Jurgen Klopp is Germany’s Pied Piper after insane whole-team press vs. Netherlands | OneFootball

The Jurgen Klopp era of the German national team is underway after the former Liverpool coach made his debut against the Netherlands.

And we did not have to wait long to see what kind of influence Klopp could exert on the team as he managed to get the entire outfield team to press with a single waft of the hand.

The Dutch had the ball comfortably in possession when Klopp gave a wafting motion and as soon as he did it, all 11 players charged to the ball.

Those kind of moments will be something Klopp will take as a positive from a game in which his side conceded late on.

The Dutch did go ahead through Virgil Van Dijk although it was ruled as Brian Brobbey was adjudged to have been blocking Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Germany then did go ahead after the half hour mark as Felix Nmecha finished from close range.

Klopp will also not have been overly impressed with the finishing of Karim Adeyemi. He missed a golden chance just before half time only to miss an even better one in the second half, leaving Klopp looking on in disbelief.

But it was a game that the Netherlands largely dominated and had they had better finishing themselves, could have won by a comfortable amount.

In what was Xavi’s first game in charge, the Netherlands rescued a point late on from one of Klopp’s former players, Cody Gakpo, who scored in the 91st minute.

It is an okay if not great start to Klopp’s Germany era with the manager bringing two whole squads to this extended international break.

Afterwards, he said the team had only “scratched the surface” of working together.

“A difficult game against a fantastic team with a great coach,” Klopp said afterwards. “You want to win these games but we knew before that whatever result we get we will have to work with it.

“In a parallel world, if somebody tells you in this group you get a draw in Holland, you would say: ‘I’d take that’. We lost two points.

“We only scratched the surface. We have to go deeper. Everybody felt we already found a good way to build a proper group with these players and next week with some other players.”

Mikel Arteta will also have taken note of Kai Havertz being forced off with injury after 30 minutes after a collision with Quinten Timber, the brother of his team-mate Jurrien.

Klopp said Havertz and Jamal Musiala, who also picked up an injury, would undergo scans that night but suspected their international duty is over.

Netherlands’ Brian Brobbey was also forced with a hamstring injury.

By Sam Cooper