What makes a manager?
Klopp: Bring the Noise. By Raphael Honigstein. Penguin. 2019
How do you become a high level football manager? The most obvious way to is to become a high level player first. Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane are the most obvious cases. Both were highly decorated players, and after short stints with the youth team or as assistants, they were handed the managerial reins at their former clubs, which just happened to be Barcelona and Real Madrid.
For other managers the route to the top is longer and harder. Jose Mourinho never played the game professionally, but somehow made the transition from club translator to manager. And then there is Jürgen Klopp. He did play the game professionally, but only got as far as the second division.
Klopp really started making waves in European football in the 2010-11 season. His Borussia Dortmund side, made up largely of young, lesser known players, and employing an aggressive gegen pressing style, swept aside Bayern Munich and co on their way to two consecutive league titles. For a while, it seemed the Bundesliga had no answer to Klopp’s tactical revolution. His Dortmund side suffocated opponents, who were shocked to have so little time on the ball and could not adapt.
Gegen pressing (counter pressing) involves playing a high line in defence, winning the ball high up the pitch, and pouncing with fast counter attacks. It demands high levels of physical and mental commitment from the players. It’s not just that players need to run a lot, although that is part of it. Players need to be on each other’s wavelength, something that Klopp drilled in long hours on the training pitch. Above all, players need to believe in the tactical system. Klopp showed at Dortmund that with meticulous preparation, tactical innovation, and collective commitment, smaller clubs could compete successfully with bigger rivals.
Every time a manager is fired, you can rely on someone, perhaps a journalist, or even a rival manager, to say they needed more time. More time to bring in new players, more time to bed in their tactical system, more time to ride out a random run of bad results. Yet few managers get time. As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the club, the less time they get.
As Raphael Honigstein shows in his highly enjoyable biography, Klopp has made time for himself throughout his managerial career. Perhaps it helped that he started out of the spotlight, with FSV Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga second division. Klopp played in Mainz’s defence for most of his playing career. And in 2001, Mainz made Klopp player manager. They could not find a manager who understood the tactical system of previous manager Wolfgang Frank, and turned to club captain Klopp instead. Klopp tried to pick up where his mentor Frank had left off, instilling a system of pressing, a back four (a system alien to the German league at the time), and a team ethic that demanded total commitment.
Klopp did not have instant success at Mainz. But he did transform the club into promotion contenders, but two fourth place finishes meant he missed out on promotion two seasons in a row. Such was Klopp’s status at the club, though, that he was never in danger of being fired. Mainz had a smaller budget than most teams in the division, and Klopp’s tactical system was clearly taking the club places. Ultimately, the following season Klopp did take Mainz into the first division for the first time in their history.
Although Mainz were relegated in their third Bundesliga season, Klopp’s achievements were enough to win him a job in the top tier with Borussia Dortmund. At Dortmund, just like at Liverpool years later, it took Klopp a few seasons to transform the club into a trophy winning force. And just as at Mainz, the owners continued to back him.
Looking back now at Klopp’s career, perhaps his early struggles with Mainz helped build the foundation for his future success. As Mainz was a small club with relatively low expectations, he was able to establish himself and his methods. Many good things are said about Klopp these days, but perhaps one of most underappreciated qualities is his ability to create time for himself. Perhaps the commentators are right, managers need time.
