Klopp Report Card

[Dreambeliever]

I remember we did a Klopp report card after we won the league and most had him at A+.

I think I had him at B- at the time as we had lost so many cup finals.

Now that his 9 years have come to a close what would you rate his time at Anfield?

He won the lot, build a team, was part way through rebuilding one, was five games away from 3 league titles and 4 European trophies.

He changed the entire trajectory of the club and got most of the footballing world watching us again.

He had blind spots like all managers and ultimately the trophy number isn’t as big as some of the other greats.

So what does your score card look like?

 

[Bradley]

Given the circumstances, I don't see how he could have done any better.

Even the 3 champions league final losses involved weird circumstances.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Given the circumstances, I don't see how he could have done any better.

Even the 3 champions league final losses involved weird circumstances.

Ya if anything my perception of his performance has only increased even though since the league title we’ve only two domestic cups and minor trophies (WCC SC).
He’s been outstanding.

 

[Athens]

He would have had more league titles if it hadn't have been for you know, all the financial cheating going on. Cup finals are cup finals. The first one against Real was horrible, mainly because of Ramos and the keeper having a mare. The second loss involved a keeper having the absolute game of his carreer.

 

[Squiggles]

A minus.

His record in finals wasn't great, but a bigger issue was the falling out with Edwards and the recruitment team. I don't know what went on, but he did need to be more ruthless with the players, especially when he plays such an intense style.

He then took on too much, which has contributed to the burnout. I suspect the squad would be better placed and Klopp would have had another year or two in the tank otherwise. Everything else was amazing and doesn't need repeating.

 

[The Nomad]

A minus.

His record in finals wasn't great, but a bigger issue was the falling out with Edwards and the recruitment team. I don't know what went on, but he did need to be more ruthless with the players, especially when he plays such an intense style.

He then took on too much, which has contributed to the burnout. I suspect the squad would be better placed and Klopp would have had another year or two in the tank otherwise.
Obviously everything decision-making and doesn't need repeating.

Yep I'm exactly the same.. weird loyalty at times, and random outbursts in the last couple of years, drops him down a bit for me too.

 

[binomial]

No option for D-?

Somewhere in between A/A-

Only thing missing for me was 1 more PL and 1 more CL. Very hard to take given how close we came. 1 season we were millimetres from being crowned champions, another season we were 10mins away on the final day of being crowed champions and we were a Courtois having the final of his life performance away from being kings of Europe again.

 

[Fabio]

I went for an A

 

[Dreambeliever]

No option for D-?

Somewhere in between A/A-

Only thing missing for me was 1 more PL and 1 more CL. Very hard to take given how close we came. 1 season we were millimetres from being crowned champions, another season we were 10mins away on the final day of being crowed champions and we were a Courtois having the final of his life performance away from being kings of Europe again.

Ran out of options ha.

 

[Beamrider]

I was thinking the other day about his signings and how many flops there had been.
I excluded players who failed due to injury, I was focused on players who just weren't good enough when signed or who didn't step up as expected.
And there weren't many, or at least there weren't many where we didn't make our money back (e.g. Minamino, Grujic, Solanke (who has obviously come good since)).
Jury's out on Sepp, Carvalho and Gravenberch.
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb is Karius, but in truth he was a cheap pick-up to provide competition for Mignolet, did OKish until THAT game. But it was such a huge game, and such a huge meltdown that it can't be overlooked.
Pretty impressive, but the wilful blindness to signing players with poor injury records was a shortcoming (Keita, Ox and Thiago all spring to mind, and I have concerns about Konate's durability too).
Darwin has his own thread, obvs.

 

[ibromurph]

To go from this:

To what we have today and turning the club around from Doubters to Believers, I have to give him an A. Had he won 1 more league or CL, it would have been an A+.

Fergie won 2 league titles, had 0 CL finals, in his first 9 seasons, and he wasn't up against 115 Charges FC, or Roman's Riches, or United's billion dollar spending.

So he's done a tremendous job.

 

[MomoWASright]

Thinking back, the Karius one was such a strange thing to do. Having that champions league keeper. To some extent it’s understandable for a League Cup and FA cup keeper but for the biggest trophy out of the lot? Nah.

His loyalty, whilst commendable, was his biggest flaw. Loyalty to players who couldn’t deliver as we expect and to his system when we needed something different.

 

[SummerOnions]

He gets an A+ for me even with all his flaws because for a while we had the best team on the planet and won fucking everything. I can't look past that

 

[Beamrider]

Thinking back, the Karius one was such a strange thing to do. Having that champions league keeper. To some extent it’s understandable for a League Cup and FA cup keeper but for the biggest trophy out of the lot? Nah.

His loyalty, whilst commendable, was his biggest flaw. Loyalty to players who couldn’t deliver as we expect and to his system when we needed something different.

I think he thought that a top-drawer keeper wouldn't make that much difference, and that it was an area where he could save some cash to spend elsewhere (I seem to recall there was an expecttation that we would sign Thomas Lemar until we splashed on Alisson - there's a sliding doors moment for you).
Germany's a funny league in that respect, other than Neuer (who is fading) there's probably no teams that have a great keeper. Until recently, Gulacsi was Leipzig's keeper, and he wasn't getting anywhere near our first team.
Sadly it took Kyiv for Klopp to realise that a top keeper did matter, but after we put loads past Alisson when we played Roma earlier on in that run you would have been hard-pressed to argue the point.

 

[ibromurph]

Thinking back, the Karius one was such a strange thing to do. Having that champions league keeper. To some extent it’s understandable for a League Cup and FA cup keeper but for the biggest trophy out of the lot? Nah.

His loyalty, whilst commendable, was his biggest flaw. Loyalty to players who couldn’t deliver as we expect and to his system when we needed something different.

Agreed.

Hopefully he's our generation's Shankly.

And Slot becomes our Paisley. Not half as charismatic, but building on the foundations of a giant, and going on to win more (because he isn't emotionally tied to certain players through loyalty. i.e. the likes of TAA have to prove themselves all over again and regain their best levels).

 

[Dreambeliever]

I was thinking the other day about his signings and how many flops there had been.
I excluded players who failed due to injury, I was focused on players who just weren't good enough when signed or who didn't step up as expected.
And there weren't many, or at least there weren't many where we didn't make our money back (e.g. Minamino, Grujic, Solanke (who has obviously come good since)).
Jury's out on Sepp, Carvalho and Gravenberch.
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb is Karius, but in truth he was a cheap pick-up to provide competition for Mignolet, did OKish until THAT game. But it was such a huge game, and such a huge meltdown that it can't be overlooked.
Pretty impressive, but the wilful blindness to signing players with poor injury records was a shortcoming (Keita, Ox and Thiago all spring to mind, and I have concerns about Konate's durability too).
Darwin has his own thread, obvs.

I still feel if either Ramos didn’t belt him or we picked it up and took him off, he’d have gone on to have a great career for us.

 

[Athens]

I had a quick google and after I was finished with that I searched the internet for his old report cards and found one. Here's what it says according to translate:

"Jurgen is a friendly lad who gets on with everyone in the class, although he displays a weird loyalty to the odd spastic here and there. Perhaps it's his strong sense of sympathy which he displays. He's almost always polite, and full of smiles to the point that on sunny days it's painful to look at him directly due to those fucking teeth he has.
Puntuality 10 , Effort 10, Days absent 0"

 

[Brizzle]

For me its an A to A+

3 seasons breaking 90 points in the PL
4 European finals

Insane team that he created. I don't think Klopp can shoulder any responsibility for what he was competing against. Two of the 4 highest points totals in the history of the league were by Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool.

 

[tommyboy]

Gave him an A, could have been an A+ if we'd won another trophy or two but very happy with what he did win, more importantly how he made us feel as fans

 

[darkstarexodus]

Gave an A+. There are areas he could improve, decisions that could have been different. But the transformative effect he had on the club and the trophies won warrant an A+.

 

[Mojo]

A+

Simply for making me feel the way I do about us over these past 9 years, there's no other rating he gets from me.
Some of the football we played in that period from 2017 ish - 2020 was outstanding and it's just a pity that he was up against 115 otherwise we would have rightly had a few more titles to our name.
We were privileged to have had him.

 

[peekay]

Nothing other than an A+. He won us the league and would have have more PL trophies if not for the cheats. Add to that the charisma, the humanness, the compassion, leadership, personality, electrifying football. And I am sure the business folks at Anfield would give him an A+++. Outside of delivering on the pitch, he has been a big factor in our growth of the pitch by being pure box office.

The fact that folks are not giving him an A+ with the various flaws pointed out is a reflection of how much he has raised the bar.

 

[Modo]

'A' for me, nothing more nothing less.
Like others mentioned, Another CL or another PL trophy and I would have given him an A+ grade.

 

[Fabio]

He couldn't have done much more you'd think, but it's purely circumstances that stopped him winning more. I doubt we'll see another 99 point season for a very long fucking time

 

[Modo]

Yeah, its all those finals losses for me. As Liverpool fan I don't think I've ever experienced so many close calls under one manager.

In a different universe, Klopp won us the CL twice, the league "thrice" and the Europa league once. But in that bizarro universe Spurs and Kane are European Champs too.

 

[Farkmaster]

In this fucking universe we had Roy Hodgson.

 

[mom]

Look where we were when he started.
Look at how good we’ve been under him.
Look at what we’ve won.
Look at what he’s done for the club.
Look at how he’s conducted himself and the love he’s shown for the club.
Look at the financial constraints he’s worked under in comparison to the richer clubs.

Easy A+

It may take a couple of seasons without him for many to realise just how lucky we were to have him and just how good he was.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

 

[Bradley]

I'm an A+ man.

We never (in my football memory) had it so good.

We may never have it that good again.

 

[jan]

A+

Simply for making me feel the way I do about us over these past 9 years, there's no other rating he gets from me.
Some of the football we played in that period from 2017 ish - 2020 was outstanding and it's just a pity that he was up against 115 otherwise we would have rightly had a few more titles to our name.
We were privileged to have had him.

Big yes to all of that and he was a fucking don all this time as well

Anything less than an A+ is unacceptable for me but I feel like the number nerds will always be on some he underperformed his xKlopp bollocks so that's that

 

[localny]

He was 4 different results away from 2 more PL titles and 2 more CL - and he rebuilt the team - and was inventing a song for his successor to carry on his legacy

A fecking ++++