When assessing Jürgen Klopp’s body of work at Liverpool so far, there is always one thing that stands out above everything else.
It’s not the clever work in the transfer market or the reshaping of the squad, nor is it the Champions League triumph; it’s the development that players enjoy under him.
The German is a transformative coach, capable of taking a player and pushing them to be more and better than most would have expected.
It was something he did to great success at Borussia Dortmund and a trick he has repeated, to an even greater extent, during his stint on Merseyside.
However, according to Ralf Rangnick, Head of Sport and Soccer Development for the Red Bull Group, it is Klopp’s ability to improve ‘absolutely average’ players that sets him apart.
“If you look at Jordan Henderson or James Milner before Klopp they were absolutely average,” Frankfurter Allgemein report him saying.
“The fact that they have now become such players is entirely up to their manager. Sadio Mané, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino were, until three or four years ago, everything other than typical pressing strikers.
“They just wanted to have the ball and play with it. The fact that they have grown together at Liverpool is all down to Jürgen Klopp.“
