Jurgen Klopp believes Steven Gerrard will “definitely” become Liverpool manager in the future, though he used Frank Lampard’s struggle at Chelsea as a cautionary tale.
Ever since the end of Gerrard’s time as a player with LA Galaxy and his first steps into coaching with the Liverpool under-18s, he has been tipped to eventually take over at Anfield.
This has only been amplified following success with Rangers and now his move to Aston Villa in the Premier League, with Gerrard himself admitting his desire to manage his boyhood club eventually.
For now, his focus is solely on Villa, which leads him to pursue a win over Liverpool on Saturday.
Speaking ahead of that tie, Klopp was asked a number of questions on his opposite number, including his chances of succeeding him as Reds boss.
“Oh yeah. Yes, I think, absolutely,” he said when asked if he believes Gerrard will be Liverpool manager.
“The only problem is when is the right moment for that? Not only about Stevie, but we saw it with Frank at Chelsea, a similar story.
“Stevie is doing really well in the moment. He’s very young still, from a manager’s point of view.
“So when is the right moment to take the job? Not to say that he’s not able to do it, but how long you want to do it.
“Is it the last job you do? The second job, third job you do?
“These are questions I cannot answer, but yes, I think it will definitely happen. And good for everybody!”
With Klopp’s contract at Liverpool running until 2024, there is an argument that Gerrard could be the man to fill his shoes immediately after.
That raises issues when it comes to his pedigree as a manager, with there a wariness – particularly following the struggles of Lampard at Chelsea and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Man United – that his reputation would precede him.
However, Klopp believes that future Liverpool managers do not need to arrive with a ‘proven winner’ tag, while he stressed that he is unlikely to be involved in any decisions over his successor.
“It’s not up to me to make these kinds of decisions,” he continued.
“I don’t know what you have to do before you become a Liverpool manager. I know people say you have to win things, I’m not sure about that.
“It’s more important that you win things when you are here, you don’t have to win things in the past.
“‘Proven winner’ and all this kind of rubbish…you can win things in the past but never win something again.”
However, Klopp believes the “most important thing” for any new manager is that the infrastructure within the club is strong, which he is clearly working towards ensuring is the case at Liverpool.
“You have to be the right manager. And you know, the most important thing, for each manager in the world it’s really important that the club is in a stable moment,” he said.
“Even when from a sports point of view [it is] probably not in the best moment, because that’s most of the time the reason why a manager gets the sack and another one comes in, if the rest is stable then you have a good chance to improve things.
“Everything Stevie did so far is going absolutely in the right direction.
“I can’t see a scenario when I would be involved in that decision, to be honest, but who knows what the future brings! And we will see.”
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