Jurgen Klopp press conference LIVE: Liverpool manager addresses shock departure
The German will end nine years at Anfield, where he won six trophies with the Reds and produced one of the club’s finest teams
Jurgen Klopp is to leave Liverpool at the end of the season, the German has confirmed in a shock announcement.
The 56-year-old has informed the club’s ownership of his decision to stand down, having taken charge at Liverpool in 2015.
Klopp has won six trophies with the Reds, including the Premier League title in 2020 and the Champions League trophy the year before. The German is due to speak to the media at 3pm this afternoon where he will react further to his decision which is set to shake the Premier League.
Follow all the latest reaction from a seismic decision in the Premier League and get the latest odds on next Liverpool manager to succeed Jurgen Klopp here:
The numbers behind Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool tenure
Win record
Jurgen Klopp arrived in October 2015 as Brendan Rodgers’ replacement and while he made a low-key start in a goalless draw with Tottenham, and draws in his first three games overall, it was the precursor to one of the club’s most successful eras.
He has won more than 60 per cent of his 466 games in charge – with a minimum of 21 remaining this season – and provided Liverpool’s greatest Premier League performances since the competition’s rebranding.
They won the 2019-20 title with 99 points, just one fewer than Manchester City’s record 100 two years earlier, while their 97 as runners-up in 2018-19 is a record for any team who did not finish as champions. They lead this season’s standings, five points clear of City having played one game more.
Klopp’s next Premier League win will be his 200th, with his record currently standing at 199 out of 317 games. In all competitions he has won 283, drawn 105 and lost 78 and the club have scored 972 goals on his watch, a number that will surely hit four figures before the season is out.
The consequences of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool departure – and why his legacy is beyond question
It is rare in the modern game that news completely stuns the football world but that’s exactly what happened with Jurgen Klopp’s resignation. There was shock among major European managers and players.
It is, with an odd sense of appropriateness, the modern equivalent of Bill Shankly retiring in 1974. That can’t quite feature the incredible clips of a successor to Tony Wilson literally informing Liverpool fans on the street that their patriarch had left. They will have no doubt checked their smartphones, given everyone in the Premier League was sharing the news with exclamation marks and emojis within seconds.
Unlike Shankly, too, many of the consequences are immediately apparent. This is a very different and more financially defined game.
The consequences of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool departure
The summer exit of Liverpool’s modern equivalent of Bill Shankly will leave a huge vacuum – at Anfield, in the Premier League and on modern football
No other English club ever – Jurgen Klopp vows not to manage Liverpool’s rivals
Jurgen Klopp has promised Liverpool fans he will never manage another English club after he leaves Anfield in the summer “even if he has nothing to eat”.
The 56-year-old German has shocked the football world by announcing he will stand down as Reds boss after nearly nine years in charge at the end of the season, having steered the club to six major trophies including the Premier League title in 2020 and the Champions League in 2019.
No other English club ever – Jurgen Klopp vows not to manage Liverpool’s rivals
The 56-year-old will stand down at the end of the season.
De Zerbi ‘sad’ about Klopp departure
Brighton boss, Roberto De Zerbi, is sad that Jurgen Klopp is leaving his post as Liverpool manager and claimed the German was one of the best managers in the world.
He said: “I’m very sad because, if he changes league, changes country, the Premier League loses one of the best coaches in the world.
“I consider Klopp, (Pep) Guardiola, (Carlo) Ancelotti, (Marcelo) Bielsa the best coaches in the world and I’m sad for it. I can understand it very well. I think our work is the best work you can do but it is very tough.
“You need energy. You have to push every day. If you don’t work with the right energy, you lose everything.”
Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Jurgen Klopp:
Ruben Amorim
Another young coach making waves on the continent, Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim is regarded as a sharp tactical thinker.
His positive mindset has also drawn praise during his time in Lisbon, and a step up to a higher-profile job in the future feels a formality for the 38-year-old, who has time on his side.
Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Jurgen Klopp:
Surely not? It seems unlikely that Ange Postecoglou will leave Tottenham after his early success in London but the Australian was a Liverpool fan growing up, and has made a success of virtually every role in a long and varied career.
Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Jurgen Klopp:
Now in charge of Germany, a jump to the Premier League has long been rumoured for managerial wunderkind Julian Nagelsmann.
Things turned a little sour towards the end of his stint at Bayern Munich but Nagelsmann was once European football’s hottest coaching commodity after success with Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.
Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Jurgen Klopp:
There was a time where a return at Anfield seemed a certainty for ex-club captain Steven Gerrard, who guided Rangers to a Scottish league title after departing a role in Liverpool’s academy.
A difficult spell at Aston Villa has caused his managerial stock to fall, while the Saudi Pro League is not perhaps the place to rebuild a reputation, but Gerrard remains popular with the fanbase and impressed Klopp while in charge of Liverpool’s Under-18s.
Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Klopp:
If Liverpool favour a manager familiar with the Premier League, Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi might fit the bill.
The Italian’s progressive coaching style has proved a neat fit on the South Coast, taking the club into Europe for the first time during his first campaign in charge.
The former Sassuolo and Shakhtar Donetsk manager has been praised by Klopp, and the two managers share a mutual respect for one another.
Here are some of the names who could be in the frame to replace Jurgen Klopp:
The favourite for the role is Xabi Alonso, the former Liverpool midfielder who has done fine work with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.
The 42-year-old is regarded as one of Europe’s most promising managers having impressed previously at Real Sociedad and taken Leverkusen to the top of the Bundesliga. He spent five years at Anfield during his playing career.
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