KLOPP: Failure on one day won’t ever define me

JURGEN KLOPP has cried the bitter tears of final-day disappointment before but he is unlikely to do so today. Not because Liverpool are certain to win the league.

Their chance of that remains very much an outside one.

Klopp will retain his equanimity partly because he already has two trophies in the cabinet and the chance of a third next weekend in Paris. But largely it’s because his first two years of management at Mainz taught him to maintain perspective.

He does failure well. Maybe better than any other manager. Not that he likes to lose but he does have a gift of placing setbacks within a bigger picture, which is enormously inspiring.

It started in Mainz in his first full season in management in 2001-02. He was the wunderkind of the Bundesliga 2, The

Championship equivalent, as Mainz occupied an unlikely promotion place for what would be an unprecedented stint in the top flight.

The club needed just three points from their last three games but got just two, losing 3-1 at Union Berlin on the final of the season.

‘Our life’s dream has been destroyed,’ Klopp said then, crying with players in the dressing room.

The following season, on the final day in 2003, they had to outscore Eintracht Frankfurt by a goal to go up. Mainz were

4-0 up and Frankfurt winning 4-3 with ten minutes to play.

But then Mainz conceded a late goal and Frankfurt scored twice in injury time to win 6-3 and went up at Mainz’s expense. So, when Klopp spoke last week of the importance of enjoying the journey no matter what the end result, it was a lesson honed from experience.

‘I knew (this) at that time already,’ said the German on Friday, recalling those Mainz defeats. ‘I’m not sure I said it at that time but I thought it. Out of 365 days, 364 days at Mainz were better than ever before in our lives as footballers. And the last one was particularly bad. It’s up to us to judge what we make of that.

‘And I always made of that: “Okay, let’s give it a try and make 365 of it (next time)”. Things work out if you stay on track. If you stay in the right mood. And that’s what we will do.’

Liverpool will not fear failure today if they don’t overhaul Manchester City having, for a second time in four years, accumulated more than 90 points only to finish second. Klopp has been there and done that disappointment so many times that he knows exactly how to use the moment.

He is a master of positivity and amidst all the tension, he really does look as though he is having the time of his life in the Anfield hotseat.

‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘Absolutely. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a few exciting times. If you ask my missus, she asks why always go down to the last matchday. It happens incredibly often. It’s absolutely massive and, yes, it’s the most exciting time of my career.

‘It feel like five minutes ago it was seven games. Now, wham, here we go — two finals. We’ve played finals since ages ago, but now it’s really two finals.’