Is Jurgen Klopp Liverpool's Last Shot at Returning to Football's Elite?

Certain things will feel awfully familiar for Jurgen Klopp in his new job as Liverpool manager. When the Kop performs "You’ll Never Walk Alone" for the first time during his tenure, the German might even sing along, given that he must know the words from his time at Borussia Dortmund.

Indeed, Klopp is also accustomed to the pressures and demands of restoring a once-glorious club which hasn’t enjoyed much glory of late.

At Dortmund, he took a team languishing near the foot of the Bundesliga table and turned them into Europe’s most dynamic, enthralling side. At Liverpool, he is charged with a similar brief.

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Football is a game of scant consensus, but with the appointment of Klopp, the sport is in unusual agreement. The German is the best—and perhaps only—qualified man for the job, and it’s a job that has consumed plenty before him. That doesn’t ensure Klopp will be a surefire success at Anfield, though.

There are too many variables to consider before making such an assumption about the new man in the Liverpool dugout. Will Klopp find a way to work under the club’s infamous transfer committee? Can he make the most of the Reds’ expensive, if unbalanced, squad? But one factor—the historical pressure—will be somewhat less tangible, even if the German proved he can cope with as much at Borussia Dortmund.

For Liverpool, though, the price of failure with this appointment could be even greater than it would be for the man himself.

Having lost their title as England’s most successful and storied football club—to their greatest rivals, Manchester United, no less—the Reds are looking for the sparkle they lost some time ago. If Klopp cannot find it, then they might finally be out of ideas.

Not since the arrival of Rafael Benitez 11 years ago have Liverpool made such an exciting appointment. Following his exit from Borussia Dortmund at the end of last season, Klopp was one of European football’s most sought-after coaches, so his hiring is something of a coup for the Anfield club.

His appointment makes a statement about their direction—or intended direction—under the Fenway Sports Group. 

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Klopp is the elite coach Liverpool have long been told to target. With an elite manager finally in place, they might make progress on becoming an elite team—at least that is the theory. The Anfield club have tried pretty much every other approach in their efforts to reverse two decades' worth of damage.

In Roy Hodgson, Liverpool opted for a homegrown approach—hiring a manager whose recent success made for modest reading.

Then they went for the returning club legend, Kenny Dalglish, in the hope he could inspire the club into replicating the glory days. Unsurprisingly, the idea of using nostalgia over any footballing sense or sensibility ultimately failed, taking Liverpool no closer to their short-term aim of Champions League qualification. 

Brendan Rodgers’ appointment heralded a new way of thinking at Anfield, with the club looking to implement their own "Moneyball" ideology.

The Northern Irish, self-styled thinking-man came closer than any Liverpool manager in over 20 years to winning the Premier League title, but, with time, his stewardship and philosophy unravelled.

His dismissal earlier this month was the consequence of a deeper malaise that had been building for the best part of a year on Merseyside. 

Klopp is a different mould of boss, with his man-management as big a part of his success up until now as any tactical expertise. Liverpool for so long have been a big-name club without a big-name manager, but with the German’s arrival last week, that has now changed. 

Yet should Klopp fail to achieve all that will be asked of him at Liverpool, where will the Merseyside club turn next? In a sense, the hiring of the German is their last throw of the dice in the attempt to finally build a team worthy of the club’s stature—even if the odds are somewhat in their favour.

Ever since the exit of Benitez five years ago, Liverpool have always had a safety net—an escape route that theorised everything would be made better with the hiring of a top-tier coach. Now that option has been exercised, and the Anfield club have thrown everything they have behind Klopp.

This appointment simply cannot fail, otherwise the Reds might finally have to accept they are no longer a big club—whatever that truly means.

With the appointments of Hodgson and Rodgers in particular, Liverpool might have tried to be too smart for their own good. In that regard, it’s probably a good thing Klopp was the obvious candidate for the job this time around. In essentially every way, he is the right man for the job.

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“There is no doubt, this is a huge challenge, for me and my coaching team,” he said, per Marcus Christenson of the Guardian. “We knew that full well [when we accepted the job]. Liverpool have not had any success for a long time and they’ve changed the manager all the time. And now they have appointed a German who is no miracle worker. Progress is not possible without a bit of time.”

Klopp may have talked himself down at his unveiling, but the grand objective of his briefing is clear—it might even be an unwritten one, it’s so obvious.

Along with England winning the World Cup, a Liverpool league triumph is up there as one of football’s grand objectives that seem destined to never happen—but the German is charged with countering that. He has three years on his contract to do so.

At his first press conference, the former Dortmund coach asked not to be compared with those who came before him, and failed, at Anfield. The club probably doesn't wish to reflect on past mistakes, either.

Liverpool have given it all in their efforts to return to the top of English football—and now with Klopp in charge, they really might have tried everything.