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José Enrique has opened up to the invisible management skills of men that he believes make Jurgen Klopp the best in the world in Liverpool.
Enrique was part of the Reds squad when Klopp took over five years ago and witnessed firsthand the impact he had on the club during his training days.
The Spanish left-back was forced to retire in 2017 due to a knee injury sustained during his time at Anfield, and the issue hampered his ability to prove his fitness to Klopp in the long run.
Despite making only three appearances for Liverpool during Klopp’s tenure, the 34-year-old had seen enough to be left with little doubt about the quality of the Liverpool manager.
And Enrique believes it is the male management techniques used in Merseyside that differentiate the German from his competitors on the sidelines.
In an exclusive Blood Red podcast, Enrique said: “People outside the club say ‘oh, he’s the best coach in the world’ but when you’re training with him, you realize why he’s the best coach in the world.
“The intensity, how many hours and how much work it puts in. And Brendan (Rodgers) did too and Kenny (Dalglish), all the coaches I had in Liverpool to be honest.
“Obviously Klopp made it more specific and something that, for me, changed the most was the trips with the national team (European matches).
“He took all the families instead of just the players and now other coaches do that. Pep Guardiola does it, Mikel Arteta does it and they didn’t do it before. They do it now.”
“People just see Liverpool as the starting eleven or the 18 players on the team, plus the coach and there are a lot of people behind the club, working to help the players play that way.
“And it also depends on the families. If things don’t go well at home, you can see it in the field.”
“Klopp wanted to make sure the players’ families were happy in Liverpool, so what he did was try to bring them together between the women and the children, so they are happier and the players can focus on football.”
“So you think about it now and you think it’s normal, but no one has done it before [Klopp].
“It seems silly but in the end it is true. We are players and I am not now, but I used to be, and we are normal people and you have your life after football.
“You are training until the middle of the day and then the rest of the day, you have your family, or you are single and you have your friends, or you are alone, and it is so important that you feel loved and you feel like you have people around you. It’s very important “.
Klopp sat his players inside the Melwood media room during one of his first days in charge and introduced them to all the other staff members working there at the time.
Enrique points to the incident as a great unifier among everyone associated with the club, saying it was instrumental in harnessing the spirit that now exists at Anfield.
“What Klopp did was try to make the Liverpool players really happy and that’s what gives the club its identity now,” Enrique says.
“So when he did that in the press room, he showed all the players how important it is that there are so many people working behind the players that they never mention.
“The people in the kitchen, physios, offices and they are incredible, you ask Pepe Reina, Luis Suárez and they have played in some big teams, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and they have never seen people in the club who work as well as they “do in Liverpool.
“That is why it is very important that you give that importance to those people, because without them, I tell you, Liverpool would not be performing as they are on the field, 100%.”
Enrique, who joined the club from Newcastle United in 2011, also feels that Klopp’s ability to get that rhythm of work from his three forwards is a determining factor in his reputation on the world stage.
“For me it is as you say, it is fantastic in what it does”, added Enrique.
“The hardest thing for me is, look, you can make a winger run, you can make a midfielder run, but how can you make those three at the top run both defensively and offensively?
“That’s the difficult thing because normally your stars, you can see Cristiano (Ronaldo) and (Lionel) Messi, they are in another league and they are the best.
“But you can see the stars, yes, you can give them the ball and they make a difference, but defensively, they don’t give you what you want, but you have to accept it. They are the best players and it is what it is.
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“But these three (Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino), are the best three forwards in the world or one of the best three forwards and they work as much as the full-backs or the midfielders and that’s the difficult thing.” .
And that’s what Klopp is doing. If it is not Mane, Firmino or Salah, it is Diogo Jota or Takumi Minamino.
“Minamino, since he signed, you can see how much work he puts in. The player needs to have the [right] attitude, but you also need a boss to tell you what to do and Klopp has brought that to the team.
“Liverpool, as a family, not just as a club, the fans all feel together as one you know? That’s why Klopp is different for me than everyone else in the world.”
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