It’s one of the enduring images of Jurgen Klopp’s time as Liverpool manager, although even his own players weren’t convinced by the celebrations that followed one of his first games in charge.
Klopp of course departed Anfield as one of the Reds’ most successful managers, and without doubt one of the most influential. The club was transformed under the German’s leadership, with Arne Slot now continuing that success.
During his early days on Merseyside though, things weren’t so easy for Klopp. The former Borussia Dortmund boss arrived in October 2015 after Brendan Rodgers’ dismissal, and he was presented with a side struggling to pick up points.
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Klopp’s first four league games in charge saw just one win, and the last of those fixtures was a humbling 2-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace. The then-Liverpool boss was left visibly irked as he saw fans leaving the stadium early that night, but just a month later, he would be showing his appreciation to them in a somewhat unorthodox way.
Having rescued a 2-2 draw against West Brom at Anfield thanks to a stoppage time goal from Divock Origi, Klopp joined hands with his players to celebrate in front of the Kop.
“I saw it, people were still there, and we said thank you,” Klopp explains in 'Doubters to Believers Liverpool FC: Klopp's Era', the new documentary charting his time at Anfield.
“And it was not on purpose in the sense of ‘come on, we have to do this, and that, to bring the people, it was just the honest thing to do, what we felt. Thank you for supporting us until the last whistle.”
The celebrations would become a source of ridicule for many rival fans, given Liverpool hadn’t actually won the game. And even Klopp’s own players weren’t too convinced about it, as former Reds midfielder Adam Lallana explained in the documentary.
“It was extremely different for us. We’d never done an ole in front of the fans before,” Lallana said.
“Slightly embarrassed, I think, doing that. But the fans seeing his emotion and his passion on the sideline, they connected, and it soon changed the atmosphere at Anfield.”
Klopp’s celebrations in front of the Kop would become a regular feature of his time in charge at Anfield, although he would go on to usually conduct them by himself. Despite some ridicule from elsewhere, fans quickly became enamoured with the German, who would go on to re-establish Liverpool as one of the world’s top teams.
“The people here see football as kind of a mirror of their life,” Klopp said. “So you don’t have the best circumstances, you have struggles here, difficulties, but when we are together, we can conquer the whole world, and that’s what we want to do, and what we want to see.”
