, strength, and hold-up play in that area of the pitch were crucial in wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Watford in the second half of the season, and the confidence he had built up across that time meant he was able to fire Liverpool to a Champions League final as a striker, too.

Origi's Liverpool career was dead, but Klopp saw a way to tweak his positioning and give Liverpool an immeasurably valuable extra option.

Moving Jordan Henderson back to number 8

It's exceedingly rare for a manager to apologise to a player in public. It's even more rare for it to be the captain.

Bu Klopp apologised to Jordan Henderson late last season for using him in the deepest-laying midfield role for the previous 18 months of his career, after the England international became one of Liverpool's best performers in a more attacking role from March onwards. The move to number six had been out of necessity; Emre Can wasn't good enough to play the role, and Fabinho hadn't yet adapted to the shape of the team. Klopp persevered with Henderson there, unable to utilise the attacking quality he demonstrably possesses, until he felt the Brazilian was ready to make the position his own.

Now, with Fabinho totally comfortable in the side and Henderson in the form of his life at Liverpool, the Reds' midfield is full of the kind of dynamism, athleticism and technical quality to really make the most of the tactical blueprint. It took a fair amount of time to sort out, but Klopp unleashing Henderson high up the pitch has taken Liverpool up a notch.

Signing Loris Karius

Now, I know this sounds mad. But hear me out.

Show more

When Klopp arrived Simon Mignolet was Liverpool's undisputed number one, but his style of goalkeeping was diametrically opposed the German's setup. He was incapable of playing accurate short passes out to defenders, and his kicking beyond twenty yards was completely haphazard. Klopp needed a new goalkeeper who suited the team's way of playing, and thought he'd found one at his former club FSV Mainz 05.

Loris Karius was better on the ball and much quicker off his line. Unfortunately, he didn't save many things, and produced arguably the worst performance ever seen from a professional in a top level final against Real Madrid in Kyiv.

But Klopp knew that, by-and-large, the shift in style of goalkeeper had helped the side. Liverpool played higher up the pitch, had an extra sweeper to clear any balls played over the top, and were on their way to becoming a tactically much more coherent team. And so, he had the knowledge, and the data, to go to owners FSG and sporting director Michael Edwards and convince them that spending £70m ($86m) on Alisson Becker was an absolute necessity. They had tried a cut price solution and it didn't work. Now they needed to make sure they had the real deal.

If Klopp hadn't gone through that experience with Karius, he might not coach the best goalkeeper in the world right now.