Jurgen Klopp did not arrive at Liverpool promising the earth for the supporters.
He did not expect to win the Premier League in his first season, nor did he anticipate an immediate uplift in their results on the pitch. He knew that with this squad, he needed time to rebuild if his objectives were to be achieved.
In his first press conference at Melwood on October 8, 2015, there was excitement and anticipation sweeping across the club.
After all, they had managed to convince one of the most promising coaches in Europe to take over from Brendan Rodgers.
A two-time Bundesliga winner with Borussia Dortmund who also guided the German outfit to the 2012-13 Champions League final, Klopp was renowned for creating an identity within a club.
It would be a long journey to bring Liverpool back into the mix as title contenders. Rodgers had came close in 2013-14 when he had Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge at his disposal.
But the squad Klopp inherited was a far cry from being able to compete with champions Chelsea or their closest challengers Manchester City. Mario Balotelli was there, Steven Caulker had signed on loan and even Jordon Ibe was getting minutes.
Klopp, ever the realist, made no attempt to hide his desire to tear apart the squad and rebuild.
"This is one of the biggest problems in Liverpool,” he said, when asked what his aims would be at Liverpool. “The Premier League is one of the most difficult in the world.
“There's five, six or seven clubs that can be the champions. Only one can win and all the others are disappointed and live in the middle of disaster.”
In his mini monologue, Klopp set out his vision for how Liverpool were going to play and knew that he had to fully immerse himself in the history of the club to take them to new heights. More than anything else, that meant forging an understanding with the club’s passionate fanbase.
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Those who saw his work at Mainz and Dortmund would not be surprised with his preference for high intensity pressing, but it would have an everlasting effect on the future of English football.
“The most important for the development is the start,” he added. “This is a good moment to restart. It’s not important now who is the winners of the Premier League,” he added.
“We play our own game and it's important the players feel the confidence and trust of the people.
"They have to think they can reach the expectations of the fans and the press. If someone wants to help they have to change from doubter to believer.
"We have to change our performance because no one is satisfied at the moment. If you want to enjoy the game you have to be prepared.
“You want to see fighting spirit, many sprints, many shots, and the result is the result of these things."
Some might have called it a five-year plan, but Klopp only needed three. He cleared out the dead wood, made some shrewd signings and gradually found the players who could bring his blueprint to life.
His first summer transfer window in 2016 was one of the most important. Splashing out £34m on Sadio Mane felt like a lot at the time, but Klopp had previously tried and failed to sign Mane at Dortmund. This time, he made sure he succeeded.
Georginio Wijnaldum signed for £25m from Newcastle, while Klopp used his Bundesliga knowledge to snap up Joel Matip on a free transfer. From then on, it was all about finding one player every summer to incrementally improve the squad.
In 2017, it was the £38m signing of Mohamed Salah that breathed new life into the Reds attack, alongside Mane and Roberto Firmino, scoring a record 32 goals in his first season. The next year, Virgil van Dijk arrived from Southampton for a club-record £75m fee to tighten up their leaky backline.
It was enough to put Liverpool back on the map as they reached the 2017-18 Champions League final, but two crucial errors from Loris Karius handed Real Madrid the trophy with a 3-1 win. In the summer, Klopp solved their goalkeeping problem by replacing Karius with £68m signing Alisson Becker.
Those three players would help bring Liverpool closer to Premier League glory than they had ever been before in 2018-19, when they missed out on the title by a single point as Manchester City finished the season with an incredible 99 points.
By this point, it became clear that Klopp had already what he set out to do in his press conference. The German and his talented squad had given the fans a taste of what success could look like — now they wanted the whole meal.
There was a shift in the direction he was taking this Liverpool team in. Everyone knew that they could play attractive and fluid football, but that did not always equate to getting the results they wanted.
Klopp had seen Antonio Conte win the 2016-17 title with Chelsea with a distinctively average squad that had finished 10th the previous season merely by being extremely difficult to beat. And with two of the best goalkeepers and defenders in the world in Alisson and Van Dijk, Liverpool focused on their strengths by altering their style.
At times, it was not pretty. They grinded out results, with 14 of their wins in the 2019-20 season being decided by a one-goal margin, but the result was all that mattered. In the Champions League final in May 2019, Tottenham had the majority of the chances but it was Liverpool who came away with a 2-0 win in Madrid.
Up until a 3-0 defeat to Watford in February 2020, Liverpool had won 26 out of their last 27 games. Their unbeaten run had stretched back even further — to January 2019 when they succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to Man City.
In the 66 Premier League games they had played between May 2018 and June 2020, they had won 55, drawn nine and lost two. No other team even came close to beating such a record.
It was that season, unsurprisingly, when Klopp and his players finally ended the 30 years of pain for Liverpool. They were no longer one of the “five or six clubs that are in the middle of a disaster” — they were Premier League champions.
Their title defence was no disaster as they finished third in 2020-21, but a run of six straight defeats at Anfield — the worst run in the club’s history — did cast a dark shadow over his illustrious reign. But with the backing of the Fenway Sports Group and his players, they made it through a difficult period.
Now, into his sixth season as Liverpool coach, Klopp faces a new challenge altogether in trying to match up to what his side had previously achieved and compete with the riches of Chelsea and Man City.
The 54-year-old has already hinted his contract, which expires in 2024, might be his last at Anfield. But he can hold his head high with the knowledge that he has achieved everything he set out to in his opening press conference — and there is still time for more.
