Jürgen Klopp has backed Andoni Iraola to succeed at Anfield, but noted that if his former club and its new head coach are to form a long-term successful partnership, they will need some good fortune along the way.
Klopp enjoyed a trophy-laden nine years in charge of Liverpool, delivering the club's sixth Champions League and ending their long wait for a Premier League title before announcing his shock resignation during the 2023-24 season.
His successor Arne Slot led the team back to the summit of the English top flight at the first time of asking but was sacked at the end of last season after the team finished fifth.
Andoni Iraola was confirmed as Liverpool's new head coach earlier this month and Klopp has backed him to bring the good times back to Anfield.
Asked about why the team might have dropped off last season, Klopp told ESPN: "No idea. I'm not close enough to judge that. I was super happy that they won a league a year before and I have no idea what was wrong that the year after.
"So I think nobody was very happy with the season. That was obvious, but they still qualified for the Champions League and that's a great success. So now you can go again and have a new manager and Andoni Iraola who is a great coach as well, like Arne Slot is, but it has to click. It has to work together for a long time and for that and you need luck.
"There was a situation before last season at Liverpool, which nobody expected to happen and to deal with these kind of things is really difficult," Klopp said, referencing the death of Diogo Jota last summer.
"I don't know what exactly went on, but so the last season is now passed as well and now they can look into the future."
Klopp: We 'witnessed greatness' with good friend Salah
The German coach, now Red Bull's head of global soccer, also revealed how his friendship with Mohamed Salah has blossomed since the player-coach dynamic ended and heaped praise on the Egypt forward's ability.
Despite their fruitful relationship at Liverpool, Klopp and Salah did not always see eye to eye with a touchline disagreement during a Premier League match at the London Stadium in 2024 a notable flashpoint.
"We are friends now," Klopp told ESPN. "So how I saw it with my players, I always said it, I want to be the friend of my players. I cannot be their best friend. While you're working together, players sometimes think I'm not even their friend because I have to make some decisions they don't like. But the good thing is it's all past ... The strongest thing in life is good memories. They are stronger than pretty much anything else. And right now we share them and so we are friends and now he's at the World Cup."
Klopp, who said he had been texting his former player about Egypt's progression to the round of 32 before the interview, signed Salah from Roma in a club-record deal ahead of the 2017-18 campaign.
Salah went on to become the star of Liverpool's attack, scoring more than 300 goals for the club before leaving at the end of last season.
"So this is his exceptional player," Klopp said. "He's an example for so many, so many, not only the Arabic world, but of course in the Arabic world. I think Egypt is probably one of the countries I better don't make holiday because he made me really famous there! So there's no holiday possible. We were lucky with many players, but I think with Mo especially because of the numbers he produced over the years, they are second to none."
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Asked how you set up a team on the rare occasion when a star player such as Salah is not performing, Klopp said: "It's easy to go and put a finger in each situation and say, 'here he should do better, here should do better.' But when you work on a daily basis with him, you're used to things.
"I want him to try. I want him to fail. If you don't fail, you don't take risks. If you don't take risks, where's excitement? Where's the outcome? How can you reach the next level if you don't try things other people can't do? Did he perform every day? Probably not. But I can't remember one player to be honest who did that ... Of course, as a coach, you stand out there and you think, 'Yeah, he could do this better, he could do that better.' But looking back, we just witnessed greatness.
"That's the truth as well. That's the truth as well because most of the time he delivered in an incredible way and most of the time he's got incredible goals. Most of the time he decided games for us and most of the time he pushed us to the next level. He is until today an incredible professional. So that's it. And none of us, nobody was perfect, not Messi or Ronaldo, not Mo Salah They are not perfect, but they are closer than us to that."