Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has revealed that he ‘feels blessed’ after nearing his 1000 games milestone of his career with three clubs during a press conference. Liverpool will host Chelsea tomorrow at Anfield in an early EPL kick off. The game marks his, 1000th game since he began his professional career in 2001 with Mainz 04 in Germany
Klopp holds the record as the oldest coach with a Premier League club currently. Since he arrived, he has been able to deliver to Liverpool every trophy in the English football.
Klopp will take charge of his 411th Liverpool match on Saturday. He held the managerial bridles at Mainz and Borussia Dortmund for 270 and 319 games respectively.
Klopp during this resplendent span of his career has won 9 major trophies including two Bundesliga, one Premier League and a UEFA Champions League.
“I have done the job I love for the clubs I love,” said Klopp, who was speaking at his pre-match press conference. “I am blessed, 100 percent. That’s what I feel.
“I’ve never thought about these kinds of numbers. I never thought I would be allowed to do it [manage] for that long. But somehow, it went really quickly. You have to work through 22 years, and then you can somehow arrive there.
“This week, people told me that it [the 1,000th game] will happen. It keeps coming up, then [I thought about] the start at Mainz, the start at Dortmund, the start here… When you come in, you never know how it will go, and I was really lucky with all the things that happened.
“It is a crazy number, honestly, 1,000. The beard is now really grey! It was not the case when I arrived here… I’m not sure if that is because of the age or because of Liverpool!
“It [reaching the landmark] is a massive thing. I have been at three fantastic clubs, which have given me the opportunity to do the job. That is what is going through my mind.”
“Not all the 1,000 games were good and not all the phases were good, but most of the time it went in the right direction,” he explained.
“What you learn in those [difficult] times is football problems you solve with football. There is a way out of each situation in football. That’s how it is, and I didn’t know that 22 years ago. I learned it the hard way.
“For me, it is the best job in the world. It’s not a relaxing job, it’s not a job where you have a lot of holidays or whatever, but I love it. I feel really blessed that I can do it because it is the only thing I really can do. It would be a very calm life [without being a football manager] and I am absolutely fine with the excitement, the pressure, the outstanding moments and the less good moments. It’s part of the deal, nobody wins all the time. I knew that early, so I didn’t expect it, but I still try to do it [win] as often as possible.”
Klopp’s first managerial post saw him take over at Mainz when the club were in grave danger of being relegated to the German third tier. Six wins in his opening seven games as boss saw him guide the club to safety, however.
Klopp reflected on that spell when asked about the advice he would give his younger self when he was beginning his coaching journey.
“If we had lost one more of those seven games, we would’ve been relegated,” he said. “If we’d won five from seven, it would have been an outstanding number, and no-one would’ve recognised that if you go down to the third league – which would be [the equivalent of] League One in England. And a very promising coaching career could’ve been finished before it started. I was lucky that didn’t happen.
“The job I have today is a completely different one. The advice would have been to be open, work hard, be curious, nosey, look around the corners and try to find solutions for problems you don’t have at the moment but will have in the future.
“The most important thing is to be busy. Learn the game. With coaching, it is a bit the same as with golf – when you think you’ve got it, the game will tell you differently. You have to always develop and that’s what I like the most about the job. It is not for one second boring. That’s the best thing you can say about your working life. It is the best thing I can imagine to do.”
