Jurgen Klopp has been praised by Borussia Dortmund captain Marco Reus for taking Liverpool to an even higher level than the one to which he lifted his former club.
Having already clinched the Carabao Cup, the Reds boss leads his men into FA Cup final battle on Saturday against Chelsea at Wembley. It is the second of four trophies he could yet win this season with the club still mathematically capable of lifting the Premier League title. Liverpool also face Real Madrid in the Champions League Final on May 28 in Paris.
Klopp managed Dortmund for seven seasons, steering the club to a Bundesliga title in 2011 and a league and cup double a year later. They were the last German club to clinch the league before Bayern Munich’s decade-long domination. Under Klopp, Dortmund also reached a Champions League final.
"Jürgen is a special person," Dortmund club captain Reus said. "I remember when I moved to Dortmund and had the first conversation with him. When he walks into the room, there's just something in the air. He's charismatic, he's got a lot of energy, and he's just a good guy to just talk to privately about other things, not just football."
Reus first worked with Klopp in 2012 when the charismatic coach persuaded him to come back to the club where he’d been a youth player. In his first season, Reus hit 19 goals and 16 assists in 49 appearances to help shoot Dortmund to the Champions League final where they lost 2-1 to Bayern. Klopp had arrived four years earlier with the club having suffered its worst campaign in two decades, finishing 13th in the Bundesliga.
With some of the smart recruitment with which he has become renowned - he snapped up the likes of Robert Lewandowski and Jakub Błaszczykowski - Klopp built a title-winning side in three years. "He's definitely one of the best coaches in the world because otherwise you don't stay at the top for so long," said Reus. "I hope for him that he manages to do it (the quadruple) this year and I wouldn't put it past him.
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"Before he came, things weren't looking so rosy here and he took the club to another level. Of course, that had a lot to do with him and the team at the time as well. You can't put that into words because it's not just one word. It's still, I would say, this energy, willingness to suffer every day and to get the maximum out of it."
It is in the Premier League, in particular, where Klopp has defied the odds with Liverpool. Where many tried and failed, he landed a first title in 30 years in 2020. And while the widespread opinion in January this year was the title race was done and dusted in Manchester City's favour, Klopp inspired his side to reduce a 14-point gap and take the race to the final two games.
"He's been doing a great job for years both here and in Liverpool," explained Reus. “The way that he has built the team, built the club, both here and in Liverpool, is immense. That energy that he brings every day, I think, you can only take your hat off to him.”
