There are words used in football discourse to make an idea snap, crackle, pop. Buzz. Few clubs are as grand, as historic, as Liverpool Football Club; it therefore stands to reason it is the recipient of such language on a more regular basis, especially given the events which have unfolded, and exploded, at Anfield since the arrival of Jurgen Klopp.
The German was the club's most important signing under the ownership of Fenway Sports Group. Luis Suarez scored goals with belligerent glee; Philippe Coutinho would provide the perfect example of what the tandem of a top scouting network and hardline negotiation could achieve; Jordan Henderson would eventually lift the European Cup, as captain, after seven years of lamentable doubt over his abilities.
Klopp represented more. Klopp represented all. The on-field quality, the off-field strategy, and the belief which now circulates around the club, an electrical bolt sourced through Baden-Württemberg. In truth, it was an energy which existed from the day of his unveiling, as he sparked a smile sitting alongside then-CEO Ian Ayre and chairman Tom Werner.
And so followed the buzzwords about what would follow during his time on Merseyside; projects, visions, dynasties. The former Borussia Dortmund coach was not just here to win football matches and trophies; he would provide something far more everlasting; blueprints, grand designs, a place in history. The final question he was asked in Anfield's media room – now, much like Liverpool, much-changed since that first meeting – surrounded that history, and how Klopp envisioned himself fitting into it.
“I don't compare myself with these geniuses within the history of Liverpool,” he replied. “It's cool that you are looking forward to the work for the next few months and years. None of these managers said they wanted to be a legend when they arrived. This is a great club because of many good decisions in the past.”
He had spent part of his sabbatical, taken the four months previous, playing tennis; he was adept at returning big serves. Yet, the language around the revolution he was expected to lead prevailed, whether Klopp wanted to play ball or not. He had joined a club which had finished sixth the season before, humbled 6-1 by Stoke City in a final humiliation. Indeed, this was a club who had finished inside the top four once in the last six years, the 2013/14 campaign proving the diamond among the dredge. Issues were also more immediate, with Klopp's first day seeing his new side in tenth, with one win in their previous nine games.
Nearly four years on, something bigger and grander is at the forefront of the mind. Liverpool are champions of Europe, and posted the third best-ever Premier League campaign with 97 points, denied only by fine margins and generational coach Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City riches. Klopp's place in history is assured, their victory in Madrid already woven into the tapestry. The project has moved on to another phase, the vision has ultimately been implemented; those blueprints and designs have been fulfilled.
Now, it is about the biggest buzzword of all. Legacy.
It is a word used so often around successful clubs and managers, thrown around as a catch-all. The most scientific method of modern journalism, Google, reveals as much. A quick scan of the word alongside Klopp's name reveals opinion pieces over the past few years discussing what it will be; it offers snippets of discussions from former players and pundits, who insist Klopp has created or is creating one; it debates how, and when, Klopp will leave his at Anfield.
But what is a legacy, actually? To think of the word is to think of trophies, statues, nights where the improbable probably happens. Several Liverpool managers have a legacy, from Bill Shankly, rousing the sleeping giant and making them a phenomenon, to Rafael Benitez, who masterminded their greatest ever triumph in Europe. That is to say nothing of Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish and Gerard Houllier, all of whom have their own legacies to enjoy.
Some of these legacies are marked, or have been marked, around Anfield. The statue of Shankly outside the Kop, and the Paisley Gates nearby, have been bolted into the stadium's structure for 20 years or more; more recently, Dalglish, now knight of the realm, has been gifted the honour of the Centenary Stand being renamed in his honour. In a more transient remembrance, supporters marched up and down the streets of Anfield with a giant portrait of Benitez – known as the 'Rafatollah' in support, and his name is still sung with fervour.
That's a legacy. Their legacy. Just like how Klopp's, as things stand, is bringing the European Cup back to Liverpool for the first time in 14 years, and doing so with utmost joy. Yet, legacy – or perhaps, to differentiate, Legacy with a capital 'L' – is something longer-lasting, something almost intangible. Legacy – big 'L' – is deeper, wider-reaching, somehow more important. Trinkets and accolades are hard enough, but to build something sustainable is almost impossible in the modern game.
Shankly is perhaps the manager whose Legacy lives strongest, not just in Liverpool but perhaps the whole of British football. Away from the trophy cabinet, reflective and swelling, and away from the foundations he laid for the success to follow, his ethos and politics helped shape the club Liverpool would become. There has been an attempt to maintain his socialist beliefs, which mirrored those of a number who supported Liverpool, in the contemporary thinking and promotion of the club.
That hasn't always been easy. The world is far less simple and the football world has changed, both on and off the pitch. Liverpool have evolved and devolved; there have been revolutions, Rafalutions, and both failed and successful efforts to modernise the club.
While Shankly lives on, the style of football does not. Think to the successes of Houllier and Benitez, and how both styles of football would now feel dated, archaic and unlikely to offer enough to challenge for top honours. Even Klopp's tactics have changed over time – from Mainz to Borussia Dortmund to Liverpool, and even during his three-and-a-half years at Anfield – in order to adapt, survive and prosper.
Liverpool may be playing some of the most salivating football across the continent, the sort which makes players want to play for the club and young fans support them, but will this be as successful in five years time? With Klopp's contract expiring in 2022, what if he decides to leave, and his successor wants to implement possession-based football instead?
Trying to find clubs and managers with Legacy which stands the test of time is difficult. Shankly off the field, perhaps; abroad, both Ajax and Barcelona established their style of play and ideology, but even that has eroded slightly in recent times. Even Manchester United is now unrecognisable to the club which, under Alex Ferguson, won 27 major trophies in 27 years; the success has evaporated, along with the winning mentality, penchant for late goals and relentless attacking football which struck fear into opposition both home and abroad. It took 27 years to build, and fewer than 27 months to dismantle. Even their Carrington training ground, once considered state-of-the-art, is no longer a leading light.
So, what would Legacy for Klopp and Liverpool look like, if it is even possible to have one? Consider the changes football has undergone over the past 20 years – 4-4-2 was the weapon of choice in 1999, and false 9s simply didn't exist – and it is difficult to imagine Klopp's football still being offered up at Liverpool in 2039. The German, however, is infectious; there is a feeling around him which can transcend being a mere acclaimed football manager. His personality, it could be argued, is more reminiscent of Shankly than any other Liverpool manager since; that his likeness adorns the walls of the city's Baltic Triangle, an area of the City Centre where idols are regularly painted on brick, suggests as much.
His football is passionate, and that emotion is now replicated in the stands. If Shankly made the people happy, then Klopp makes the people dance, both in delight and disbelief of how he has helped restore the club to among the world's best. Because of that, he has a legacy; if he continues to win trophies, a statue would be the perfect representation of all he has achieved.
But he could achieve something which others have struggled to maintain – something which lives on, lives forever, in the fabric of the club. It wouldn't be simple, and it is far more unlikely than likely, given this is a club of such relevance and history; but this is what Klopp's legacy, and Legacy, could look like at Anfield, both on and off the field.
Klopp's cultural Legacy
I remember:
- West Bromwich Albion at home. A late Divock Origi goal to make it 2-2. Liverpool lined up by their manager in front of The Kop. The appreciation ringing out. Judgement to follow.
- Everton at home. A late Divock Origi goal to make it 1-0. The carnage and incredulity. The manager on the pitch in the arms of his goalkeeper.
- Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid. A late Divock Origi goal to make it 2-0. The players lined up in front of us. Tears everywhere you looked. The manager holding everyone at least once, crying in the arms of his captain.
If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.
Bill Shankly.
2015/16 is a different country. But I remember:
- The worst tackle in the game against West Bromwich Albion happened right in front of us and there was absolute uproar you know. We were mad as hell. And we weren't going to take it no more. The delight in equalising was everywhere.
- We walked out against Sunderland.
- Dejan Lovren at the back post for all eternity. Hanging there just waiting to do the decent thing.
The cultural legacy of Jurgen Klopp was there against West Bromwich Albion. And it was hated the next day. Hated by long in the tooth Reds who hadn't been privy in close quarters to a collective mentality falling off a cliff since the Chelsea/Crystal Palace end to 13/14. We were walking out at the slightest adversity. Heads had been kettled on and off the pitch. Jurgen appealed to the collective and to the individual. He cast himself as lonely, placed himself at the centre of our disaffection and he dared us to keep letting him down.
When Tony Pulis' West Bromwich Albion tried to kick his boys off the pitch, as Jurgen was tactically shocked by the concrete Pulisian reality, Liverpool stood up and decided enough was enough and Divock Origi denied Pulis the points. Klopp sent his lads to The Kop at the end of the game not to take their acclaim but to cement a pact, to create a covenant. These matches last 90 minutes plus. We'll give you that if you give us that. Vice versa, vice versa. We only have each other. There is nothing else.
It was Liverpool's rainbow after the flood.
Jurgen didn't know it but he was only months away from his first exposure to Anfield's sheer power - Borussia Dortmund at Anfield. Post match he was honest enough to say that he had accepted the away goals defeat, honest enough to say that he was proud of his players but they had just fallen short but Anfield defied all logic that night. The winning goal was Anfield's. The Kop had blown the Yellow Wall away - simplistic perhaps but possibly true. It mattered that Liverpool had insisted in a way that few football clubs can. That night the covenant was sealed in a way that has subsequently informed so much of what Liverpool do well. You want everything? You want us at our best? Then don't take the piss. And just weeks previously the piss had been taken and Liverpool supporters, those same supporters who would get the ball over the line against Dortmund had en masse walked out of the ground on the 77th minute when Liverpool played Sunderland.
Now we gloss over the ticket walkout. Now we are the other side of what was quite a scarring moment for the club and intriguingly the last time it is easy to look at the hierarchy and feel they got something very badly wrong in almost any sphere of the business or football operation on a grand scale. Klopp came through it unscathed, he never took a side which suggested he had very much taken that of the supporters, but then we would say that. It is worth saying that since then, since Dortmund as well, the club hasn't looked back and that doesn't feel accidental. They can do *this*. They can do *that* as well. Let's have more of the good one and less of the bad one.
Since Sunderland, since Dortmund, Liverpool has been explicitly about collective wins in a way it hasn't been for decades, possibly ever in fact. Sunderland and Dortmund feel now like a fork in the road and Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool chose right.
Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor.
Bill Shankly
Advent at Anfield. I remember:
- They threw a flare, the Evertonians. To celebrate a 0-0 they threw a flare deep into injury time. Because Liverpool were aiming for Man City, for the sky. Because a point at Anfield is worthy of a flare. Because someone had one and they hadn't had chance to use it. The flare hit the ceiling. The flare hit the floor.
- Virgil van Dijk shanking it into the sky and in the eternity it took to come down entire civilisations rose and fell. Political careers stalled. The karaoke at Cooper's stopped. It got interesting. Very interesting.
- It was bedlam. Divock Origi nods it home and it was bedlam. You forget until you try and remember the sheer physicality of the moment. The shaking and shuddering. Your body convulsing between sheer joy and astonished laughter and pleasure unbound.
Klopp ran on the pitch and it managed to upset almost everyone who didn't support Liverpool. It was plain weird that it upset people in that last minute winners are incredible but last minute winners in Derbies are just another level. There was no malice in Klopp's celebration, no malice in his whole campaign. He was just a football manager trying to have the best season of his life and Divock Origi had just offered a continuing pathway to that.
Interestingly he ran to his goalkeeper. Not the scorer, not even the man who delivered the cross, but to his goalkeeper. In that moment he saw the keeper and realised he gained the side 15 yards, he loved his cleverness, his brain. He may well have just seen him but days later after he makes the save that kept Liverpool in the Champions League against Napoli he eulogised about Alisson Becker's brain again.
Jurgen Klopp loves footballers. He thinks they are ace and that spreads around. All football managers create weather at football clubs but Liverpool is different, more extreme. Jurgen Klopp is different. More extreme.
Before the Cardiff City away game towards the end of the season he spoke so warmly about Cardiff, about their efforts. He boils the game down to its essence which is 22 young men broadly between the ages of 19 and 33 will all do their best and one will win. Prior to the Cardiff game he knew Liverpool should win but that it isn't always that easy and he had lived Cardiff's reality when with Mainz.
Repeatedly Klopp referred to his own side though the 18/19 season as a group of footballers just "trying to play the season of their lives". Nothing more complicated, nothing harder than being the best version of the yourself at the thing you excel at. It was the opposite of mind games. It is a remarkably straightforward notion. Be the best version of yourself. A remarkably tough task.
Origi scored on the first Sunday of Advent. On Christmas Day, Trent Alexander Arnold was part of serving Christmas dinner to disadvantaged families. Over the festive period Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana held a party and danced with disabled children. There are almost endless stories of this Liverpool side being generous with their money and more importantly their time. Klopp didn't make any of them do any of that but he did create the circumstances wherein it was easier for those players to show it. How? Because he loves footballers. He thinks they are ace. And when someone thinks you are ace and encourages that aceness, when someone creates room for the best side of your personality to shine, suddenly you glisten and gleam like diamonds.
And someone wants to help you play the best season of your life. Someone wants to make you who you ought to be. Someone creates the weather.
Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That's the reward.
Bill Shankly
The greatest night. I remember:
- Sadio Mane dropping to his knees and screaming when Mo Salah scores the penalty to make it 1-0.
- Shape. Have you ever seen so much shape from a Liverpool team in a final? All second half Liverpool were where they needed to be. They were the most serious young men imaginable. And then the final whistle went and they were the most joyous.
- Wishing you were there. Wishing we were all there so much. And then when I saw you and when I spoke to you I cried because it was all we had left to do.
There's a Shankly quote for every occasion. He's a pain in the neck like that, Bill. You name it and you can find something in the Shankly Torah that supports it but the above, well, the above about pressure is probably his best quote. Much more so than second being nothing or us being assured football is a matter much more serious than life or death. He's right. Just right.
Until he's wrong. And even in this instance, being Liverpool offers a pressure which is there even in the European Cup, even in finals. Especially in a second successive European Cup Final, especially when you have just played the greatest season of your life, perhaps the greatest season of any Liverpool team and there is a fighting chance you end up with nothing to show for it. The past has won 18 leagues and 5 European Cups. How do you compete with that level of scoreboard pressure?
The removal of that pressure is the best explanation for the outpouring of emotion from the moment Divock Origi smashes the ball home. Virgil van Dijk collapses for god's sake. Everyone cried, everyone partied. Everyone cut loose. Everyone got to be who they ought to be.
Klopp has spoken repeatedly about removing fear; he has offered it in many contexts including the political. That day in Madrid was the end of fear. Liverpool looked below the tightrope and strolled confidently to the other side. In reaching the other side we were left in great convulsing sobs.
It's fascinating to see where this man who has no fear of the future, who has only affection and kindness and joy in his job will lead us next. When they stand in front of us in Madrid as mentality monsters, as our footballers, as a set of young men who have played the best season of their lives they shed the fear. They weren't the only ones. Whatever happens next we welcome it.
Klopp has given us the gift of adoring footballers. They're the Kings Of Europe.
What a great day for football, all we need is some green grass and a ball.
Bill Shankly.
Yes. Is right, Bill. I can't wait to watch them again. I can't wait to watch Klopp's team again. Neil Atkinson, host of the Anfield Wrap - download their free app on IOS and Android.
Klopp's tactical Legacy
On Thursday, October 8, 2015, Liverpool Football Club appointed Jurgen Klopp as Brendan Rodgers' successor, after the Northern Irishman's three-year spell in charge of the club came to an end, following a fairly stale Merseyside derby.
The Reds started with a back three formation on the day, with Emre Can as a centre-back, Lucas Leiva forming part of a midfield trio with Phillipe Coutinho and James Milner, and Daniel Sturridge working alongside Danny Ings up front. Both sides scored once, had the same number of shots on target (4), and the passing figures had Roberto Martinez's team at 366 attempted, compared to Liverpool's 365.
Ultimately, the team lacked an identity.
Rodgers had initially endorsed his belief in possession-based football when securing the role at Anfield in 2012, stating his admiration for sides that control and dominate with slow possession play. Gradually, though, influenced by the profiles he had at his disposal, Liverpool's approach seemed to morph into a more aggressive, speedy, counter-attacking style, with the likes of Sturridge, Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling playing huge roles.
Throughout Rodgers' time at the club, Liverpool looked somewhat misplaced and torn between styles, with that eventually being encapsulated by the additions of Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino during the same summer window. The case was vaguely similar under Roy Hodgson during his short tenure, whereas Kenny Dalglish's vision seemed inspired by teams of the past, with the likes of Stewart Downing acquired to feed a physical targetman (Andy Carroll) and his mobile partner (Suarez).
During the 2000s, under the management of Rafael Benitez and Gerard Houllier, the team's playing style was identifiable, but there was an underlying issue. The football, although it was relatively successful for the most part, failed to truly represent the city and the club's supporters appropriately, largely because of its cautious, robotic nature.
There is a special emotion in Liverpool that is different to elsewhere, certainly from the perceptions of those that have experienced the uniqueness of the club and its surrounding areas first-hand. The most notable players that have emanated from the city epitomise many of the rudimentary aspects of the culture, with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Ross Barkley, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Conor Coady and even Trent Alexander-Arnold, showcasing similar mentalities in terms of determination, combativeness, tenacity and solidarity.
These players have essentially been a product of their environment, shaped and built largely by the passion, spirit and unity of their surroundings.
The problem, however, has been that Liverpool as a football team have failed to embody the original characteristics of the city in which they play. The Reds have mostly refrained from dedicating the key concepts of their game to their environment, largely because of the favoured playing styles held by the bosses that have took the reins of the Merseyside club in years gone by.
Presently, though, the story is very different.
In his very first press conference as Liverpool manager, Klopp was asked about his style of play in relation to what supporters of the club can expect to see moving forward. 'Umschaltspiel' was the word referenced by the German, which roughly translates in English to 'transition game'.
There are many complexities to such an approach to football, but in essence, his quote was a direct association with coming alive when the ball is loose. Commonly, when one team secures possession, the other retreats into a defensive shape, but Klopp has had great success throughout his managerial career by going against the grain in that regard.
If the ball is lost, then it's chased so that it can be regained, and then rather than simply recirculating possession, he encourages his teams to use that moment of disorganisation to create an immediate scoring chance. His approach was essentially a modern and more proactive take on counter-attacking.
"We will start to play very emotional football", the 52 year-old said, "because it's important at Anfield as you cannot have the best atmosphere in the world if you play [slow]. It doesn't work together. All the world is talking about ball possession football."
Already, without taking charge of a single match, Klopp appeared to understand the need to instil an identity on the pitch that represented the city and its people aptly, grasping that such alignment can directly influence the levels of support in the stadium and beyond.
His debut saw Liverpool face Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, and Klopp's side effectively did nothing but run. The intricacies of pressing hadn't yet been established, and the team simply pressurised the ball at every opportunity, without proper organisation. Once possession had been secured by the Reds, the erratic, energetic theme crossed over from the excessive closing down that was being undertaken, and Liverpool consistently gave the ball away.
There was a clear lack of quality in terms of application, but the endeavour and aggression of Klopp's preferred game was evident nonetheless.
Gradually, season by season, Liverpool moved closer towards Klopp's tactical utopia, with the shrewd additions of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Gini Wijnaldum and Andy Robertson to name but a few, contributing to the cause significantly.
The talents being recruited personified Klopp's football, as rather than being ready-made stars, they were hungry, assertive, fast and passionate profiles.
With each addition, the desired style of play seemed to become increasingly prominent.
Eventually, Liverpool reached a point whereby anarchy and entertainment was commonplace, with thrilling football often witnessed at both ends of the pitch. The chaotic nature of Klopp's Reds became the kryptonite to Pep Guardiola's controlling and commanding methodology.
Manchester City tried to play as normal versus Liverpool in the 2017/18 campaign, with the belief that everything would go according to plan, as was usually the case for the current Premier League champions. That approach was misinformed, though, as Liverpool managed to upset the order in three of the four meetings that they had with City during the season, scoring a total of nine goals amidst the bedlam.
However, although Klopp had evidently began to succeed in reference to forging an identity, underlying performance issues remained, with the most outstanding being evidenced in one of those meetings with the Manchester club.
Anfield witnessed a 4-3 win over Guardiola's side, but the way in which the three points were secured left vast room for improvement. The home side led 4-1 after 80 minutes of the contest, yet only managed to crawl over the line after the visitors scored twice in the final ten minutes.
A similar happening had transpired two months earlier, with the Reds holding a 3-0 lead over Sevilla at half-time in European competition. Forty five minutes later, the team were lucky to escape with a draw, after a second-half fightback ensued to draw the scores level at 3-3.
Klopp's Liverpool were adequately capturing the essence of the city on the pitch performance-wise, but without consistent results being sustained.
The team finished second in the Premier League that season based on Expected Goals (xG), which is a highly regarded performance indicator. The issue, though, was that those performances weren't translating into weekly results, and the side actually finished fourth.
Klopp had to source a means of consistency. A more reliable take on his own style of play, that would deliver results over the course of a 38-game season. The chaotic football that had been nurtured by the charismatic German since his arrival on Merseyside, had to become more balanced, whilst retaining the key concepts of the already established identity.
Enter, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Fabinho, the recruits that Klopp required in order to introduce a more governing version of his energetic, emotional football. The three individuals possessed calming traits, demonstrated a level of assurance, and personified coolness.
'Organised chaos', Pep Ljinders referenced, when asked to describe Liverpool's development in 2018/19. The Reds had retained the core principles of their chaotic, intense, unpredictable football, but had progressed onto a new level by integrating an authoritative dimension to their play, with opposing teams simply struggling to cope with the tempo showcased.
Liverpool played 38 Premier League matches and suffered defeat just once, accumulating one of the highest ever points totals that English football had witnessed. In addition, the Champions League trophy was secured, with Lionel Messi supposedly expressing that he and his teammates were exhausted after facing Liverpool in Spain, stating that they couldn't play at that pace again, even despite winning the meeting 3-0.
The beauty of Liverpool's current predicament under Klopp, is that there is still the belief that more can be achieved, and that development can continue. The future is ambiguous, but regardless of the heights that are reached, Klopp's legacy in a tactical regard is centred around the alignment between the unique trademarks of the city, and the stylistic nature of the team on the pitch.
The club, the manager, the supporters and the city are unified in their opinions of how the game should be played, and that is now exhibited when competing, with opposing teams having to overcome much more than 11 men in order to truly defeat Liverpool.
More than ever before, the club has established a tactical image on the pitch that accurately represents the heart, devotion, belief and boldness of its people. Liverpool, from a stylistic perspective, are now truly a product of their environment.
Considering a legacy is widely defined as something of substance that is ingrained and continued from an earlier time, the necessary measures should be addressed in order to ensure that rather than being a prosperous period under Klopp's leadership, this era is instead remembered as the birth of Liverpool's true style of play. Josh Williams, tactics writer.
Perhaps, with the ever-changing, forever-moving nature of modern football, it is impossible. Hierarchies exist far more now, and the concept of allowing one man in the dugout to shape an entire club's direction is almost extinct at the highest level. That can offer hope, that the impact of Klopp will continue to be felt long after his departure, providing Liverpool's hierarchy can identify somebody capable of following in his sizeable footsteps.
The holistic approach brings no guarantees, however. The structure can be solid and the theory airtight, but external factors can make the notion of succession difficult; see Barcelona and how, after three European Cup triumphs in five years, they have now won just one in eight under four different managers, despite the stable ground Guardiola left them standing upon when he departed in 2012.
There is no doubt Klopp has a legacy, both culturally and tactically. Whether that becomes his, and Liverpool's Legacy, will be dictated by what is to follow. It is there right now, and they are notions which can trump time: playing emotional football, and bringing the fans, players and club together as one.
Klopp himself sees legacy – both on the surface, and as something deeper – like this. Speaking after the departure of Lucas Leiva in 2017, he paid tribute to the Brazilian, and talked of the legacy the midfielder left for Lazio with. “He set the standards of what it is to be a Liverpool player and by doing that he gave all of us an example to follow and that will continue after he has gone,” he said.
Examples to follow, examples which will continue long after he is gone. Perhaps, then, it is unfair to expect one man, one manager, to provide something which can last for decades to come; instead, hoping the example he has set will be followed is the best that can be hoped for.
Klopp has a trophy and, if Liverpool continues on this trajectory, more to come; he is inked upon the skin of fanatical fans, has been the inspiration when naming dogs and cats across the country, and his smile is a surefire winner for likes, swipes and retweets on social media. The day after Madrid, in which an estimated 750,000 people lined the streets to welcome home their heroes, who somehow towered over the Liver Birds themselves, will never be forgotten. It says much about Klopp, and his infectious nature, that a number of highlights atop the double decker bus were of his celebrations.
Never has the imagination of the city been captured as much as the tall German in the baseball cap, grin as wide as the River Mersey, has managed to do. It is a hard act to follow, impossible perhaps, and maybe the Legacy he leaves is that.
It is not about succession or evolution, or taking the baton from him; it is knowing that, whoever is guiding Liverpool, only emotion, honesty and working as a collective both on and off the pitch will do. Klopp showed in his previous three finals with the Reds that there is no such thing as guaranteed success, but refusing to give up delivering that to the people is all that can be expected.
Because of that, he made Liverpool one of the biggest clubs in the world once more – and nothing will ever change that.