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Not the Man We Want, the Man We Need
Courtesy: Liverpool FC
I am not a fan of the Liverpool Football Club. It’s not because I find the game of soccer boring (although I do), but they clog up my baseball Twitter timeline (You are not the #Reds!) and their fans constantly sing the worst song in the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog.
But I am becoming a fan of their manager Jürgen Klopp. The 52-year old Klopp was holding his usual postgame presser after a loss to Chelsea Tuesday night when a member of media asked him about coronavirus:
What I don’t like in life is that a very serious thing, a football manager’s opinion is important. I don’t understand that. I really don’t understand it, if I asked you, you are in exactly the same role as I am.
So it’s not important what famous people say. We have to speak about things in the right manner, not people with no knowledge, like me, talking about something.
People with knowledge will talk about it and tell people to do this, do that, and everything will be fine, or not. Not football managers, I don’t understand that. Politics, coronavirus, why me? I wear a baseball cap and have a bad shave.
Then he said, “Now, go wash your hands and stop touching your face.” No. No, he didn’t. What he really said was, “I’m concerned like everyone else. I live on this planet and I want it to be safe and healthy, I wish everybody the best, absolutely. But my opinion on coronavirus is not important.”
He may not be the man I want to see in my timeline, but he’s the man many people need. Especially the press.
Published in General
Jurgen the German is a fantastic manager and a very charismatic person. I, too, am usually annoyed by Liverpool fans. But, what a team he has built.
Exactly!!
The worst song in the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalogue beats the best song in the alleged musical “Hamilton” with the knobby Shillelagh of Musical and Lyrical Superiority.
… and three cheers for Jurgen the German.
That this was posted by a non-fan among non-fans gives it more persuasive power. I hope someone posts a link.*
*At the moment I’m restricted to trying to use an iPhone, and its designers have determined that typing is not an activity that hoi polloi (or “house pillow”, which Apple apparently feels would be more automatically correct) should be entrusted with.
Is there someway for the Fenway Sports Group–which owns both Liverpool and the Red Sox–to give Mr. Klopp a bigger role with the baseball team to stop its apparent descent? A two sport manager instead of a retread like Ron Roenicke? I know–that’s a lot of transatlantic commuting.
Typical response from “Red Sox Nation.” OMG its been 494 days since Boston last won a World Series.
Good for him. He’s exactly right. I still hate soccer though.
You are correct, sir.
One year, four months, and six days.
2696 working hours (assuming a five day week and eight-hour day)
16 Federal holidays!
Time to end the drought.
It sure would be nice if more actors and other media celebrities would follow his example not just on a virus but on others of the many subjects on which they are not qualified to speak.
I thought that was Tom Selleck! :-D
Best thing I can say about Liverpool is that they’re not Manchester United
And they didn’t get the boot from the PL like City :)
Yes! Or Arsenal or Tottenham. I’m actually a huge Chelsea fan and that was a great game, but yes, Klopp is awesome.
Interesting idea. Jürgen got famous by recognizing that German football was strategically out of date, and bringing his teams, first Mainz and then Borussia Dortmund, up to date. He was a master theorist. In other words, he was a footballer, not an expert in any other game. Just as importantly, not an armchair theorist but one who was already thinking seriously about theory while still just a player–an excellent, almost top-league player.
But he got famous also by being a born leader at the level of Ronald Reagan and Chesty Puller, rolled into one. He inspires men; inspires his managerial and entrepreneurial superiors; inspires the press, and the guy who picks up the towels, and the schoolchildren; inspires the town his team plays in.
And by an unusual gift for recognizing and developing talent.
He is one of the most spectacularly successful coaches in football history today, but this is in a season when gegenpressing, zonal marking, focus on conditioning, relentless attack in the back half as soon as the ball is lost, all this stuff…is theory now known to every team.
His non-soccer-specific skills, mentioned above, must therefore be a big part of his ability.
So maybe he could coach the Red Sox.
*CL
LC (or anyone else)–please inform a relative Premier League newbie why everyone seems to hate United. I only ask because Old Trafford is spittin’ distance from my grandfather’s old home and, in looking for someone to cheer for, MU seems logical. Why not?
I’ll preface this by saying I have no location loyalty to any Premier League club, or really any European football club (I just follow players and managers). Also my favorite manager is Pep and player is Kevin de Bruyne so I basically support the devils. Granted, if either of them leaves because of the CL ban, I’ll just support wherever they go next.
United is hated because they dominated the league for so long. They’ve won the most trophies of any English club and they were the richest club for the longest time. They were so dominant during the Alex Ferguson years and I’m sure it drove a lot of the clubs crazy. Maybe it’s similar to how people feel about the Patriots here in the US. Of course now, they could not be more uneven. Really haven’t been able to find their groove after Fergie left.
But hey, now is the time to support them as they’re struggling. You never know which United team will show up to a game. It’s interesting…
Well I tried to edit my last comment and ended up click the wrong button and making a new comment.
I might as well add that Liverpool fans are so keen on reminding everyone that they’re a working class club. Yeah, all these giant clubs and their super rich players are totally working class.
They have a ton of young talent. But young is young and the team reaction to game situations is a bit hard to predict. I’ll be honest, I’m a United fan because they dominated AND balanced the books while doing it. They’re the good guys, but, honestly, I don’t really see any bad guys out there. I’ll watch any team.
Manchester City would appear to be a bad guy.
Yeah City and PSG are the devils to the majority of futbol fans. But as I’ve said, I’ll follow Pep and De Bruyne anywhere. I guess these fans would call me a plastic fan, despite having watched the sport my whole life.
Well, as a center-back, I always enjoy/ed watching Vincent Kompany play, nevermind who he played for.
But as to Klopp, I agree with everything you and Mark said.
To answer your question, Hoyacon… for me, it was because off Ruud van Nistelrooy. I hated the guy. Diving is pretty ridiculous in football but he took it to another level and was just a jerk in my opinion. I wanted to like them because they had an American in goal but I just couldn’t.
I think my team, Chelsea, are considered the ultimate “bad guys.” It’s a strange choice for me considering my views on Putin and Russia. I started getting into the sport in 2003. I had a lot of British and Irish friends. My best friend was a lifelong Liverpool fan. Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal were top teams at the time. Roman Abramovich had just bought Chelsea. All my friends absolutely hated them. For them, a rich, Russian oligarch bringing in all that money and buying up players was going to ruin the game. I was new to the game, had no loyalties and was looking for a team in the PL. I liked Mutu, Lampard and Terry. They got Mourinho as manager. There was a lot of buzz around them and to keep pub banter with “the lads” fun I chose them. So, I guess I kind of jumped on a bandwagon but once I chose them I had to stay with them. I’ve been a loyal fan ever since. KTBFFH!
As a lifelong Leeds United fan I’m mandated to hate Manchester United and Liverpool. Like Mets fans mostly hate the Yankees, Real Madrid fans hate Barcelona,etc. It doesn’t have to be justified. That having been said, Manchester United has a particular arrogance, seeing itself as a “special” club that everyone should love- it doesn’t work like that. Also, in the Ferguson years they withdrew from the FA Cup on the basis that they were too busy. They may as well have said they were washing their hair! The acronym ABU (anyone but United) is very popular.
My animus toward Liverpool is based solely on the number of times they pipped Leeds to the post in the 1970s. It’s not visceral.
Yeah, they were for a while. But I mean who’s worse: a Russian oligarch, a UAE sheikh, or Qatar? I don’t know what the punchline to this joke is, but I’m sure the losers are all of us fans.
What a mess the 2022 World Cup will be.