Manchester United icon Peter Schmeichel has revealed a remarkable story from the early days of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp 's regime, offering an insight into how the German has reinvigorated the club.
Klopp arrived at Anfield back in October 2015 with the Reds in a period of transition.
His predecessor, current Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers, had steered Liverpool to within a whisker of the Premier League title back in the 2013/14 season.
But there was a confidence, in time, that the Reds could go one better under Klopp - with the German arriving on Merseyside with a reputation as one of Europe's most exciting coaches.
Klopp did guide Liverpool to the title in 2020, five years after his arrival, ending a 30-year domestic drought.
But his impact has been felt at Anfield since day one - something that Schmeichel alluded to when discussing the Reds chief.
Schmeichel recalled a story he'd been told about Klopp gathering his players together shortly after his arrival in an interview with The Times.
“Klopp asked the players if they knew all the names of the staff and all the jobs they did," Schmeichel said.
"No one knew. And he said, ‘Right you have one week and if you don’t know who these guys are then you are not for Liverpool, because that’s not what Liverpool is.’
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“In that one go you make your football important, and the football club important, and make the players think about where they belong.
“In this fast-moving world, I love that. All this talk of growth, growth, growth. It’s about having a manager that understands it is not just a football club but an institution and that it exists on this kind of fuel.”
After a difficult first year in charge, the transformation that Klopp has overseen on Merseyside has been nothing short of remarkable.
He guided the Reds to the Champions League back in 2019 just weeks after they were agonisingly pipped to domestic dominance by Pep Guardiola's irrepressible Manchester City side.
The following year, Liverpool rebounded to make history, as they surged back to their perch atop English football for the first time in three decades.
His achievements have seen him etch his name into Anfield history alongside some of the club's greatest ever managers.
And Liverpool legend, and current Rangers boss, Steven Gerrard, even claimed last year that Klopp was up "with the best" managers the club had ever seen.
“The institution of Liverpool is almost like a religion – people who take the baton off each other to continue the Liverpool way, going back to [Bill] Shankly, [Bob] Paisley, [Joe] Fagan,” Gerrard told the documentary Jurgen Klopp: Germany's Greatest Export .
“And Jurgen has come and taken all that pressure on his shoulders of one of the biggest clubs in the world, played phenomenal, ferocious football, and won trophies. He came with his shoulders back, believing he would deliver success.
“So he’s right up there with the best Liverpool managers, and the best managers in the world. Fact.”
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