22 Jun 2025 05:37:52
I know it’s words for the media but if Wirtz genuinely considers Liverpool are one of the top 3 clubs in the world then what a job Klopp did in re-establishing us as a go to destination for the world’s best players after being also rans for the best part of 25 years. We must not drop our standards like we did when Souness decided he knew better than the previous 25 years in which we mostly came either first on second in the league.
22 Jun 2025 06:58:55
At the present moment in time it's hard to argue against us being in the top 3 clubs in the world, any list of such would have us, psg and Barcelona in any order.
22 Jun 2025 07:19:28
Yea only that wirtz did not join us when klopp was here despite us trying for him twice.
None of klopps first choice joined us either (thank heaven and edward and recruitment and scouts that he always had a backup plan), further, No superstar player considered us under Klopp.
Same FSG, same money same Edwards, same management were there
The team won because of slot. Klopp had zero contribution. He had the same team for last year and won nothing. And the same core since 2021 and came second or worse every time.
make no mistake the team won because slot is to the point, crystal clear, and ruthless and not too big in his shoes and stands where it is today because of its management and staff.
Do you even see the light glow up in salah’s eyes when they ask about slot! He fancies this manager and obviously loves the club.
Stop over romanticizing Klopp. He made us relevent - but he sure was the one of the biggest reason we didn't win more And choked out in two CL finals europa final and two premier leagues. You cannot believe the frustration club had with klopp when he kept asking for signings and big players just wouldn't sign because of him being a major factor.
We belittle arsenal for much less and they are in a similar position where the manager has too much power and top players are hesitant to join.
22 Jun 2025 07:28:50
When Klopp left we were 3rd in the Premier League mate and failed to win even the Europa League. We have to let Klopp go and start putting some respect on Slots name. He put us back on top in his first season, and we were probably the second best team in Europe; we just unfortunately got drawn against the best team in Europe in the last 16.
22 Jun 2025 08:08:48
A bit of a tirade there, Akira.
However i would subscribe to much of what you have said.
There is a lot of Klopp-fawning and reverse engineered mythology going on sometimes. He should definitely not have renewed that last time and i say that not in retrospect but what i felt at the time. His (fantastic) job was done after 7 years.
I like the Shankly-Paisley metaphor used elsewhere but it's probably too reductive.
We play Slotball now. No looking back.
22 Jun 2025 08:41:49
Bit scathing that on Klopp must have been difficult for you to follow the club during his reign.
Personally I think Klopp was amazing and Slot was amazing last Season and I can’t wait to see how Slot moves us forward.
We don't have to dim one’s light to make the other ones shine brighter. Both can surely take credit.
{Ed025's Note - some people have very short memories JK..
22 Jun 2025 08:41:54
Mad view that Akira. We should have won more under Klopp I agree but without him we wouldn’t have even challenged. No other manager in world football could have transformed us like he did - Slot included.
Yes we fell off last year but that was Klopp’s first season with this new team. If Klopp was still here his year we wouldn’t have also won the league given City and Arsenal fell off. I wouldn’t call losing the champs league twice and the league by a point bottling it even if we should have won at least one more of each.
22 Jun 2025 08:56:09
Klopp built this club back up, we were languishing and not too dissimilar to where Utd are now. …. slot has taken us to another level, hopefully he can do this over a sustained period of time. They both deserve credit.
{Ed025's Note - they do MOT, Slot has done very well but all the ground work was done by Klopp for me mate, Arne inherited a very good squad and has carried things on and he gets great credit for that, but without Jurgen and the team he built things may have been very different..
22 Jun 2025 09:06:10
Klopp ran out of steam and the mark of his greatness is that he knew it and knew when to step away.
I'm not sure that players didn't want to join because of klopp? His loyalty to players and Edwards not being strong enough to overrule him held us back a bit, sure, but the players loved him for the most part and he harnessed the power of anfield like no other coach I have seen in my lifetime.
I think it is unbelievably harsh and even incredibly unfair to say that he choked two cl finals and two prem titles, when the sides he built during those two prem charges were probably the best Liverpool sides I have ever seen, it's clear that the price he and the players paid on a mental and physical level for maintaining that level of intensity over a prolonged period of time was massive and would come back to haunt us afterwards, because we didn't have the luxury city did of always paying big to build squad depth and save the legs of our heavy hitters.
Ultimately he gave us some of the most incredible memories we could ask for as fans and always emphasized the ethos of the club on and off the pitch, that's all you can ask for as a supporter of a club. To say that he didn't win the biggest prizes more often seems to me to be a very myopic and superficial account of his stature in football folklore. In our pomp teams were terrified of playing us, there was no team on earth that wasn't terrified of facing mo, sadio, bobby, robbo and Trent.
I'm just taking a guess here but I'm pretty sure one of the biggest attractions of Liverpool football club is the romance of the club and the passionate bond between the team and the supporters? I'm pretty sure nobody in recent memory embodied and, in terms of results, exemplified the power of that romance like klopp did. I don't want to deify him or anything but I don't see the point of downplaying his achievements with the club or saying he wasn't that great, when his greatness goes beyond what trophies he managed to win or not win.
22 Jun 2025 09:12:35
Slot has proven to be an unbelievable appointment for us that’s clear.
However, to provide some balance Klopp had to take on a City at it’s peak and missed out on the league by a solitary point twice with eye watering points totals.
Signing the likes of Nunez was clearly a mistake but Klopp had kind of earned the right to make such a mistake given the teams achievements.
Klopp’s teams looked like they’d run out of steam by the end of the season and often peaked early. I thought this was down to playing style.
I was boldly predicting that a Slot team would not do the same due to the more balanced approach. I was arguably wrong.
I do think however that Slot will learn from his ‘mistake’ and rotate more next season.
Klopp clearly took us from underperformers to serial winners/ challengers and left us in a good state when he he did leave.
Gave the club plenty of notice to find a suitable replacement and the club achieved that with flying colours.
Baton passed from one great manager to another ??.
22 Jun 2025 09:10:07
Does anybody really think that at the end of Klopp’s last season we could have been regarded as a top 3 team in the world? At that point we had only 1 Carabao cup in 2 years, we hadn’t won the Premier league for 4 years, hadn’t won the Champions League for 5 years.
Klopp laid the foundations and put our club back on the right track but ultimately we still only won 2 big trophies in 9 years. We should be eternally grateful for him picking us up out the dirt but to say Klopp made us one of the top 3 teams in the world is just a bare faced lie. We were behind Man City, Bayern, PSG, Real Madrid, Inter etc. Slot came in and built on the great work done by Klopp, and now only PSG are ahead of us.
We all love Klopp but this is Slots time now. We can’t keep casting a Klopp shaped shadow over his time at the club. It’s not fair. Wirtz literally name dropped Slot as a reason for signing because he was so impressed by him. It wouldn’t hurt to admit Slot actually put us back on the perch. Klopp definitely gave him a massive leg up but Slot still had plenty of work to do.
{Ed025's Note - im not buying that MK, when Klopp came in you had a house of straw and he built the foundations and supplied the bricks mate, yes Slot put the roof on last season but that also coincided with the demise of Arsenal and City imo..
22 Jun 2025 09:16:25
When klopp took over we where a average europa league team at best and he turned us v quickly into a top 3 team in europe, who played in 3 champions league finals in 5 years, winning 1.
Slot is a magnificent manager who has done way better than I couldve hoped for but he got bits of luck last season to help him, rodri injury was massive in that it took away citys invincibility (bit like vvds for us) and when arsenal had chance to turn screw on us at certain times they didn't do it. Klopp never had that bit of luck going against city threw the years.
I'm not trying to demean slots achievement, as it's magnificent, but a bit of prospective is needed.
{Ed025's Note - i agree Digger..
22 Jun 2025 09:35:48
Ed025, that’s exactly what I said though mate but you’ve used different wording haha. If someone built you a house without a roof, you wouldn’t say they’d made a top 3 house in the world. But if the next guy came along and put a roof on it, you’d say he was the one who finished the job.
I love Klopp and I think he’s comparable to the great man, Shankly. But he didn’t make us a top 3 team in the world either. Paisley did that.
I just want Slot to get fair amount of credit because I’m sick of this “inherited a great team” stuff. He inherited a team 4 years without an PL and 5 years with a CL. He tweaked a few things tactically, got much more out of players like Gravenberch and Diaz, then made it into a great team.
I’m not trying to discredit Klopp, but people have got to stop trying to discredit Slot and laying all the credit at Klopp’s feet.
I don’t think there was any great demise at Arsenal or City. I think the rest of the league got stronger and Slot was the one who found a way to deal with it. Bournemouth came 9th and they’re about to sell 3 players to Liverpool, Real Madrid and PSG as starters. Slot deserves even more credit for winning such an extremely hard season where the team in 17th place won the Europa League.
{Ed025's Note - i think Slot has been praised for the great job he has done MK, and i know Klopp may not have made you top 3 in the world but he started with a team who had not won the league for 30 odd years mate, im a massive Slot fan but it has only been one season and longevity is the great test but the way you have recruited now it will be hard for anyone to dethrone you...but Everton are coming after you so be afraid...be very afraid.. :)
22 Jun 2025 09:40:32
Klopp had zero contribution to last season? We were tenth in the League when he took over and we'd qualified for the CL once in the six seasons before.
And Klopp had the same spine since 2021? We had a new midfield from 2023 and two of his front three had left by then.
Klopp had a massive contribution to us challenging at the top of the table and in European finals. Apart from one season under Rodgers we were nowhere near doing that since the Rafa days.
We might have a few runners up medals from Klopp's time but we were not even regularly qualifying for the CL let alone getting to finals.
22 Jun 2025 10:07:52
Great post MK.
Klopps time was up and he went.
It's Slot time now.
Some of the posters here are not letting go of the hangover and still crediting Klopp for Slot's success.
Klopp was great for LFC when he was here. Could or Should he have win more - yes.
We should give him a rest now.
What were the thoughts around grav this time last season? we were left wondering why we signed him as no one was sure what he is good at.
Now the bar has been set high by Slot. Let us see how he fares this season.
22 Jun 2025 10:11:24
In fairness in all but one season Klopp was up against a 90 plus point City
Last season we were up against a 71 point City.
Klopp won the League and Champions league and you don’t do that with building blocks.
For me Klopp is a legend and Slot is very much on the path to being one.
He could very well become more of a legend.
22 Jun 2025 10:14:54
I’ve heard it all now. The club is where it is because of klopp. Think you’re all a bunch of farts why didn’t you call him out when he was here? Why was we all sick to the stomach when we thought he was about to leave when his dad died? Slot done great last year but the league was nowhere near as competitive as when under klopp. Next season we will see now he performs now they are tinkering with the team . ( hopefully he wins the lot) but Losing 2 champions league finals to the richest club in Europe ( one by cheating, taking mo out) . And finishing 2nd in the prem to a city team financed to the hilt is no mean feat. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
{Ed025's Note - im with you John..
22 Jun 2025 10:28:20
PatrikBurgher - Exactly - Peak Klopp LFC were as good as football team to ever have graced the game.
Klopp built this city on rock and roll, and Slot is one of the many benefactors.
Slot's legacy will be proven (or not) on what happens over the next 5+ years.
22 Jun 2025 11:00:28
Klopp turned us from doubters to believers . we would have won more esp our own league if it wasnt for Citeh having one of the best teams ever to grace the league. we were unlucky in 2 champs league finals. overall Klopp was a fantastic manager . but as the saying goes the King is dead . long live the King. Slot looks like a very astute manager n long may that continue.
22 Jun 2025 11:08:30
Where do you think LFC would be if Klopp had not come to us? I think we would have been around 7th or 8th in league and no Europe.
We needed Klopp more than Klopp needed us but when we paired the two together it was a perfect fit a bit like when Shanks arrived.
Klopp did the job he was asked to win the premier league the rest were a bonus .
I do not believe that elite players never signed for LFC because of Klopp you only have to read what the players and staff thought of him at his previous clubs they loved him.
Jurgen Klopp should be held at the highest level at Liverpool Football club and by its fans. Managers of his caliber only come around once in a generation so be grateful he came to our club and not Manchester United.
22 Jun 2025 12:13:38
Mk, I think you will find that klopp made us almost unanimously the best team in world football the year we won the champions league and lost the league by a point. Nobody in Europe even came close to us, and even if city beat us to the prem it was the first time in my life that the press gave us all the laurels because we were that much more exciting to watch, because of klopp's force of personality and because everybody knew city bought their way to success. Everybody bore witness to the narrative of our development and ascent to the top as we progressed year on year, whereas the likes of Madrid and city could not lay claim to the same.
The nature of klopp's system and the intensity that you need to play at that level over a prolonged period of time probably meant that it wasn't necessarily sustainable but it's not like we didn't sit at the very top of footballing royalty when klopp was at the helm.
Slot is an amazing coach who is ahead of the curve of tactical developments, while klopp in his final two seasons was already beginning to delegate tactical preparation to pep. Still klopp refined, consolidated and then originated his own brand of pressing football that has left an enduring legacy on the way people think of football writ large.
People laud slot for turning gravenberch into one of the best midfielders in Europe, klopp identified kagawa as a target when he was playing for Osaka and won the bundesliga twice with him being an instrumental part of those teams, turning him into a world class player. He took wijnaldum and made him a press resistant workhorse who could easily play for any top team in Europe at the height of his powers. He took Bobby, who was stuck out on the wing by Rodgers, and had him redefine the false 9 role altogether, while simultaneously showing how wide attackers can exploit the breach created by the false 9 to make the need for a conventional striker irrelevant.
I understand there might be some pushback on klopp's supposed cult of personality and some people want to take a contrarian view to appear more sober and level headed but this is one of the great coaches in footballing history, and the peak of his career was with us, which is something considering what he achieved with Mainz and Dortmund.
22 Jun 2025 12:24:57
Just Wirtz’ opinion. Other players won’t think the same.
22 Jun 2025 12:37:54
I was quite critical of Klopp in his last two seasons. But, he did play a massive role in building the club culture that saw Slot seamlessly take the reins and win one of the big ones in his first season.
Slot is clear-eyed and can afford to be ruthless as the new guy. We shall see what happens now he has to sustain the club culture AND will have developed deeper relationships with squad members over time.
Remember, Klopp was pretty ruthless when he came in shipping out Sakho, Allen, Benteke, Skrtel, Balotelli, Toure etc. He was new and could do that as a ruthless new guy.
I do get the impression that Slot is probably a little more like Rafa and will not be as extreme as Klopp was in terms of loyalty at any costs. But we will need time to see that.
22 Jun 2025 12:51:49
Where do you think we would be if FSG hadn’t bought us from Stadler and Waldorf?
Where do you think we would be without FSG hiring Jurgen?
Where would we be without FSG hiring Arne?
With respect to Jurgen and Arne why does one have to be better than the other - they are different people with different temperament and outlook.
Jurgen is a latter day Shanks and Arne a latter day Sir Bob.
As a fan I’ve been lucky enough to see all four at work and they were / are excellent in their own way.
22 Jun 2025 12:56:21
There are two klopps we saw
2015-2020 - Klopp everyone loved. His positive energy could be seen everywhere. The one we cherish till today
Post covid Klopp - unbearable, in his head, too big for his shoes klopp. Too powerful and too arrogant. His negative energy was everywhere. The one most like to forget.
This version of klopp was the reason we didn't peak post our first title and ofcourse we blame covid and injuries. This self absorbed version took toll on him too:
He is the reason we couldn’t sign top players as he called them up and that made negotiations impossible hard for edward and team.
He also called the LFC owners poor compared to city and likes.
Imagine calling your multi billionaire employer poor on multiple occasions in front of media. You think FSG felt good being called poor?
You think he just got tired and left. Good for you.
A certain man very well regarded by FSG and the football community had recommended to move from klopp after the ‘21 season and advised a couple of names to us that would have taken the mantle from klopp and had us win much more. FSG were thinking about it but a header from alison in 95th minute changed everything and FSG ended up adding two more years to klopps deal.
Imagine if that header didn't happen klopp was off.
22 Jun 2025 13:42:39
Akira that’s fair enough mate and it’s hard to argue against your last comment.
They say love is blind and I’m 100% biased towards Klopp I don't mind admitting that.
22 Jun 2025 14:07:32
At the end of the day, without Klopp there's no Slot.
What I mean is.
Klopp turned us around.
He changed the culture. He got us challenging again with a much lower budget than City.
People began to believe again.
He overachieved by getting the most out of the team he had. He really got the best out of players who would've been very average in a different team under a different coach.
He won things. He elevated our status AND standards again.
In my opinion, he set up the foundation for the club to push on.
Without what Klopp did, we wouldn't have been at the stage where someone like Slot and co could come in, improve on it, win, and get FSG to now go all out for us to grab the bull by the horns and build a team that might dominate for the next few years.
Klopp deserves that credit, without discrediting what Slot is doing in taking us to the next level.
22 Jun 2025 15:44:12
Why do you think that was all Klopp's fault, though? IF he was getting too much power and authority at the club, why didn't the people upstairs rein him back? That was how we reached the zenith of our success, when people overruled Klopp and told him that they had better solutions for the players he wanted to buy (Gotze, Brandt, etc. ) . Klopp by all accounts had enough humility to listen to the transfer team and take their suggestions instead of insisting on his way, btw.
The suggestion that he went behind everyone's backs for a sneaky tap up phone call to his favourite players is also pretty hilarious, nobody upstairs could challenge him and tell him that maybe it wasn't the best idea? Surely if you want to give Edwards and the hierarchy appointed by FSG so much credit part of their job description is to not allow such a situation to transpire? Why didn't Edwards and Ward stop Klopp from giving everybody who ever put on a red shirt an extended contract on massively improved terms? Are we going to put all the blame on Klopp?
I appreciate that in the latter years Klopp was kind of irascible and could sometimes be even contemptuous towards the press. At the same time that moody, prickly Klopp was always sort of there in the background, especially when he felt aggrieved by the officials or when he lost a big game, in Dortmund it was the same, it's just that in the latter years we could all see he was tired and wasn't necessarily enjoying the job as much as he used to. This was made worse by us being up against the wall the year all our center halves got injured and he lost his mom. It showed in the results and deferring to Pep with tactical work, too.
Yes the man had poor judgment sometimes with transfers (though I don't think Darwin should be branded an unmitigated failure, who's to say whether he would have flourished if Klopp was still here? His metrics in Klopp's final season were up there with any number 9 in Europe), yes he had a clamour for top players and wasn't best pleased when they didn't come, yes he might have had problems tapping players up because he was accustomed to doing that in Germany without punishment, but again there's supposed to be a structure built around him to make the most of his singular qualities and diminish the impact of his shortcomings.
I think we have to remember that it was the man who walked away when he realised that he couldn't handle being a manager anymore and had taken us as far as he could manage, he wasn't fired and he wasn't hanging on for dear life.
As for your final point, I'm 95% sure that Klopp himself would have been very much leaning towards leaving management at that point if the Ali header didn't go in. He looked as miserable as the rest of us in that period.
22 Jun 2025 16:24:14
And he should have left. He knew deep down that was it but he continued and called out the club for not being able to buy players to keep winning when he literally was given whatever was needed.
Am arguing that slot title win had no contribution from klopp. This was a slot effort start to end. And slot for his own has given the flowers to klopp but klopp has nothing to do with it.
He 100% took us back. Imagine your biggest rival winning 4 back to back titles on your watch and with you having all the resources in the world and then your successor wins it spending next to nothing.
Romantics call it luck, realist call it as it is a clueless manager.
People should get their facts right.
22 Jun 2025 16:24:14
Klopp won us the league, won us a CL, but most importantly he made the entire club believe in itself again. We went from being decent to peak, and though mistakes and results and other things happened, Klopp’s tenure was the the best football I’ve watched as a Liverpool fan (being too young to remember the 80’s) . Slot has been great, but to act like Klopp has played no part in that - or in our resurgence this past decade, is bizarre. Give Slot tons of credit, but don’t try and diminish strides we made under Klopp - we are lucky to of had both.
22 Jun 2025 16:55:09
Akira. How do u make out klopp had all the resources in the world when he in charge? Compared to our rivals he operated on buttons.
22 Jun 2025 20:59:37
Akira, who were the managers that would have taken over and won so much more than the 'clueless' Klopp had Ali not scored at West Brom?
If Klopp was the reason we couldn't sign top players, what does that make Alisson, van Dijk, Andy Robbo, Fabinho, Mane and Salah?
Slot himself said that Klopp and Lijnders' work at Liverpool was "outstanding". Slot added one player who started one game to Klopp's squad and it went on to win the League but Klopp had 'zero contribution' to it?
And you tell us to get our facts right ?.
Btw, how are things on the Isak front.