Jurgen Klopp’s surprising decision to quit Liverpool is a disaster for the club and its fans, and the vacuum he leaves behind may be impossible to replace.
“I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people at this moment.” That’s arguably the biggest understatement of the century.
The announcement made on Friday morning caught the entire football world by surprise. Nobody saw it coming. Not now, not with Klopp’s efforts to build a second great team at Anfield going better than expected.
Despite rebuilding their entire midfield last summer, Liverpool remain top of the Premier League and in contention for three cup competitions. Klopp believes he is “running out of energy,” which is reasonable given how much he has invested in the team since taking charge in 2015.
His affection for Liverpool is genuine; it was clear from the moment he arrived at Anfield. He always gets it. In keeping with the club’s best traditions, he has always strived to make people happy.
So it’s not unexpected that he’s exhausted, that his well-known work ethic has taken its toll.
There’s no doubting that there were occasions last season when he appeared and sounded fatigued. The results were not in his favor, but he was agitated and sensitive to particular lines of questioning.
During all of this, it was noted that he had never spent more than seven years at his two prior teams in Germany, leading speculation that history was repeating itself on Merseyside.
