Marco Reus on 'Animal' Jurgen Klopp: 'You Only Knew Somebody Like Him from TV'

Borussia Dortmund playmaker Marco Reus has revealed Jurgen Klopp played a key role in convincing him to sign for the club. 

Reus joined Dortmund in 2012, back when Klopp was still in charge, and the player evidently has a great deal of admiration for the Liverpool boss.

Per Goal's Niklas Konig, he said:

"Oh my god, Jurgen was such an animal! You only knew somebody like him from TV.

"If Jurgen sits in front of you with his aura, with his aggressiveness, which he radiates even when speaking, with his size, then that is quite impressive. Even the way he talks to you—this is rarely the case in professional business.

"He pulls you under his spell and will not let you go. I left the conversation with a fluttering heart. He was definitely one of the reasons why I signed for Dortmund."

Klopp managed Dortmund between 2008 and 2015.

In that time he won the Bundesliga title twice and the DFB-Pokal. In 2013, he also took BVB to the UEFA Champions League final, but they were beaten 2-1 by Bayern Munich.

The German's team embodied him on the pitch, with their intensity suiting his gegenpressing system perfectly.

When his Dortmund side met Arsenal in the Champions League in the 2013-14 campaign, Klopp told the Guardian's David Hytner that while Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has his team play football "like an orchestra," he preferred "heavy metal" football.

Since joining Liverpool in 2015, Klopp has added control and defensive resilience into the mix, and that saw the Reds rack up 97 points in the Premier League and win the Champions League last season.

Football writer Joel Rabinowitz observed their improvement at the back:

Commentator Jim Beglin felt Liverpool's Champions League win—which came after six consecutive defeats in cup finals for Klopp—was a reminder to his critics that he's an elite coach:

In the Premier League, Liverpool lost just once last season, to champions Manchester City.

The Reds won each of their last nine games of the campaign, but City finished the season with 14 consecutive wins, so there's little more Klopp could have done.

He has restored Liverpool to Europe's elite, though, making Anfield a much more attractive destination for top-class players than it had been for several years before he took charge.

The chance to work with Klopp will also hold plenty of appeal for potential recruits, as it did for Reus at Dortmund, and that can help the Reds continue to grow under Klopp in the coming years.