Jurgen Klopp

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Jurgen Klopp spoke candidly in his post-match press conference, revealing his attempts to lift the spirits of his players had failed - "the boys need a little bit longer for that," he said - and admitting Liverpool's performance had fallen short of their usual standards.

The club and council decided to go ahead with the parade after the Reds secured the Carabao and FA Cups this season.If I ever met Jürgen Klopp I'd say 'omg if we have a baby we should call it Klipp' just so he'd raise an eyebrow at me and tell me I'm a moron and I'd be so naked by the time he'd finished doing that... The fine margins make the feeling of deflation more acute but Liverpool have shown formidable powers of recovery before, responding to their last Champions League final defeat to Madrid by winning it the following year, then winning the Premier League title with 99 points after missing out with 97 a year after that. It is the intensity of the football, of how the people live football in Liverpool, all the Liverpool fans around the world. It is not a normal club, it is a special club." Jürgen Klopp The two competitions we didn't win, we didn't win for the smallest possible margin - one point, one-nil," added Klopp. "City during the season were one point better and tonight Madrid were one goal better."

Klopp is revered as a master tactician with his own unique playing philosophies. He is loved by his players for his passion and man-management skills, and adored by fans for his charm, wit and exciting football on the pitch. Whilst a generally interesting read for football fans, the biggest issue with Honigstein's book is that it falls between two stools, being neither a detailed biography of Jurgen Klopp, nor an extensive expose of his tactical philosophy. If the benchmark for recent football managerial studies is 'Pep Confidential' by Marti Perarnau then 'Bring the Noise' comes about as close as Liverpool's title challenge in the 17/18 season i.e. disappointingly (but predictably) short. That said, although both the study of the man and of his tactics seem half-baked, there are a few interesting conclusions that can be drawn from Klopp's story - ones which are useful to consider in the context of the current direction that Liverpool FC are heading. A clear pattern emerges – builds a fantastic team with meagre resources, performs well above expectations only to see a decline – either due to star players being headhunted or the rest of the league adopting his tactics. It remains to be seen if his Liverpool team can compete in the Premier League and become more than a very good cup team. It’s also fascinated me how a manager’s character can shape the neutral fan’s perception of a football team. Under previous Liverpool managers (especially Houlier) I found Liverpool quite dis-likable and certainly not a team I would root for. Yet under Klopp its hard not to have a soft spot for the free-flowing Liverpool team that plays in a mannerFirst, Honigstein's various interviews make it clear that Klopp is a classic football romantic: the journey and the experience are almost equally important to him as the final result. For Mainz, Dortmund & Liverpool, in both victories and gut-wrenching defeats (of which many have rightly noted Klopp has a disproportionately high number for his time in the game) he makes constant references to "our story", "our dream" etc. There's a particularly revealing interview after Dortmund pulled off a famous underdog victory against Malaga in 2013 to reach the Champions League semi-finals: "My motivation as a coach is to collect that kind of stuff, for people to tell and retell it. Football is a shared collection of stories, a shared history, an identity. You win and you lose, but you're with people you like. You're at home, you belong. That's what we all want. Ten million people want to belong here". Certainly not a sentiment you would expect from most rival managers, e.g. Jose Mourinho or Rafa Benitez. In this context, it's not unsurprising that Klopp has only chosen to manage three blue-collar clubs with rich histories, somewhat faded glories but a strong sense of community, culture & work ethic, forming a deliberately close bond with supporters at all three. That is not to say it will be easy to recover from the heartache of the last week, during which Premier League and Champions League glory have slipped away. The book itself is very personal and intimate with lots of interviews from the people at the heart of the life and career of Kloppo. It gives a great insight to the man inside the manager. It is easy to see how he can motivate the teams to go above and beyond. Klopp has worked his way into Liverpool's big sentimental heart like a German love bomb. And Quinn couldn't resist writing an ode, an unabashed fan's note: to Klopp and his boyhood city and the ghost of Shankly.' Irish Times