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Jurgen Klopp Gives Fascinating View on Arsene Wenger Before Dortmund vs. Arsenal
November 4, 2013
Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in his own unique style, per the Daily Mail's Rajvir Rai.
Klopp has become known for his fascinating interviews and continued the trend with his comments on both Arsenal and what his expectations are in football.
Per the report, Klopp said of his rival:
He is really something. I love him. He is Sir Arsene Wenger. He is “hello (making a handshake gesture)”. I’m this guy. But he likes having the ball, playing football, passes... it’s like an orchestra (gesturing as if playing a violin), but it is a silent song. I like heavy metal more. I always want it loud.
I like (Arsenal’s philosophy). I love it but I cannot coach it because I am a different guy. If you watch me during the game I celebrate when we press the ball and it goes out ... If, in the last four years, Barcelona were the first team I saw playing when I was four years of age — this serenity of football, they win 5-0, 6-0 — I would have played tennis.
It is not my sport. I don’t like winning with 80 per cent (of possession). Sorry that is not enough for me. Fighting football, not serenity football, that is what I like. What we call in German “English” — rainy day, heavy pitch, 5-5, everybody is dirty in the face and goes home and cannot play for the next four weeks.
Dortmund face Arsenal this week in what will be the second of their two Champions League group-stage encounters, having emerged victorious at the Emirates Stadium a fortnight ago.
Klopp's side did not have it all their own way in London, with Arsenal enjoying plenty of the ball and creating numerous chances. However, Dortmund's high-intensity and strength in transitions won through, earning a 2-1 victory.
It is the influences that Klopp has drawn from English football that have defined his side's play over recent years. Rather than look to dominate possession as was the growing trend, Klopp sought to raise the pace of the game and focus on counterattacks—all while pressing high.
It is, in fact, not dissimilar to the style of play that Manchester United employed in their successes of the past decade. What Klopp did, though, was add to the intensity of pressing high up the pitch. It has proved to be a major success.
Dortmund have not spent the money their continental rivals have in recent years and, indeed, have been the subject of regular raids upon their best players—with Nuri Sahin, Shinji Kagawa and Mario Gotze leaving in consecutive seasons.
While it would appear that Robert Lewandowski might be next, as reported by the Express' Jack Wilson, Klopp and his backroom staff have managed to counter such losses with excellent recruitment strategies and their irrepressible approach on the field.
The rematch at Signal Iguna Park this week will be another fascinating matchup between two in-form sides of vastly contrasting styles. Klopp and Wenger's ideologies may clash, but there can be no doubting that both have been among the best managers of recent years in spite of their differences.