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EXPERT INSIDER: What Liverpool's players, fans can expect from Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool is the home of Klopp music, as supporters and media alike pay tribute to newly appointed German boss, Jurgen Klopp.

With his arresting smile and commanding aura, reports from his inaugural press conference at Anfield read like poems penned by love-sick teens.

The unanimous verdict: the Reds are set for success.

And, while they may have a point, few spelt out how the former Dortmund manager would make his mark.

Here, Lee Price, who went behind the scenes at Klopp's old club during his tenure, explores what methods the charismatic chief could be using on Merseyside.


Forget the quotable phrases and engaging personality, Klopp will be a hard taskmaster at Liverpool.

He will demand respect, and not just for him, but for everyone at the club.

That was his shtick at Dortmund - when I visited their training ground, it coincided with the end of a training session for a youth team. As they filed past, every youngster stopped to shake my hand and greet me.

This was standard practice for every age group, with whoever was passing - coach, physio, or baffled foreign journalist.

Klopp's set up at the training ground was that everyone was an equal.

That meant first team stars - the likes of Robert Lewandowski while he was still there - would eat and train alongside youth prospects and reserve team players. Dortmund was a community, an all for one and one for all kind of set up, something that will suit the Liverpool mentality down to the ground.

And if Klopp doesn't get the respect he demands, the player in question will soon find out - his temper is famously ferocious, though surprisingly forgotten about since landing in England. He combines the charisma of Clough with the fiery nature of Fergie - and the dress sense of, erm, Tony Pulis.

Like Jose Mourinho before him, he'll revel in the current media favour, and his Honeymoon period is sure to be full of delicious quotes. But a Special One style siege mentality will soon come out if Klopp comes under pressure.

Not that that's a bad thing.

Player-wise, Klopp will embrace talented youngsters - in keeping with the Liverpool way - and has worked with a transfer committee to great success before.

Although last summer's spending spree following the sale of Mario Gotze has worrying parallels to Brendan Rodgers' handling of Luis Suarez's departure. The Fenway Sports Group's preference for a Moneyball approach will be familiar to Klopp - Dortmund proving experts, signing Shinji Kagawa for barely £500,000 in 2010, selling him for £17million two years later. Klopp will, therefore, embrace Liverpool's transfer committee - though it might just be that Dortmund have a slicker system in place.

Arguably most crucially, Klopp has an identifiable and obvious style of play, something his predecessor failed to deliver.

His now globally renowned 'gegenpressing' style is high pace, all action, and perfectly suited to the English game.

The German doesn't deliver a guarantee of success but, in a wide-open Premier League season, will be aiming to drag Liverpool back into the top four.

Lending qualities from various winners of the past - Wenger-esque eye for talent, Mourinho-like with the press, and owner of a similar hairdryer to Fergie - Klopp might just be the ultimate Premier League manager.


* Lee's book, The Bundelisga Blueprint, on the resurrection of German football, is available here: http://t.co/f2sWo5a5iK

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