LEIPZIG – What Jurgen Klopp already knew about the Red Bull way didn’t seem to help him. Ten months into his Liverpool tenure by the time RB Leipzig debuted in Germany’s top tier, it was left to Red Bull Salzburg to provide the first true indicator of what the energy drink’s soccer enterprise was all about.
Liverpool barely eked out a 4-3 win after surrendering a three-goal advantage at Anfield, but Klopp wasn’t downbeat. That match in 2019 was a learning experience. Issues with his team’s tactics and mindset were improved upon and the Reds ended their 30-year wait to win the English title later that season. For the German manager, the match confirmed that Salzburg’s pace, pressing, and proliferation of young talent neatly aligned with his own footballing beliefs.
“It’s not hard to see why Salzburg is a favored destination for players with real talent and hunger,” Klopp said when Takumi Minamino’s switch from Salzburg to Liverpool was revealed just two-and-a-half months after that frenzied Champions League fixture.
“From our experiences dealing with, and facing, Salzburg on and off the pitch in recent months, their reputation as a benchmark modern European club will only grow.”
Klopp left Liverpool at the end of last season and will take over as head of Red Bull’s global soccer operations in January, but his long-term admiration of the company’s multi-club model is still evident on Merseyside. Two former RB Leipzig players – Ibrahima Konate and Dominik Szoboszlai – are expected to take on their former club when Liverpool hit the pitch for their Champions League contest in eastern Germany on Wednesday.
Former Leipzig or Salzburg players during Liverpool’s Klopp era
| Player | Leipzig | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| Naby Keita | ✅ | ✅ |
| Ibrahima Konate | ✅ | ❌ |
| Sadio Mane | ❌ | ✅ |
| Alex Manninger | ❌ | ✅ |
| Takumi Minamino | ❌ | ✅ |
| Dominik Szoboszlai | ✅ | ✅ |
Links live on
Red Bull began its soccer operations in Salzburg in 2005, but the organization keenly stresses that the club was no longer part of its group since 2017. To allow both RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg to compete in the 2017-18 Champions League, UEFA said Red Bull had to prove it didn’t have a “decisive influence” over both clubs. A subsequent shake-up of Salzburg’s boardroom included the resignation of the club chairman and tweaks to the Austrian side’s Red Bull sponsorship. Other agreements, like loan deals between Leipzig and Salzburg, were cut.
However, Leipzig and Salzburg’s playing philosophies and kits – which both carry the charging bulls as their sponsor – bear more than a passing resemblance. When Salzburg met Liverpool in 2019, it was only two years after, from UEFA’s perspective, they’d moved aside after 12 years under the Red Bull umbrella. The identity was still strong then. At least eight players have passed directly between the clubs since the changes until now.
Salzburg’s Liverpool links endure. Pep Lijnders, who was Klopp’s assistant at Anfield, is currently at the helm, and two Liverpool academy graduates – Stefan Bajcetic (loan deal) and Bobby Clark (permanent transfer) – are in the squad. Leipzig and Liverpool are no strangers, either. The pipeline usually flows in one direction, as outlined earlier, but former Reds player Fabio Carvalho – now at Brentford – tried to get his career back on track last season via a loan spell at Leipzig.
Klopp’s new role further tightens the Red Bull association with Liverpool.
What to expect
One word regularly crops up when discussing what the Red Bull model and Klopp’s approach have in common: intensity. The manager first gained wide acclaim through Borussia Dortmund’s gegenpressing (German for “counter-pressing”). He added to his reputation for relentlessness through the swarm of red attackers at Liverpool and his boisterous, snarling celebrations. Klopp’s team was unfettered but clearly well trained – a credit to the conditioning and training at the club’s Melwood base.
The expectations are similar at RB Leipzig. Belgian striker Lois Openda, who previously played for Lens, was taken aback by his Red Bull initiation.
“I can tell you that the first day when I was here, one year ago, after the first training, I went to my bed and slept for four hours because I was dead,” Openda told theScore. “They told me that it would ‘be really easy for you today.’ And after the session, I said, ‘That’s really easy?'”
Another aspect where it’s hoped Klopp can help RB Leipzig is finding solutions against defensive-minded opponents. Manuel Baum, head of RB Leipzig’s academy, believes the team would benefit from fresh ideas to unpick the increasingly common sight of deep-lying opponents since rising to the top of German football. This is an issue Klopp resolved himself when he reestablished Liverpool as a leading English force. His team never lost its explosiveness, but it could be more patient and precise. There was a plan B.
“A few years ago, (we did) more the defending and transition part after winning the ball, but now it changed,” Baum explained to me about RB Leipzig’s challenge. “So now you have to be really, really good and clear in a lot of phases.”
He added: “A lot of opponents stand very deep against us. So, you need different solutions.”
Finally, there’s Klopp’s reputation. Although RB Leipzig find it easier to attract talent after many success stories of players who’ve passed through the club – and the fact they can consistently compete for domestic honors – it’s clear that Klopp’s presence makes selling the project that much easier. It’s what could result in the next Dani Olmo or Josko Gvardiol staying on longer while the quality of recruitment rises.
