Football is our beautiful game, from watching some of the best players show dazzling skills in big moments, in stadiums lit up with a plethora of colour vacating for 60,000+ passionate fans. However, the mental side of the game is significant, if not more significant. See, what we see on the pitch is only a small percentage of the work that goes in to make a football team successful. To have all the practical skills is one thing, but instilling this winning mentality into the players is the biggest contributor to elevating success in competitions.
Let’s look at Liverpool as a prime example of a club that has progressed since Jurgen Klopp’s arrival, and how they have become the great force and competition to arguably the greatest team on the planet – Manchester City.
Jürgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool when he left Borussia Dortmund in 2015. When Klopp first arrived, results weren’t going his way, he finished the season in eighth place which was very underwhelming for a club the size of Liverpool. This is the example of a “forming stage” when he has just joined the team and is starting to build relationships with the players and staff.
A famous quote from Jürgen Klopp: “In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.
I guess playing for a big club is a big deal after all.
“I have only one understanding of development and of making success, and that’s by going step by step.” Every game for Liverpool is a battle, and the only way you can achieve is by performing in each individual game.
Gill Bath, member of the Press team at Liverpool FC said: “He (Klopp) came in and instilled this whole new culture, and what came with that was new belief for all the players. He gave them all a fresh slate to start fresh and this created almost a new lease of life amongst all the players and background staff at the football club.”
Success is such a vast precedent that there’s numerous ways of obtaining it, and various factors that can cause a team to achieve highly. However, any team is capable of putting together a good run of form in their league, but consistency is what separates those champions from everyone else.
Manchester City have been so dominant in recent years, without any other team considerably threatening their claim to dominance. Liverpool under Klopp have been the only team to match Manchester City’s winning mentality and compete for trophies against them.
There was this new and fresh sense of belief at Liverpool, as Gill Bath continued to say, “Everyone at the club worked together knowing that if the players pushed each other to test their inner-champion mentality, then we would achieve something great as a collective.”
After the miracles of the 2018 season and the formidable form they picked up in England and Europe, people were believing Liverpool could reignite their huge football status as they did all those years ago.
Many people had them down to win the premier league after coming so close the year before.
This was the first year where football fans, particularly Liverpool fans, had expectations of winning the Premier League and progressing far into the Champions league (previously winning the competition).
Since the start of the 2019/20 season, Liverpool went unbeaten all season, picking up 67 points from a possible 69, only dropping points again Manchester United in a 1-1 draw. Therefore, these Liverpool players gained a winning reputation, and will settle for nothing less than a win.
He guided the club to successive UEFA Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the latter to secure his first – and Liverpool’s sixth title in the competition.
Klopp’s expectations and aspirations are now so high; “Anyone can have a good day, but you have to be able to perform on a bad day”. Therefore, clearly it has taken some time for Klopp to establish Liverpool as the best in England, but through hard work and added belief they are now arguably the best in the country and arguably in Europe.
Despite this, the reds saw their unbeaten run come to an end as they were defeated 3-0 by Watford. This could be an example of reversing the stages and could be the “forming stage” as Liverpool had to reset and try and reinvigorate that winning mentality.
Max Hayes, a Nottingham Forest journalist, and content creator believes it is this champion mentality which defines the tough, maybe undeserved wins at times and ultimately propels teams over the line.
“Looking on as a Forest fan now we are in the topflight, I think these big teams that come to the City Ground know and expect to get the win.
“Seeing the Liverpool’s and Man City’s come here you can just see how confident the players are, and we’ve had some incredible atmosphere’s here, but these elite players don’t let the noise affect their game.”
It is clear these players don’t let the hostile occasion get to them, and that’s what “separates the great players with the elite in world football.
“In modern day football, it’s all about the togetherness, on and off the pitch. Liverpool and Man City for example have done so well because of their connection; they strive for the best which creates winning mentality by default.”
The scale of Liverpool’s revolution under Jürgen Klopp has been seismic in every regard, not just in the club’s dramatically transformed fortunes on the pitch, but also the general mood and atmosphere off it; Klopp being the architect of the club’s revolution.
Klopp of course, is the primary decision maker, the one who has cultivated a team which plays according to his own set of football principles.
He’s the one who has unlocked the full potential of individual footballers at his disposal and gelled them together to create one of the most complete teams in the world, even Everton fans can’t argue.
Some were already there when he first arrived, and others were brought in from elsewhere to help execute his long-term vision. “We should play free football, defend lively with a passion, and have the best understanding in offence”. This is a prime example of Klopp wanting to set up his Liverpool team to play quality football, believing they can beat their opposition with various ways of winning.
David Charlton, HCPC Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist at Sport Excellence, said “there’s a fine balance to find in football, there’s the arrogance and there’s confidence”; it appears finding this balance is one of the most difficult concepts for players to apply to games and individual battles.
Klopp has a unique bond with the fan base and how he has comprehensively delivered on his initial promise to “turn doubters to believers”, instilling confidence, pride and self-belief in a set of supporters whose collective morale was broken when he joined.
Mr Charlton continued: “Football is just as much won or lost on what goes on in the mind as it is to what happens on the pitch.”
Speaking after their remarkable 1-0 FA Cup win against bitter rivals Everton in 2020, he said: “It only works because of the environment the players create in this group. The role-models, they couldn’t be better. Trent, as a scouser, is ideal for Curtis. Milner, Hendo, Adam, they helped create the situation of what is allowed and what isn’t”.
He created a team of winners.
While Klopp excels on improving footballers from a sporting perspective, he has also built a culture within the squad where he can rely on his players to demand excellence from each other and set an example for youngsters coming through.
As well as finding players with the right physical and technical abilities to fit into his preferred approach, Klopp has also been careful with the types of personalities he has brought into his squad. Creating a great team dynamic, and a team of players who respond to his own personality was a recipe for success.
As football fans we can’t argue with Klopp’s mastermind approach to installing winning mentality, however the biggest secret to success is staring us in the face. Motivation and hard work is “what you live for as a sportsman. You have to put up a fight”.
Max Hayes is a best selling author and sports
psychologist who has worked with the likes of
Gareth Bale, Eddie Howe, and Steve McClaren.
David Charlton is a sports and exercise psychologist
who works with Sport Excellence. He has worked
with thousands of amateur to elite athletes.
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