Close on the hills of driving Liverpool to the Premier League title after an agonizing 30 years wait, coach Jurgen Klopp has been awarded the LMA “Manager of the Year” title on Monday. Not only Liverpool ended the three-decade draught of a Premier League title, but Klopp also propelled The Reds to FIFA Club World Championship win the same year.
The announcement of the award was made by Ex-Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson after whom the trophy is named. Speaking to the media, Ferguson said “Jurgen, Fantastic.” He extolled Liverpool for winning the title after so long. “You thoroughly deserved it. The performance level of your team was outstanding. Your personality runs right throughout the whole club. It was a marvelous performance.”
Klopp too reciprocated Ferguson’s largesse. The former Borussia Dortmund boss Klopp said of Ferguson: “I know it’s not 100% appropriate as a Liverpool manager but I admire him. I remember he was the first British manager I met.”
The runner-up of the trophy went to Chris Wilder, who was the winner last year. His team Sheffield United had an impressive first season back in the Premier League.
Klopp, now wants to keep the Liverpool squad lean to remain competitive next season. He used 24 players this season. Jurgen provided great chances to some of the club’s academy players in the FA Cup as well as League Cups. He always believed that maintaining a small core team keeps players on their toes.
“The solution cannot be to have a much bigger squad for the specific moment and then realise you cannot use all the players. The size of the squad is not that important to me, the quality of the squad is very much so,” Klopp said.
Image courtesy: DW
