Will Jürgen Klopp's charisma be enough for Germany?

In his first season in charge at Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp lost just one of his first five games. Germany are hoping for a similar run emerges after a shock defeat to Greece left Klopp with just one point after his first two games.

Klopp's response was familiar. The head coach took responsibility for the loss, shielding this new crop of Germany players from criticism.

"We have been together for a week now, all mixed together, and that needs time," Klopp said after the match. 

"Let the new players develop. The established players are top players at their clubs, and they have my support. Feel free to criticize me, but not the boys. We don't need to completely tear everything apart. I was surprised that some people booed. The future is as bright as we make it. We'll take it on with everything we have."

He also emphasized development over short-term panic, citing the need for more training sessions to cement the automatic responses needed to break down well-organized defenses.

International coaching is different

Herein lies the challenge for one of football's greatest coaches. In likely his final job as a head coach, can the multiple league winner adapt his coaching methods to work in the international setting? Klopp, a coach and a person famous for his ability to develop relationships and grow a team at a club, has said he believes he can adapt.

There is no doubt his communication style is what this team needs. His charismatic focus on developing a culture and growing collectively in connection with the fans is what is required. And after many years of frustration and pain watching Germany's men at major tournaments, the biggest mistake would be to tear down this new group before it even begins.

It both needs and deserves the time to figure out how far it can go. Bambase Conte and Hennes Behrens made their debuts vs. Greece after a host of others had done so against the Netherlands. These are the first steps towards finding out who will drive Germany towards an improved outing at Euro 2028 in two summer's time. It is the main reason why Klopp chose so many players for these first four games.

Can Klopp alone compensate should ability be lacking?

But what if, for all of Klopp's positivity and culture building, this new generation of Germany players is just not good enough to win a trophy? Clearly, it is too soon to know the answer to that question, as Klopp himself has said.

"We want to help prepare these players to be competing at the very top over the next two or three years," Klopp had said at his unveiling.

"We took a different approach and focused not on what we don't have, but on what we do have."

What Germany do have right now is both a new team looking to grow and a team that just suffered their first-ever defeat to Greece.

At Liverpool, it took Jürgen Klopp two years and approximately 500 odd training sessions, to reach the point where the team looked like his. In the 2017-18 season, they reached the Champions League final. Alongside the time it took for the team to learn the new system, new signings, notably Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, improved the quality.

Klopp doesn't have that option in the Germany job. He has to do more with fewer training sessions – Klopp will have approximately 200 before Euro 2028. And the closest he can get to new signings are by calling up uncapped Germany players – there were 11 first-time call-ups in this Germany squad.

The 59-year-old said his whole career brought him to this job. It might well prove to be the greatest challenge of his career too.