Steven Gerrard is set to return to Liverpool in a coaching role, while Jürgen Klopp believes it is harder for high-profile players to step straight into management due to the unforgiving spotlight.
The former Liverpool and England captain officially retired from playing on Thursday, almost 18 years to the day since his Premier League debut against Blackburn Rovers. Gerrard scored 186 goals in 710 appearances for Liverpool, where he became the only player to score in Champions League, Uefa Cup, FA Cup and League Cup finals, won 114 caps for England and bowed out after a 17-month spell at LA Galaxy. “I can’t deliver what I used to be able to deliver and as time goes on that’s frustrating,” he said.
Gerrard is likely to take a role at Liverpool’s academy having rejected the chance to manage MK Dons, believing the opportunity with the League One club arrived too soon.
The Football Association are also interested in utilising the 36-year-old’s vast experience. A position with England’s under-21s or 20s may be an option once Gareth Southgate is confirmed as the national team manager.
Klopp reiterated that Liverpool’s door is open for Gerrard on Thursday when he became exasperated by the focus on the Anfield legend. The questioning, and the anticipated job offer at academy level, underlined the Liverpool manager’s belief that constant scrutiny makes it harder for stars to succeed as managers.
“In the first few years at Mainz if I was training naked no one would have seen me,” he said. “I didn’t do that by the way. When people accept you will make mistakes it helps. The best thing at Mainz was we could learn everything from doing things right and wrong.”
He added: “You have your first game, you make the wrong decision, then you develop and it’s about collecting points, then to stay in the league, then to win the league or whatever. It was not that every day everyone wanted to know: ‘How are you?’
“We had no one around and we could fight for a little bit without public interest, especially in Mainz. I can’t change this for all of them. In Manchester it is the same with [Ryan] Giggs. ‘Where will he go next?’ If you want these guys on the bench, let them work and don’t handle them as the players they were before. That is a little advice from a very average football player.”
Klopp claimed the problem is not confined to England and suggested it would be easier for big-name players to continue flourishing within the game if their coaching career began away from heightened interest. “From our 1990 world champions there are not a lot of managers. It is easy to make it easier for these unbelievably good footballers. Being a good footballer is not all you need to be a good manager but it helps. It is something I lacked but it does not mean I don’t understand. It just means there are a few things I could imagine on the pitch about the right decisions. Maybe you can help make more England managers in England in the future if they can start working at the beginning and not in the middle or the end.”
As for confirmation of Gerrard’s return to Liverpool, Klopp said: “Nothing is decided at the moment. Obviously no one can wait for the moment. Don’t make the period more difficult until something is to be announced.”
