Liverpool Assistant Peter Krawietz Reflects on Decision to Leave Club

For Jürgen Klopp and many of his assistants and coaching staff, that it might be time for something of a break after nine years rebuilding Liverpool into an English and European power seemed obviously the right decision.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t also bittersweet to call time on one of the most successful decades in the history of the club and their roles in it, but according to assistant Peter Krawietz there was a belief that the time was right.

“Of course it feels strange to be leaving,” Krawietz said on the club’s website. “There are two ways you feel. One, you have to make a decision at one point and we made this decision and we think, I think, it was the right decision.

“There are reasons for your decision: if you don’t feel the right energy, the right focus, the right conviction, and you come to this decision, it means you know it’s right. The other part is, of course, you look back at the journey.”

And it was quite the journey. A pair of League Cups. The FA Cup. Liverpool’s first Club World Cup. A sixth European Cup and three more major European finals. A 19th English title and coming within a point each of two more.

Nine years taking Liverpool from a club struggling to keep pace with the elite to one of the elite again, building a side that for long stretches had a case for being the best football team in the entire world. It was a hell of a run.

“You start thinking about how it was when you came in,” he added, “what could we achieve. You think about the development of the club—the stadium, the training ground—the development of the players and our relationships.

“With all this there is only one conclusion: that it was a great, massive and successful journey and this comes to an end now. So, the feeling is strange, it was a big part of my life. So, it’s cool—but also a bit painful, of course.”