By his own admission, former Liverpool star Javier Mascherano has explained why manager Jurgen Klopp has transformed the Reds into the “complete team”, massively improving over the past few seasons.
Mascherano was picked up by Liverpool in 2007 following impressive displays for London side West Ham United when Rafael Benitez was in charge of the club. Mascherano further improved at Liverpool over his three years at Merseyside before eventually making the move to Barcelona in 2010 when the LaLiga giants came calling for his services.
Mascherano won the Champions League title in his first season with the Barcelona but has praised Jurgen Klopp for building a complete team with Liverpool in his rein so far. The Reds were crowned champions of Europe for a sixth time in June following a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the final. Success in the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup followed as Liverpool have only grown from strength to strength over the past year.
In fact, Liverpool are closing in on their first Premier League title in 30 years as they remain an astonishing 25 points ahead of 2nd placed Manchester City on the Premier League table. Two more wins will win the Reds their first-ever Premier League title and Javier Mascherano believes that Klopp deserves plenty of credit for bringing Liverpool to where they are at the moment.
While speaking to Ole, the Argentine said the evolution of the team has surprised him a lot, “The team that continues to surprise me with the evolution it has had is Liverpool. It is clear that Klopp has put it together in his image and likeness. I am 10 years behind, I see how we played with that Liverpool team it was nothing like what I see today. I have been following Klopp since he coached Dortmund, which was a pressing team similar to what Liverpool does today but now he has added a way to spread out the play, when before it was much more direct. That evolution is what I like because, in the end, it ends up being a more complete team.”
