Jürgen Klopp: "Losing, it's like a very powerful medicine" | Sports | German Football and Major International Sports News | DW

DW: final of the Europa League 2016, final of the Champions League 2018. Defeat Barcelona and you will be in your third European final (with Liverpool).

Jürgen Klopp: Yes, impressive is not it! We will see. Barcelona is a very good team. I have seen so many games with other teams playing – and losing – against Barcelona, ​​but I have never faced them myself in a competitive match. I've always thought that it would be interesting to test myself against them.

But do not forget that we are not a draw for the other teams either. I do not think that the teams are drawn against Liverpool and think: it's a great draw, we can go out and crush them. We ourselves are a very good football team and we will try everything to win.

What is the key to beat Barcelona?

We must do our defense work properly and have the courage to play our football when we have the opportunity. When they have the ball, you must have a high level of patience and not be frustrated. They will pbad the balloon for long periods and just accept it. But then you will have your moments where you have the ball and then you must be the biggest threat that they can imagine.

What's more important: winning the Champions League or the Premier League?

Friday night, winning the Premier League is more important. * Wednesday, win the Champions League is more important. Then the weekend, the Premier League again. Then Tuesday, return to the Champions League. So I can not make that decision. You must play your best football every game. But if you ask the fans, the answer is obvious: they want to win the league more than anything.

But you almost won the Champions League last season in the final against Real Madrid …

The trip last year helped us a lot because it was difficult. It was a really interesting experience. Losing is a very interesting experience. This is not necessarily something you want, but it's like a very powerful medicine. And if you take it, it can help.

I have lost the last six finals in which I was. These were not the best days of my life, but they did not break me. For me, life is about trying again and again. If only the winners could survive, we all had to go. These are experiences, their use and what we do with them.

What makes you different from other coaches who have not participated in as many finals as you?

I'm lucky! When I was at school doing my baccalaureate, I won a sporting award. My best friends won the science prize, the language prize and a sports prize. And the head teacher said: I hope it will work for football, really. Because if not, I'm really worried about you!

But seriously, I'm really lucky to be where I am. It's amazing. Most of my colleagues have to work all their lives and do not go to the Champions League final. They are fantastic coaches but who may not have had the teams I had and who have not had the experience of playing against Bayern Munich or the United States. Real Madrid in the final of the Champions League.

Otherwise, I consider myself a normal person. OK, I know a little more about football than other people. That's true. But that does not make me a special person. It 's only lucky because 500 years ago, this knowledge would not have helped me, I could have been a dancing jester in front of the king, but I would have slept in the street.

I am really very lucky to need my best skills. And I appreciate that every day. I know [field] hockey coaches who work five times as hard and earn four percent of what I earn. I'm smart enough not to overestimate that.

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But it is not just by chance. What are your best coaching skills that make you stand out?

I've always been very interested in people and that has never changed. The problems of the players have changed a lot because of social media and other things of the same kind. They are much more under pressure. They are all still very young and yet they are judged every day. It's like constantly living in a glbad house, because everyone sees everything you do, and every mistake and every failure is judged.

If you are good, you are exceptional. If you are not so good, you are the worst in the world.
There is nothing in between, there is no gray area – there is only black and white. The gray area has disappeared one way or another.

If you win the Champions League, you are the best in the world. If you lose it, nobody cares why. You are not even second best: you are the worst. And those who say that it has never been close to a final, but they have social media. I am not on social media, so personally, I do not hear what people are saying. But the players use it and they have all these critics and that stick. They are fine with that. They know that we are all judged by the outside world.

How do you help your players manage this?

J & # 39; listening. I still have a lot of contacts with my old club players and they call me to ask for advice and ask what I think. And I'm happy to listen. I do not make decisions for them, but when you listen to people, they often make the decision themselves. Just ask the right questions and the person finds out for himself. This is the best way to do it. Education never stops.

Social media was not something you had to tackle when you started in Mainz. What else has changed since?

I have a lot older! But the job has completely changed. In Mainz, I was absolutely responsible for everything that concerned the football team – with Christian Heidel, the sports director. We had to know everything about the club and make all the decisions, but it was the best way to learn the job. We had to do everything and no one really looked at her because nobody really cared about Mainz. I had to learn the hard way and that's what I did.

For what I was doing alone, I now have about 20 badistants. Nowadays, I am no more than the director of a large staff of coaches. And I'm able to do it because I know what all my staff do, because I did it myself!

Take our fitness service, for example. It's at a completely different level. What do I know about this? A little bit. Do I know everything? Not far from here! But I do not need to know everything. I have an understanding and I delegate. That's what good managers do. I have learned everything in Mainz, things that I will use for the rest of my life.

Jürgen Klopp had a much smaller staff when he started his coaching career in Mainz

You also work in another country and you have been nominated for the German Football Ambbadadors Award. How important is it to you?

I think we are all ambbadadors. I think it's important that football players use their positions positively. Not necessarily in a specific ambbadador role but as something that occurs naturally.

I've always wanted to live in a foreign country. For me, the best thing about living in England as a German, is to see that we are so similar and so different at the same time. It's amazing. We are not the same, but we are much closer and much more alike than you perhaps can imagine.

I love it when people from around the world come together. I do not like to think about obstacles and it 's what I like most about the EU: we can travel where we want. I know it is not always easy nor 100% perfect but I still like the idea.

Jürgen Klopp, 51, has coached the English Premier League club in Liverpool since replacing Brendan Rodgers who was sacked in October 2015. He is still looking for his first title with the club after Liverpool finished runners-up in the league. League Cup and European Cup 2015-2016 and finalists of the Champions League last year. In his previous post at Borussia Dortmund, Klopp has won the Bundesliga twice, including the league and cup doubles of Germany in 2011-12. He began coaching in Mainz, where he finished his playing career. In his first coaching job, he led Mainz to promote the Bundesliga in 2003-04.

*[Liverpool beat Huddersfield 5-0 on Friday. The interview was conducted before that match was played.]

The interview was conducted by Jana Schäfer.