As Jurgen Klopp's spell as Liverpool manager comes to an end, there are parallels between the way his time at Borussia Dortmund went.
The German announced his decision to leave Anfield at the end of the season in January, stating he was running low on energy.
At a press conference explaining his decision to leave, he said: "My management skills are based on energy and emotion and that takes and needs all of you. I am who I am and where I am because of who I am, with all the good and bad things, and when I can't do it anymore, then stop.
READ MORE: Liverpool gave quiet Europa League hope as Atalanta made complaints READ MORE: Two players to start against Atalanta - Liverpool have nothing left to lose"You have to be the best version of yourself, especially for a club like Liverpool. I can't do it on three wheels, it's not allowed and I've never wanted to be a passenger."
It was a similar story for Klopp when he announced his decision to step down as Dortmund manager in April 2015.
"I have always said that I will say that the day I feel that I am no longer the perfect coach for this extraordinary club," he said. "That is something I have thought about at every stage here at Dortmund and in recent weeks, days, I decided that I could no longer be absolutely sure of that."
Klopp no longer feels 100% able to do his job and walks away again.
He plans to take a year's sabbatical from football when he leaves Liverpool this summer, just as he planned when he left Dortmund nine years ago. With the Reds having already lured the German to Anfield after a five-month break, only time will tell whether the now 56-year-old can be lured back into management prematurely.
Of course, there are also differences between the fortunes of Dortmund and Liverpool in these last seasons.
The Reds were on course for the perfect send-off as they chased down a potential quadruple. But a demoralizing FA Cup quarter-final exit to Manchester United was followed by relinquishing top spot in the competition thanks to a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford and losses to Atalanta and Crystal Palace, ending their Europa League hopes and the Premier League was thrown into disarray. wire.
The story continues
While Liverpool beat Chelsea to win the League Cup in February, they risk Klopp's final season ending with a whimper if his squad runs out.
In contrast, Dortmund endured a horrific final campaign under the German before he announced his decision to step down as manager.
General manager Michael Zorc stated that the club was in a 'real crisis' after losing 2-1 to newly promoted Cologne in October. Meanwhile, a 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich saw them slip into the relegation zone a few weeks later.
In February, after an embarrassing 1-0 home defeat to ten-man Augsburg, they were remarkably still bottom of the Bundesliga table.
"We kept losing games in exactly the same way again and again," Peter Krawietz, Klopp's long-serving assistant who followed him from Borussia Dortmund to Liverpool, later recalled in Raphael's Honigstein's biography of the German manager, 'Bring The Noise'.
"Your head is full of questions. Is it your fault? Is it from the team? What shall we do? It was an extremely bad situation. More than anyone could really bear. You wouldn't wish such a spell on your worst enemy. It was incredibly tiring, incredibly depressing."
And former Dortmund defender Neven Subotic revealed that the Athletics how Klopp once punched a player in the face as he tried to reverse his side's flailing fortunes.
"When you, as a player, get the feeling that you have already achieved something, that you have a little experience, you suddenly no longer want to say 'yes' to everything," said the Serbian. "I think that's human nature.
"When necessary, Klopp turned up the volume. He shook us a little, to wake us up. Not by saying, 'You have to play something else, guys, it's going to be tough.'
"No, he walked up to a player and punched him in the face. You think, 'Oh, maybe he'll hit him back'."
Fortunately for Dortmund, Klopp would turn things around as they won 30 points from the last 45 available to secure seventh place and qualify for European football against the odds.
When Klopp also reached the DFB-Pokal final, he also joked that he would have announced his decision to leave much earlier if he had known it would lead to an upturn in Dortmund's form.
"If I had known before the start of the season that we would have such a winning run, I would have announced my departure then!" he joked at the end of the season: "Seventh place feels great!"
In the context of the season, the seventh was brilliant. But it could not stop the mixed emotions surrounding his final year as Klopp left after a cup final loss at the end of a season in which Dortmund had failed to reach previous heights.
Much has been said about the timing of Klopp's announcement to leave Liverpool in January, and the potential impact it may have had on his side. While they initially thrived despite a crippling injury crisis, they have now stalled at the business end of the season.
His surprise decision was announced to club bosses in November last year, with the Reds doing remarkably well to keep it a secret for three months. Given the planning required for the 2024/25 season, it is understandable why such a decision was both made and announced when the time came.
But in retrospect it is easy to suggest that perhaps the German should have kept the decision under his wing for longer and this timing has backfired on Liverpool at the business end of the season. Only Klopp will know how much impact Dortmund's improved fortunes after his future was announced in 2015 had on the timing of his departure announcement in January, and whether he sought to replicate that at Anfield.
Admittedly, Dortmund were already on the rise this season before Klopp announced his departure. A seven-match unbeaten run had seen them rise to 10th in the Bundesliga, with the German only announcing his decision to resign in mid-April after successive Bundesliga defeats to Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
From then on, they won six of their last eight matches to qualify for the Europa League and reach the DFB-Pokal final. It was a triumph considering where Dortmund found themselves just three months earlier, even if they ultimately fell short in their attempts to win the cup.
But considering Dortmund had reached the Champions League final two years earlier and followed up two Bundesliga titles under Klopp with two second-place finishes, it was still a fall from grace.
Meanwhile, Liverpool's dream ending for their beloved German manager would have been celebrating a treble in five weeks' time. But even if all they are left with is a League Cup to show for their efforts, this is a remarkable turnaround from the season the Reds endured last year.
Trophyless and stumbling to a fifth-place finish after challenging for an unprecedented quadruple in 2021/22, the wheels had seemingly come off for a shattered Liverpool - as they had done for Dortmund in 2014/15. Having also been relegated in his final season at Mainz, it seems Klopp has repeatedly encountered proof of the saying: 'What goes up, most comes down.'
This season may have been a long farewell for the German as a result, and an epilogue to his Liverpool reign after last year's disappointing performances as he got the Reds back on track before riding off into the sunset. After last year's failures, most supporters would have bitten your hand off for Champions League qualification and a trophy.
When he informed his players of his decision to leave in January, the Athletics reported that 'Klopp joked that his departure was partly their fault, because Liverpool had reached such a high level so quickly that he felt he could pass the baton to someone else.'
Regardless of how the season ends now, it should not be overlooked that this season has exceeded initial Reds expectations. But as he approaches his final month in the Anfield dugout, Klopp will still be looking to reverse this mini-rut and mastermind one last Liverpool high.
