Jürgen Klopp: 'Losing is like a very strong medicine'

30.04.2019

Jürgen Klopp

Liverpool supporters are hoping Jürgen Klopp can lead their team to their first ever Premier League title. Ahead of the first leg of their UCL semifinal clash with Barcelona, he told DW why losing is also important.

DW: Europa League final 2016, Champions League final 2018. Beat Barcelona and you'll be in your third major European final (with Liverpool).

Jürgen Klopp: Yes, impressive isn't it! But we'll see. Barcelona are a pretty good team. I've watched so many games with other teams playing – and losing – against Barcelona, but I have never faced them in a competitive game myself. I've always thought it would be interesting to test myself against them.

But let's not forget, we're not a dream draw for other teams either. I don't think teams get drawn against Liverpool and think: That's a great draw, we can go out and smash them. We are a pretty good football team ourselves and we'll try everything to win.

What's the key to beating Barcelona?

We need to do our defensive work correctly and have the courage to play our football when we get the chance. When they have the ball, you must have a high level of patience and not get frustrated. They will pass the ball around for long periods and you just have to accept that. But then you will have your moments where you have the ball and then you have to be the biggest threat they can imagine.

What's more important: winning the Champions League or the Premier League?

On Friday night, winning the Premier League is more important.* Then on Wednesday, winning the Champions league is more important. Then at the weekend, the Premier League again. Then on Tuesday, back to the Champions league. So I cannot make that decision. You have to play your best football in every game. But if you ask the fans, it's an obvious answer: they want to win the league more than anything.

But you came so close to winning the Champions League last season in the final against Real Madrid …

The journey last year has helped us a lot because it was difficult. It was a really interesting experience. Losing is a very interesting experience. Not something you necessarily want, but it's like a very strong medicine. And if you take it, it can help.

I lost the last six finals I was in. They were hardly the best days of my life, but they didn't make me a broken person or whatever. For me, life is about trying again and again. If only the winners were allowed to survive then we'd all have to go. It's all about experiences and how we use them and what we make of them.

What sets you apart from other coaches who haven't been in as many finals as you?

I'm lucky! When I was at school doing my A-Levels, I won a sports prize. My best friends won the science prize, the language prize and I got a sports prize. And the head teacher said: I hope it works out for you with football, I really do. Because if not, I'm really worried about you!

But seriously, I'm really blessed to be where I am. It's unbelievable. Most of my colleagues have to work their whole life and don't get to Champions League finals. They're fantastic coaches but maybe just haven't had the teams I have had and so they haven't had the experience of facing Bayern Munich or Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

Otherwise, I think about myself as a completely normal person. OK, I know a little bit more about football than some other people. That's true. But that doesn't make me a special person. It is only luck because 500 years ago, that knowledge wouldn't have helped me, I could have been a jester dancing in front of the king, but I would've slept in the street.

I'm really very fortunate that that my best skill is somehow needed out there. And I appreciate that every single day. I know [field] hockey coaches who work five times harder and earn four percent of what I earn. I'm smart enough not to overestimate that.

But it's not just down to luck. What are your best qualities as a coach which help set you apart?

I have always been very interested in people and that's never changed. The players' problems have changed a lot because of social media and stuff like that. They are under much more pressure. They are still all very young and yet they are judged every day. It's like living constantly in a glass house, because everyone sees everything you do, and every mistake and every failure is judged.

If you are good, you are outstanding. If you are not so good, you are the worst in the world.

There's nothing in between, there's no grey area – there's only black and white. The grey area has disappeared somehow.

Mo Salah's scoring prowess is one reason Jürgen Klopp is in the hunt for titles this season

If you win the Champions League, you are the best in the world. If you lose it, nobody cares why. You are not even second best: You are the worst. And the people who say that have never even been close to any final, but they have social media. I'm not on social media so I personally don't hear what people say. But the players use it and they get all that criticism and stick. They're fine with it. They know we are all judged by the outside world.

How do you help your players deal with that?

I listen. I still have a lot of contact with my players from former clubs and they call me up and ask for advice and ask what I think. And I'm happy to listen. I don't make decisions for them but when you listen to people talk, they often then make the decision by themselves. You only have to ask the right questions and the person finds out for himself. That's the best way to do it. Education never stops.

Social media wasn't something you had to deal with when you started out at Mainz. What else has changed since then?

I've got a lot older! But the job changed completely. At Mainz, I was responsible for absolutely everything around the football team – along with Christian Heidel, the sporting director. We had to know everything about the club and make all the decisions but that was the best way to learn the job. We had to do everything, and nobody was really watching it because no-one was really interested in Mainz. I had to learn the hard way and that's what I did.

For what I used to do alone, I now have about 20 assistants. Nowadays, I'm really just the manager of a big coaching staff. And I'm able to do that because I know what all my staff are doing, because I used to do it myself!

Take our fitness department, for example. It's on a completely different level. What do I know about it? A little bit. Do I know everything? No, far from it! But I don't need to know everything. I have an understanding and I delegate. That's what good managers do. I learned everything at Mainz, things I will use for the rest of my life.

Jürgen Klopp had a much smaller staff when he started his coaching career at Mainz

You also work in a different country now and you have been nominated for the German Football Ambassador award. How important is that to you?

I think we're all ambassadors. I think it's important that people in football use their positions positively. Not necessarily in a specific ambassadorial role but as something that occurs naturally.

I always wanted to live in a foreign country. For me, the best thing about living in England as a German is to see that we are so similar and so different at the same time. It's unbelievable. We are not the same, but we are much closer and much more similar than maybe you can imagine.

I love it when people from all over the world come together. I don't like thinking in terms of barriers and that is what I love most about EU – that we can travel wherever we want. I know that it's not always easy or 100 percent perfect but I still love the idea.

Jürgen Klopp, 51, has been the manager of English Premier League club Liverpool since taking over from the sacked Brendan Rodgers in October 2015. He is still looking for his first title with the club after Liverpool finished runners-up in the League Cup and the Europa Cup in 2015-16 and runners-up in last year's Champions League. In his previous post, at Borussia Dortmund, Klopp won the Bundesliga twice, including the double of league and German Cup in 2011-12. He got into coaching at Mainz, where he finished his playing career. In his first coaching job he led Mainz to promotion to the Bundesliga in 2003-04.Jürgen Klopp has been nominated in the coaches category for the 2019 German Football Ambassador award, which is to be presented by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at a ceremony in Berlin on May 15.

*[Liverpool beat Huddersfield 5-0 on Friday. The interview was conducted before that match was played.]

Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' 'In Klopp we trust' After just four years at the club, it seems difficult to imagine a Liverpool without Jürgen Klopp. Having led the club to Champions League glory, Klopp is still looking for his first Premier League title, and based on their flying start to the season, this could be Liverpool's year. For their manager, it's been a long road that started... Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Playing career ... as a player in Germany's second division. Jürgen Klopp played professional football for 15 years, spending 11 of them in Mainz. He started out as an attacker but ended his career as a defender. He retired midway through the 2001-02 season to fill the coaching vacancy at Mainz after the club sacked head coach Eckhard Krautzun. As a player, he never made it to the Bundesliga. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Making Mainz During Klopp's playing career, Mainz frequently fought against relegation to the German third tier. That changed when he took the helm at the club. In Klopp's third season, Mainz earned promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time in club history. Klopp enjoyed three seasons in the top flight before Mainz were relegated again in 2007. He left the club a year later to join Borussia Dortmund. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Big step up to BVB Klopp's appointment was part of a broader strategy change at Borussia Dortmund: to make football stars instead of buying them. He committed to 20-year-olds Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic as his center back pair — the youngest in the Bundesliga. Dortmund finished in sixth place and fifth place in his first two seasons at the club. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Trophy run From 2010 to 2012, Klopp lead Dortmund to their most successful two-year stretch in club history. They won their first Bundesliga title in nearly a decade in 2010-11. Klopp backed that accomplishment up by leading BVB to their first ever domestic double the following season. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Fan favorite It didn't take long for Dortmund fans to fall in love with Klopp. His press conferences became a weekly spectacle and his energy on the touchline became contagious. On the pitch, he implemented an active, high-pressing system that brought BVB, a club that was only a few years removed from near insolvency, back to the pinnacle of German football. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' European precipice Klopp did not secure domestic silverware after that two-year run, but he did lead Dortmund to the Champions League final in 2013 — their first final since their 1997 title. His side ultimately came up short against Bayern Munich, losing 2-1 late on to hand their German rivals a piece of their treble that year. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Bitter end Klopp's last season with Dortmund in 2014-15 was far worse than any other. His side was second bottom at the winter break, though Klopp wound up leading them to a seventh placed finish. He did manage to get BVB to the German Cup final before losing to Wolfsburg. Dortmund and Klopp decided to part ways after the season, ending his seven-year stint with the team. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' 'The Normal One' It didn't take long for Klopp to land back on his feet. Liverpool appointed the German coach in October of 2015, less than five months after he parted ways with Dortmund. In his first press conference, Klopp dubbed himself "The Normal One" — after being asked how he fitted in compared to the likes of Jose Mourinho, who notoriously once called himself "a special one." Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Roaring Reds Liverpool fans took to Klopp's highly animated coaching approach, but it didn't initally lead to success. The Reds finished eighth in the Premier League in his first season, though he did lead them to the Europa League final before losing to Sevilla. But he guided Liverpool to the Champions League with a fourth-place finish the following season before their third place finish this past season. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Adored once again Much like he was in Dortmund, Klopp has become a club favorite at Liverpool. His passionate personality and the attractive attacking football enabled by players like Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have proved a real hit in the stands. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Opportunity missed In 2017-18, Klopp guided Liverpool to the brink of the biggest title in European club football. However, an injury to Mo Salah and two blunders by German goalkeeper Loris Karius put paid to Liverpool's hopes of winning the 2018 Champions League. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' Opportunity taken One year later it all came good for Jürgen Klopp. At the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid Liverpool won the 2019 Champions League, beating another Premier League outfit, Tottenham Hotspur, 2-0 in the final. This was his first trophy with Liverpool and his first Champions League title. Jürgen Klopp: From the German second division to FIFA's 'Best' The Best On the strength of having guided Liverpool to the 2019 Champions League title - and a second-place finish in the Premier League, Jürgen Klopp won the 2019 FIFA "Best" award in the coaching category, beating out Manchester City's Pep Guardiola and Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino.

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