Klopp Talk: “The Best Half Hour I’ve Ever Had in Football”

Jürgen Klopp wants titles, but he also knows it isn’t targeting titles that matters. It’s what happens week to week. It’s performances like the 5-1 demolition of Hull City on Saturday or Liverpool’s victory over Chelsea the week before, added up, that can lead to something even more special than the individual moments.

“To play football that we like to remember,” Klopp told Sky Sports when asked what his single biggest goal at Anfield was. “That’s all that you have to do. Of course we want to win the league. I don’t know if it will happen or when it will happen, but we are not too far away from the teams that battle for the title.”

He achieved his goals at Borussia Dortmund; had a team that played memorable football week to week and, in the end, that saw those performances add up to titles. His Dortmund side won the title twice, in 2011 and 2012. His side also won the DFB-Pokal Cup in 2012, giving the manager a rare German double.

Inevitably, then, there will be those who seek to compare where things are at Liverpool to where they were at Dortmund. Attempts to draw parallels. That the two clubs are both famous for their fans, who both sing You’ll Never Walk Alone, only adds to it. Klopp isn’t big on making those comparisons, though.

“It’s different,” he said when asked about managing the two clubs and leading his teams out in front of the two sets of fans. “All I can say is there is nothing compared to the Yellow Wall because it is 27,000 people standing and that is quite impressive. But the Kop created the best half hour that I’ve had in football.

“I don’t have to say it. It was the last half hour against Dortmund, the atmosphere in the stadium. It was the best I’ve ever had—hopefully not the best I will ever have. I don’t want to compare, though. I’m a lucky guy who has had two wonderful clubs and now I can work here.”