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Having a personable and contagious personality is all well and good, but for Liverpool, a club that has been starving for domestic success for three decades, winning is important too.
Last season, Klopp led Liverpool to their first top-flight English title since 1990 and his success in the red half of Merseyside, which also includes a Champions League title, has ensured that his name is embedded forever in the game. folklore of the city and the club.
“He has a special personality,” Carragher tells CNN’s Richard Quest, reflecting on Klopp’s impact on Liverpool since he was appointed coach in 2015.
“If you go back to Liverpool coaches, you go back to Bill Shankly. He was a great football coach, there are other great football coaches, but he had something special about his personality that the Liverpool people just got hold of him.” . said Carragher of the Scotsman, who managed Liverpool between 1959 and 1974.
“[Klopp’s] Words came out fine for me, going back to, like I said, the 60s with Shankly and there is something special. I think when we look back at his time, he will be on that pedestal with those other coaches and it is not just his ability to understand the game.
“That’s his nickname right now in town,” Carragher added. “He has thought so and I think it will be a sad day when he leaves.”
Carragher says it would be impossible to suppress exactly what it is that makes Klopp so successful.
“It would cost a few pounds, let’s put it that way,” he laughs.
A city ‘born for football’
Liverpool is a city steeped in football history. It’s two teams, Liverpool and Everton, who enjoy one of the oldest rivalries in English football, with their stadiums less than a mile apart, separated only by Stanley Park.
Despite both enjoying great success in the 1960s, each winning multiple national titles, Liverpool became a dominant force in the decades that followed, although Everton also enjoyed a purple patch in the 1980s.
Carragher, himself an Everton fan growing up, before defecting to the city’s red side when he joined the Liverpool academy in 1988, believes the two clubs are the heart of the city.
“It almost seems like the city was born for soccer in some way,” he says. “I think it’s the most important thing that the city is probably known around the world for along with the Beatles, but I think the football clubs keep the city going.
“In terms of interest, in terms of funding coming into the city, you know, you have Liverpool and also Everton.”
According to a report on the 2017-18 season from Deloitte, Liverpool alone generated $ 583 million of economic value for the city.
“Certainly on European nights, people come from all over to see Liverpool on a European night, filling hotels and restaurants, taxis to and from the ground,” Carragher said. “So this is very important for Liverpool’s financial situation.
“It is not in a prosperous area, it is not in the south, it is not the largest city, but what comes out of this city is quite special and that comes from the people, that’s all, and the passion for football.”
‘A brilliant journey’
Carragher retired from soccer in 2013 after making more than 700 appearances for Liverpool. While he enjoyed success in the cup, most notably by winning the Champions League in 2005, the only title that escaped him was the Premier League.
Some of those 17 years he spent in Liverpool’s first team were particularly turbulent, finishing as low as eighth in 2012, and by Carragher’s own admission, the teams he played for were “never good enough” to win the league. .
“That was not a big secret,” he says.
Certainly some of the players who walked through Anfield’s door in those 30 years between titles were well below the high standards the club had set for itself and its fans in previous decades.
All of that changed when Klopp arrived in 2015, with the team rising from eighth place after his first season in charge to become English champions in the space of five years.
“Listen, I wish I was playing [and] I was involved in this team, without a doubt, “says Carragher.
“The enjoyment is unbeatable when you are playing, but when you are playing there are many ups and downs at different times and you are not just thinking about the team. Sometimes you think about yourself, taking care of your own position, how you are playing as well.
“I think when you are left behind as a fan, you just think about the team, the club and with so much success, doing so well right now, it’s been a brilliant journey for everyone to enjoy … let’s say half the city, because the other half are probably not very happy with that situation. “
The culmination of Klopp’s five years in charge came when Liverpool finally lifted the Premier League trophy at the end of last season, although it was certainly not like anyone would have dreamed of in the past 30 years.
The coronavirus pandemic forced a temporary suspension of last season’s campaign, before the remaining matches concluded in empty stadiums across the country.
Despite the somewhat bittersweet moment of triumph, Carragher says the celebrations for the title win only dimmed slightly.
“It was special … I mean, obviously the situation with a Covid-19 was difficult because the fans couldn’t be in the stadium to really hug it, enjoy it,” he says.
“But certainly there was a lot of enjoyment, a lot of alcohol consumed, because it had been such a long wait, but I think the feeling that a title is not enough for this team.
“This is a really special team that Liverpool have now, a special and iconic coach in Jurgen Klopp and I think we all believe there is more to come.”
Doing double
Back-to-back Premier League wins over Chelsea and Arsenal, two teams on the rise and expected to challenge the top four at the end of the season, have set an early score to show that the reigning champion is fully prepared to retain his crown. .
Although they sometimes used their luck in Monday’s 3-1 win against Arsenal, after Alexandre Lacazette squandered a glorious late chance to equalize, Liverpool was utterly dominant for the vast majority of the game and re-emphasized how much better than him. chasing group that still is. .
Along with Leicester City, Liverpool and Everton are the only teams with a perfect record after three games so far this season.
Liverpool finished last season 17 points ahead of their closest rival, Manchester City, and despite the fact that several teams are strongly strengthened in the transfer market, Carragher believes that Klopp’s team is still “the best league team. “
“I don’t see that changing this season … and for long as this reign of Jurgen Klopp and his team continues,” said Carragher, who spoke to CNN ahead of Liverpool’s win over Arsenal.
The next step for this team, says Carragher, is to win the league title and the Champions League in the same season.
Only one team in Premier League history has accomplished the feat, Liverpool’s staunch rival Manchester United, during the historic treble season in 1999.
However, Carragher is confident that Klopp’s team is good enough to do just that.
“You need a special team,” he says. “It doesn’t happen very often, but Liverpool were very close. When they won the Champions League, they only lost the league by one point. That was a couple of years ago, so that team has shown they can do it sooner and I wouldn’t be surprised do it again.
“There are three or four teams – the best teams in Europe and Liverpool is one of them – and sometimes you need to flip a coin and whether it falls your way or not, but Liverpool can certainly win the Premier League and certainly the Champions League in the same season. “
