I’m a long suffering Aussie Liverpool FC fan but I’m often mistaken as a proud pasty white scouser with an Aussie accent. I am too young to remember the last time we won the first division of English football.
Not witnessing such a feat for so long instilled a certain skepticism in me, what I called a healthy inferiority complex.
Out of all my friends who follow the English Premier League I was one of the few Reds supporters in our group who was considered a realist. When my mates asked me if Liverpool will win this weekend, if they had little chance of winning, I would tell them exactly that.
I remember one of my Arsenal supporter buddies asking me if Liverpool would win against the Bolton Wanderers back in 2012. At the time a draw looked likely due to the Reds poor form but then one of my loud mouthed ‘wannabe’ kopite mates said ‘a 4-1 win for us and Luis Suarez will score.’
We lost 3-1 and the next day our mate laughed out loud at us. I continued to move away from a typical dreamy supporter to one who insisted more and more on the pragmatic approach.
When friends asked if Liverpool was going to make the Champions League without Suarez in the 2014-15 season, I told them ‘I doubt it’. Oh, and I definitely wasn’t singing in the streets ‘And now you’re going to believe us…We’re going to win the league’ before the infamous slip.
So you get my drift. If you’d asked me what the future of Liverpool looked like after Brendan Rodgers got the sack, I would’ve said ‘bleak’ at best.
But everything changed when Jurgen Klopp was announced as LFC’s new manager.
I started to dream of another night in Istanbul but this time with a tall blond German.
Klopp is Liverpool’s long awaited messiah. In the entire world you could not find a better manager for this club. His appointment is going to be remembered as one of the great cinderella moments for Liverpool.
Klopp has managed at a club which many football fans consider the German brother of Liverpool. His time at Dortmund has given him a better understanding of LFC’s ethos, the expectations of the fans and the limited funds available. He’s experienced it all before and come out on top.
He could have taken most managerial positions in world football, at Bayern Munich or Manchester City, but chose the red side of Merseyside. This is proof that his heart and head are in yet another challenging project.
Of course there are a few huge hurdles to overcome before the trophies start rolling into Melwood. Like the fact that he’s taken on a group of players he himself didn’t bring together, a team struggling in the most competitive football league in Europe, a team that’s not really playing his style of football in a different League and a team that’s had some injury setbacks.
But while in the past I would’ve thought ‘we’re doomed’, with the German as manager all I can do is smile regardless of our predicament and be sure that we will finally win the Premier League.
Klopp oozes confidence and instills belief when little is warranted; this is what separates the best managers from the rest. He’s shown he can turn a half baked athlete into a phenomenal footballer and over time can turn a dysfunctional team into a unified force to be reckoned with. He also engages with the supporters and makes sure they feel that they’re super important.
After watching his first three media appearances, two press conferences and a one on one interview with LFC TV, I’m all ears. In his first press conference as LFC coach he told the club’s supporters “If somebody want(s) to help LFC you have to change from (a) doubter to believer”.
Well Jurgen I definitely want to help, so I’m now a true believer. I’m all aboard your full throttle Kloppomania bandwagon. It’s full speed ahead and at the end of the road I’m positively sure with you as our driving force there’ll be the highly anticipated golden sky.
Editor’s note: This piece was submitted prior to Jurgen Klopp’s first match as coach of Liverpool against Tottenham from White Hart Lane, which took place at 10:30pm AEDT on Saturday.
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