"Rangnick inspired Jurgen Klopp’s style to play football and Klopp saw the match and the idea from Hoffenheim, and said ‘yes, this is nice’," Guido Schaefer, a former teammate of Klopp at Mainz explained while speaking on the Red Bull podcast.
"It’s not a copy of the style [completely] but Klopp said ‘I want to play with young, fast players’ and players who don’t ask ‘why should I run so much?’.
"Jurgen said ‘we have to invest more in a match than Bayern Munich and because of this investment, Dortmund won the title in Germany twice.
"The quality of Bayern was much higher than but the brain, the power, the [physical] investment from Dortmund was on a higher standard.
"Were Liverpool the best team in Europe last season? I don’t think so. Perhaps the quality from Barcelona was higher but the mentality was bigger at Liverpool."
Liverpool players are some of the fittest athletes in the world and that shows on the field as they continuously press their opponents into making mistakes and play a high-octane style of football that has led to the club winning 4 trophies in the last 13 months.
Rangnick has revolutionalised the way RB Leipzig work - he's turned them from a mid-table club to a team contending for the Bundesliga and Champions League. Therefore, it's interesting to learn that Klopp has absorbed so much from the way he operates as he has successfully led Liverpool's turnaround in recent times.
