“I want to see Bill Shankly” – Klopp explains his toughest football decision | OneFootball

Liverpool connections continue to surface in the most unexpected places, even when our former manager is discussing football history rather than the present day.

Jurgen Klopp has shared his personal ‘Mount Rushmore’ of football coaches, and while the German left himself out, his words still say plenty about what shaped him and, by extension, us.

Speaking via his official Instagram account, the 58-year-old admitted the task was far from simple, saying: “This is my Mount Rushmore of football coaches and actually four is really difficult to do, but I try anyway.”

Klopp names the managers who shaped football

(Photo by Bongarts/Getty Images)

The former Borussia Dortmund boss began with two figures synonymous with modern football thinking.

“Johan Cruyff, [the] most influential football coach I have ever heard of,” Klopp said. “The way he saw football, the way he understood football, is just second to none.”

Pep Guardiola quickly followed, with the Red Bull employee adding: “You could say exactly the same about him, and I faced him and know how difficult it was.”

Klopp then turned to longevity and success, naming “the most successful [manager of all time]” in Sir Alex Ferguson, before admitting the final decision was the hardest of all.

Why Klopp’s Shankly choice matters to us

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Jürgen Klopp (@kloppo)

“Now I barely can decide,” he continued, referencing Carlo Ancelotti alongside two names that resonate deeply at Anfield.

“Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, I heard so much about them, never saw them,” he said, before concluding: “But yes, I want to see Bill Shankly on the Mount Rushmore. That’s it.”

For us, that acknowledgment matters, not just because Shankly laid the foundations of everything Liverpool stand for, but because it shows how deeply that legacy influenced the man who restored belief during his nine years on Merseyside.

Klopp’s selfless omission also contrasts with recent debates about how often his name still appears in conversations around Arne Slot, particularly after Wayne Rooney suggested comparisons could make life harder for our current boss during tougher runs.

At the same time, the German remains firmly part of football’s present, recently speaking about missing the “heated atmosphere in the stadium” as he prepares for a World Cup punditry role in 2026.

Even away from the dugout, Klopp’s respect for Liverpool’s past continues to underline why his connection with us still feels unique.

You can watch Slot’s post-Brighton press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

Join our channel of readers on WhatsApp to get the day’s top stories straight to your mobile