Win the Room Before You Win the Match

“The togetherness…” he said, “the way we interacted with the kitchen staff… the respect we showed every day to the kit men, the gardeners, all the people there. You realize that the respect you show is the respect you get.”

You’d think it was tactics. Periodized training. Data. Budgets. But he pointed somewhere simpler. Mundane, even. Say hello. Learn names. Look people in the eye. Respect everyone.

Jurgen Klopp is one of the defining managers of modern football (soccer). He took Mainz to the Bundesliga, rebuilt Borussia Dortmund into title winners, and returned Liverpool to the summit of Europe and England.

So what does respecting the gardeners have to do with winning football matches?