James Milner, who played under Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool for eight years, has shared how his boss’ character altered during his time at Anfield. Milner, now with Brighton, still speaks highly of Klopp and recently commented on how he “changed” over his tenure.
Milner was a key player in Klopp’s successful Liverpool reign, winning a Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup. Known as one of the best free transfers of recent times, he joined from Manchester City during Brendan Rodgers’ time at Anfield.
The former England international spoke about how Klopp developed during his time as manager. On the Football’s Greatest Managers Podcast with Jeff Stelling, Milner was asked if Klopp “mellowed” during his reign.
“Yeah, he did,” Milner said. “At the start, there were not many days off, a lot longer and harder training at times. And then I think to his credit, Germany was a lot different as they have the winter break, whereas England, Christmas is the busiest period. I think he learned to trust the team.
“I think he had ideas about players and maybe English players as well, they like to drink a lot, don’t prepare well and I think he saw with the squad he had that it wasn’t like that, and if players got a day off they would look after themselves. To his credit, he changed things and softened as time went on, but never lost his edge.
“He was more definitely aggressive at the start, he lost his rag a bit more at the start, but that is setting the standards. It’s probably the players he had wasn’t his squad and he wanted to get his point across.”
Milner’s words show how Klopp has changed and adapted, and the benefits are clear for everyone to see — in 2020, Liverpool won its first league title in 30 years. This season, Liverpool is in a great position to fight for the league title, as it’s currently at the top of the leaderboard, just two points above Manchester City.
