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Jurgen Klopp marks four years as Liverpool boss on October 8. The ECHO's LFC correspondent Paul Gorst sat down with Klopp to discuss his time in charge of the Reds.

The German speaks on how he turned the club around, his training methods, all big signings and his plans for the future.

This is the second of a two-part interview. You can read the first part here. This interview was first published on September 23, 2019.

Melwood is buzzing with activity this Thursday afternoon. It may be in the deepest throes of the international break, but Liverpool’s training base is a busy one.

Beavering away at his computer is assistant boss Peter Krawietz. The man Jurgen Klopp affectionately refers to as ‘the Eye’ is no doubt casting his over the latest challenges that await the European champions during a hectic few weeks of football.

In another room, Michael Edwards, the club’s much-championed sporting director, laughs and jokes across a table and is in a relaxed mood. Joe Gomez and Adrian enjoy some post-training lunch, while Academy director Alex Inglethorpe and new recruit Harvey Elliott are spotted going about their business.

Read part one of Jurgen Klopp's exclusive interview with the ECHO HERE

It is the manager’s office that is busiest, however, with Klopp running through his near four years as Liverpool boss in an exclusive chat with the ECHO. An impressive 2016/17 season saw the club regain its status as a Champions League club with the Reds beating Middlesbrough 3-0 on the final day of the campaign to make the top four.

Qualification back into Europe's premier competition was just the club's second of the decade at the time and it was an achievement that was celebrated by everyone connected with Anfield, before the realisation that a two-legged tie awaited them before they could return to the group stage.

"We were pretty impressive," Klopp says. "It was a difficult time around January and February, but it was more about injuries and stuff like that. The boys really fought hard for what they achieved and some things happen and I remember when we qualified, we really celebrated and then during the celebrations and we realised 'ah, we have to play a qualifier!'"

That qualifier would hand Liverpool a tricky-looking meeting with emerging Bundesliga side Hoffenheim. Their manager, Julian Nagelsmann, was carving out a spot as one of Europe's brightest young coaches and the likes of Serge Gnabry, Kerem Demirbay and Sandro Wagner presented a genuine obstacle in Liverpool's road to the Champions League and all its luxuries.

Klopp needn't have worried. Despite a late goal from Mark Uth in Germany, a Trent Alexander-Arnold free-kick and an own goal from Havard Nordtveit put Liverpool in the driving seat ahead of the return leg at Anfield. The Reds sprung into life at home, scoring three times in 21 minutes to leave their manager howling "this is football!" in the touchline celebrations.

Liverpool would win 4-2 to breeze through to the group stages of a competition that enabled them to turbo-charge their way back into the collective conscious of elite-level European football followers. Liverpool, plainly, hadn't been a huge draw on the continent since 2009 under Rafa Benitez prior to their re-emergence in the 2017/18 campaign.

"It was pretty much the opposite of a friendly game," Klopp says of the Hoffenheim tie. "They were good but we were brilliant in these two games. It was already a proper sign for us. We thought 'wow!' Hoffenheim thought they could cause us some problems but the boys did brilliant and that was a great start to that season."

Follow all the Liverpool news and transfers HERE

Key to that excellent start was the signing of Mohamed Salah, whose arrival was another big moment for the ongoing development of Klopp's crop. The Egyptian's maiden campaign at Anfield was spellbinding. His 44 goals - which included the most ever for a 38-game Premier League campaign with 32 - went a long way towards reintroducing the five-time European Cup winners to a new audience of football fandom across the continent.

Klopp was convinced enough about Salah's temperament, attitude and quality to make him a club-record signing from Roma at £36.9million, but did even the Liverpool manager think the 'Egyptian King' would be this good when he pitched up in June 2017?

"No, of course not, I don't even think Mo saw that, that is how it is," said the Liverpool boss. "We all have our dreams and Mo for sure, he dreams big and wants to achieve a lot and that is good. The way we play helped him, the status he had from the first day in the team helped him.

"It was different for him than in other years, we don't have to talk about Chelsea, but it was a completely different role he played and even at Roma, he had Edin Dzeko next to him, he is the main man in the decisive situations, it's 'give the ball to him' that is how it is.

"Like at Barcelona, it is Lionel Messi and stuff like that, so you have these teams, we don't have that here. So he could fill a role that we didn't have in that moment with the two workhorses around him with Bobby (Roberto Firmino) and Sadio (Mane). It is quite a good offensive line!

(Image: Martin Rickett/PA Wire)

"We didn't see that he would score 44 goals but we saw that he would help us and that is the most important thing. I was really happy for him and happy for us. We need a bit of luck with signings, we had that."

Another memorable campaign would await Liverpool. Their hunt for silverware would go on as another final defeat beckoned against Real Madrid in the Champions League, but if the Europa League and League Cup near-misses were tangible evidence of progress, Liverpool's march to Kiev was definitive proof. The Reds, were irrefutably on the rise.

Time and again, teams were simply blown away by an electric attack that was built around speed, movement and clinical decision-making. Mane, Salah and Firmino shared 91 goals between them as a free-scoring Reds plundered 135 in all competitions.

Klopp adds: "One hundred percent, there were outstanding games in that season. We qualified [for the Champions League], I wouldn't say early, because it was another fight with Chelsea, right? We had to win each game pretty much and played with three or four midfielders for maybe the last 15 games, so it was a big fight to finish fourth.

(Image: Pic Andrew Teebay)

"But I think the Manchester City games in the Champions League, and in the Premier League as well, but mostly in the Champions League showed what these boys are made of and made for. The City home game was incredible, the Roma home game was incredible until the last five minutes, it was the best we have ever played. The direction we had against an Italian team with five at the back and Alisson Becker in goal, you cannot score five goals - we did it. So that was incredible."

Klopp admits that he was even taken aback by the speed at which his team continued to improve and believes a growing maturity in the ranks has been key to this current Liverpool knowing its capabilities as one of the very best footballing sides on the planet.

"There were plenty of moments where we were really flying and we were obviously not as consistent as last year because we were still a little bit surprised about our quality. I was like 'really?' So we were not settled, that is what I mean when I say we have got more mature over the years and stuff like that.

"We were on a good way (in 2017/18) but it was not the final piece, if you want. We didn't think of ourselves like a natural Champions League finalist. We can do that and there are a lot of teams in the world who can do that and we did it, but then we realised obviously how we lost the final in a very strange way."

Two howlers from Loris Karius either side of a wonder-goal from Gareth Bale condemned Liverpool a 3-1 reverse in the Ukraine capital, but the post-match despair was short-lived. This, Klopp knew, was just the beginning for his team and not the culmination of their work together. Liverpool would be back. Just a year later, in fact.

"It was very unlucky," Klopp says of the 2018 final. "We were not outplayed or anything like that, it was not like we didn't have chances against Real Madrid who won it before already twice in a row. It was just unlucky for different reasons, so that gave us confidence more than anything else. For us it was clear that we were ready to take the next step."

That "next step" that Klopp so often refers to would arrive 12 months after that crushing low of defeat to Real Madrid. Liverpool would exorcise the ghosts of the Olympiyskiy in Madrid on June 1, as the Reds finally, at the fourth time of asking, won a final with the German at the helm.

(Image: Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

A 2-0 win against Tottenham secured European Cup No.6 and led to nearly three quarters of million supporters lining the city streets less than 24 hours later to welcome home their triumphant team in iconic scenes that will live long in the memory for anyone who witnessed them.

But before that, Klopp made changes. Significant and subtle. The Liverpool manager altered the approach and brought in a new-found pragmatism for the 2018/19 campaign that enabled the club to lean on the defensive strength of Virgil van Dijk and co at the back. Liverpool would no longer need to score three and four times to ensure victory.

A more measured and composed gameplan meshed with attacking brilliance seamlessly to see the Reds beaten just once across the entire domestic season. A pencil line margin of 11.7mm away at Manchester City essentially denied the Reds the chance of an 'Invincible' campaign that would have included a Premier League and Champions League double. Fine margins, indeed.

A total of 21 clean sheets almost matched the 22 times the Reds conceded as the best defence in England collected a string of scarcely believable statistics that marked them out as one of Europe's most miserly. These changes were borne out of design by their manager who saw that games during the previous campaign were too open for his liking.

"We had to change a few things, which we did," Klopp says. "We had to calm our game down in certain moments because we know ourselves, we want to chase everyone in each second of the game, to be honest. That is our nature, but there are moments when you have the ball that it is a big challenge to find calmness with the ball.

"Not being boring, but calm and being lively like crazy, and in the right moments with the ball being direct and crazy. That takes time and again I come back to that, it was good that we had that time and we could make these steps together. This 'project' if you want [to call it that] to bring Liverpool back on track. We needed time, we got it and now we are here. We won a few games, but hopefully there is still a lot more to come."

(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)

A 3-0 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final appeared, to most, to be the end of the road in the Reds' hunt for a sixth European Cup. However, Anfield would experiences arguably its greatest evening of all time in the return leg as a Liverpool team shorn of Salah and Firmino beat Barca 4-0 to secure the most unfathomable of comebacks.

Klopp would later coin his side as the "f****** mentality giants". It is a phrase that has stuck, but what exactly has made them so strong mentally and why have a team who have been beaten just four times this calendar year become so difficult to get a result against?

"It is the mood, our togetherness, how the boys react with each other, how the boys have grown together, the desire, 100 per cent, it is all that. It is these situations that have made us see more and more that we have more potential. We still hadn't won anything and that is the truth, but at the end of their careers they want to look back and show some silverware, that is clear. So it is all these things and that is a good combination. A very good combination.

"Our defensive spirit and defensive attitude, mixed with the really good games is threatening actually, that is very clear. To do that consistently over a season, over years, we have to prove still. So there is something more to achieve to make the next step and for us, and when we come back we look at the target for the season, we don't know. We can't ignore all the other teams, they have targets as well and ambitions and all that stuff and it is clear. But we can make our steps and that is what we want to do."

But what exactly is the next step for a team who now stand, arguably, as the world's best? Toppling Manchester City's unrivalled domestic dominance of last term would be the logical conclusion, but for Klopp, he is merely aiming to maintain the staggeringly high level his players are reaching as a matter of routine, presently.

Success, is never a guarantee, but Klopp knows that his team are able to control their level of performance and feels that a glittering, trophy-laden few years can follow as a result.

"The next step? I don't know. It is just to stay on this level and make the next steps and I cannot say that means we will be champions, that is not possible. We have the strongest competitors in the world, that is for sure. If you put Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the same league, that would be more difficult, but we have them already in the league, that quality.

"So that makes it really tricky. If we would have had more luck in a season...I don't say Manchester City were lucky, my God, not at all, but they had it in parts where we didn't, but at the end of the season they had more than we had and it was really decisive with little goals here and there.

"They deserved it, 100 per cent, but if we come to the same situation again, I don't know [who wins]. But learning from your own mistakes or success is the best thing you can do and so far, it looks like we have taken the right information out of our situation last year and tried to make the next step."

Six wins from six in the Premier League has given Liverpool a five-point cushion in the Premier League. No other team has led by such a margin at this stage of a campaign. That "next step" that Klopp is so keen to take with his relentless Red machine may not be too far away.