DAWN.COM

Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Published 12 Oct, 2015 01:41am

Klopp will do well at Liverpool: Alex Ferguson

BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund boss Hans-Joachim Watzke and Sir Alex Ferguson are tipping Jurgen Klopp to bring success back to Liverpool, but legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel says it won't be so easy.

“I am convinced he will write a similar success story like he did here with us,” Borussia Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke told German daily Bild on Sunday.

Klopp won the 2011 and 2012 Bundesliga titles and steered Dortmund to the 2013 Champions League final, where they lost 2-1, at Wembley, against Bayern Munich in the first all-German final, before he quit in May.

The 48-year-old has a contract to manage the sleeping Merseyside giants until June 2018 and will take charge of his first Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur next Saturday.

In his first Liverpool press conference on Friday, Klopp said he wants to win 'a title within four years', which ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmichel said could have been an error.

“First mistake..?? Others have made the same promise! #It'sNotThatEasyMrKlopp,” tweeted Schmeichel.

Schmeichel knows what he is talking about having kept 129 cleansheets for United in 310 Premier League games and won the title five times with the Old Trafford giants.

But legendary United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who won 13 English titles between 1992 and 2013, predicts Liverpool could become pretenders to the Premier League crown under Klopp.

“(He's a) strong personality, very strong, very stubborn, determined and his performances, and his career at Dortmund was a stellar rise to the top and I think he'll do very well,” Ferguson told broadcaster ESPN having met Klopp on coaching courses.

“I don't like saying that, being Liverpool, because I'm worried about it but, no, he'll do well.”

Read Comments

May 9 riots: Military courts hand 25 civilians 2-10 years’ prison time Next Story