Saturday 10 October 2015 08:12, UK
Jurgen Klopp may have called himself "the normal one" - but as Sky Sports News' James Cooper reports, there was nothing normal about his Anfield news conference…
The new Liverpool manager met the press for the first time on Friday - and dealt with everything they threw at him, effortlessly answering 28 minutes-worth of questions in two languages.
In fact, Jurgen Klopp's biggest problem was not his stature within the game, but in the room itself. At more than 6ft 2in tall, the low roof of the Centenary Suite at Anfield posed a problem - although the tight surroundings also added to the drama and energy inside the room.
It was apt the construction work at Liverpool's home forced a switch of venues for the news conference with many experts believing a rebuilding is facing Liverpool's new boss.
Twenty camera crews from around the world were present at Anfield with more than a hundred journalists and photographers waiting to hear the first words of only the second ever German to manage a Premier League club.
Ian Ayre, Liverpool's Chief Executive, spoke of the hunt for the right manager being like the start of a relationship with a new girlfriend, and if that was the case their first date was all about humour, laughter and honesty.
According to Oliver Muller from German Newspaper Die Welt this was par for the course during his time at Dortmund's helm.
"It depends on the results he achieves, but usually when I think back on his seven years at Dortmund most of the times he was able to laugh, able to joke. Sometimes he gets angry also especially with us journalists when we ask not the right questions, or what he considers are the right questions!
"But he's very, very emotional, I think you can see how he feels at the moment when he's talking to you, he's really honest," he said.
There may not have been any angry flashes - and Jurgen Klopp quickly won over the room - but shots of him on his hotel balcony this morning had clearly irked him, enough to implore the media to give him a break from 11am onwards.
This was clearly a man with firm ideas about how long he wanted his time with journalists to last - and Muller believes Klopp was surprised by how much fuss his arrival has caused.
"Yeah, I think you could see that he was quite nervous," Muller added. "For him, of course, it's a big step to go to such a big club as Liverpool, also it's his first job abroad.
"But what we as journalists always loved about him is that you can always rely on the fact that he's honest when he talks to you and he will say to you straight in the face if something's not right but most of the time because he was successful with Dortmund we had a good time with him.
"In a way he is the 'normal guy' because he's not like other managers who try to hide behind a certain role, he's just the type he's always been, he hasn't changed a lot during the last years even not with the success he had with Borussia Dortmund but, of course, this attitude is not normal in this business.
"But when he says he's just a 'normal guy', he's a normal human being - but he's not a normal coach".
It may have been a well-prepared answer after a briefing from Liverpool's press team - who must have warned him he'd face a Jose Mourinho-style "special one" question - but his choice of the word "normal" was expertly chosen.
Tom Marx from German broadcaster RTL was impressed by his strategy as much as his humility.
"He really wants to bring it down that he's an ordinary guy," he said. "He's quite modest but he wants to capture the media so that he doesn't set the expectation levels too high.
"Whether he's normal or ordinary? I don't know - he wouldn't be here if he was just normal. Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool are very similar from the fan base. I mean he was saying that right from the beginning as well, it's very emotional, he's a very emotional person I think."
Klopp's overwhelming emotion seemed to be one of pure joy - after four months out of the game here was a man who believes he's the right manager at the right time for Liverpool.
However, he was careful enough not to over-egg the pudding - stressing he's "not a genius" and that it's "much more important what people say about you when you leave".
What people present today were saying about him when he left the room were that they liked his approach - and Marx doesn't expect that to change.
"For me he always came across in Germany as a very honest guy," Marx added. "He's not just saying things to please. He's obviously asked the media to step back not film him in his hotel room from the left or the right, so he can punch back as well, he's pretty straightforward.
"At the moment he's saying 'we're not here to win, we're here to play good matches', at the end of the day we know that the Premier League is all about money and you have to succeed otherwise you're not here.
"But I think the thing he wants to do is bring the joy back on the pitch and eventually he'll win, that's what he did in Dortmund and Mainz, he's always been a very surprisingly emotional coach and brings the players and fans together."
And Klopp certainly let his emotions show as he strode out onto the Anfield pitch alongside Ayre and Fenway Sports Group Chairman Tom Werner for the customary post-conference photo session with scarves and shirts, the German's laughter echoing around the stadium as the cameras clicked.
Sebastian Hellman from Sky Sports in Germany told me there'll be nothing normal about Klopp's new era.
"I think extraordinary things will happen because for us he's the 'special one' in Germany," he said. "He showed that in Dortmund over five years.
"He's a very strong coach, a good coach with two championships and it was a similar to the situation in Liverpool now, he brought Dortmund up in the second year and then a lot of titles, with a good team, with good players. I think he will do the same in Liverpool, I'm sure. He's smiling all the time so you will see that".
