Jurgen Klopp reveals the one thing he misses since leaving Liverpool in 2024
Jurgen Klopp has opened up about the one thing he misses the most since leaving Liverpool almost 18 months ago.
The German stepped down as the Reds’ manager at the end of the 2023/24 season after nearly a decade in charge, guiding the club to sustained success throughout his time at Anfield and laying the foundations for Arne Slot to come in and oversee a Premier League title triumph at the first attempt.
The 58-year-old hasn’t abandoned football entirely, taking on the role as Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull at the start of this year (much to the anger of many in his homeland) as he remains involved in the sport in a rather different capacity to the one in which he became a globally recognised figure.
Klopp speaks about missing the interaction with players
In an extensive interview with Steven Bartlett for The Diary Of A CEO, Klopp stated that he doesn’t miss a whole lot about stepping away from management, apart from the interaction with the players with whom he worked at Liverpool.
The former Reds boss said: “I miss people. I don’t miss the dressing room as a dressing room, but sitting there in the restaurant with the players and having a nice chat, it’s nice. It was always nice when they were in a good mood. We won a lot of games so there was often a very good mood in the building.
“Standing there, hearing them laugh – I still have Virgil’s laugh in my ear, for example. This part of the job [I miss].”
Klopp formed incredibly strong emotional ties at Liverpool
The emotional ties that Klopp formed with his players (and indeed fans) was one of his biggest strengths as a manager, with his charisma and personality inspiring people to jump through proverbial brick walls for him.
Having been at Liverpool for almost nine years and created so many special memories in that time, with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Mo Salah and Andy Robertson being with him for the majority of that journey, it’s natural that he’s found it hard to step away from interacting with them on an everyday basis.
His comments about the prevailing good mood because of how often the Reds won will seem particularly sore for supporters to take amid our current struggles, with Slot experiencing the first prolonged slump of his time at Anfield after four successive defeats over the past month.
The incumbent head coach can take heart, though, from his predecessor also encountering tough times but navigating those choppy waters to lead LFC to silverware. It’s easy to forget that Klopp suffered through horrific runs of form in his first couple of years with us, and in his penultimate season in 2022/23.
The German said in the same interview that he’d be open to a return to the dugout at Liverpool if the opportunity were to arise in the future, and he’d obviously be welcomed back with open arms if that were ever to happen.
For now, though, Slot deserves our backing to turn things around and lead the Reds out of their current woes. There might be plenty of problems for the Dutchman to solve, but four defeats in a row doesn’t alter the fact that he’s an excellent coach.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Manchester United press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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