- Demanding coach spent seven years with BVB
- Has always been a fiery character
- Enjoyed trophy triumphs in Germany & England
WHAT HAPPENED? Former BVB physio Thomas Zetzmann has made that revelation while discussing the 16 years that he spent working with the Bundesliga giants. Klopp delivered many happy memories during that time, with Dortmund savouring title triumphs and runs to the Champions League final across the German tactician’s seven seasons at the helm. The current Liverpool coach was always demanding, though, of those at his disposal – with third-choice keeper Alomerovic finding that out the hard way during one particularly brutal training exercise.
WHAT THEY SAID: Zetzmann told GOAL and SPOX when asked for his favourite Klopp anecdote: “Once in training camp in Marbella, everyone was not really awake yet and the training match did not go very well. The third goalkeeper, Zlatan Alomerovic, collided with a player. I was standing a good distance away with the ice box, but immediately saw blood running from his nose. You have to know that with Jurgen, you should only run onto the field when it's really critical. He didn't want to interrupt the game unnecessarily. That was something like an educational measure for the players, he always demanded a healthy toughness. As a physio, you sometimes got a good run-in if you ran into something he thought was unnecessary. Zlatan was bleeding a lot. Jurgen, however, got upset about the interruption and just shouted: 'Get up!' And Zlatan shouted back: 'What do you mean, get up? Don't you see?' No one has ever dared to do that in all these years. He said coldly: 'What did you just say? You get up right now and go into your goal. Or do you want to go back to the second team?' I tried to calm him down, but Jurgen was probably fired up due to the lax play and then also attacked me. Afterwards he apologised as he often does and said that he had exaggerated and that he could have managed the situation quite differently.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Klopp’s fearsome reputation in Dortmund meant that many members of the club's medical team were afraid to go near him, with Zetzmann adding on how fitness updates had to be delivered: “With Jurgen - there were no daily medical sessions then - it was like this: every morning at eight o'clock, one of the therapists had to hand in a list of who could train and who could not. With him, it always depended on his daily mood, sometimes he really got fired up. That's why none of my colleagues dared to go to him with the list for over a year. I usually went there because I wasn't afraid and just told him what was going on. The motto was: 'Give us two more days with this player, I have had his muscles in my hand and I'm the expert - then he can play at the weekend.' Jurgen usually liked this courage and the clear message and accepted it.”
IN TWO PHOTOS:
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GettyWHAT NEXT? Klopp left Dortmund in 2015, taking the reins at Liverpool in the October of that year, and has gone on to deliver Premier League, Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup, FA Cup and Carabao Cup glory with his unique brand of management at Anfield.