Paolo Di Canio sees a parallel between Luciano Spalletti and Jürgen Klopp

What can be done to convince Jürgen Klopp to return to coaching? Sportal.it asked Paolo Di Canio, who for Sky on Christmas Day will tell the behind-the-scenes story of one of the top matches of the world’s most spectacular league, the Premier League, in his “Di Canio Premier Special – Chelsea vs Arsenal – Inside a London derby.”

“Actually, maybe you don’t need to do much,” he recounted. “When you’ve been Jürgen Klopp, you stay Jürgen Klopp for life. Looking at some of the big international teams that are struggling to be stars today, it is not hard to imagine that after one or two sabbatical years he could return to the bench”.

“He is still too young to really quit,” added the former striker. “He is mentally fresh, he is well physically and he is a coach who also lives the field from an emotional point of view, with great direct involvement with the players, in addition to the tactical quality and his idea of soccer. That is why I think we will see him coaching again sooner or later. It is true that right now he seems to appreciate a different role, more managerial, but the bench remains in his DNA”.

“I, however, have a hard time seeing him as the technical commissioner of a national team. Klopp is a club coach, one who works every day with his players, who builds a strong empathetic relationship, made of trust, confrontation, even tension when needed. He is able to call you out harshly if you make a mistake, but then hug you and support you because he believes in you. The national team, on the other hand, does not allow you this kind of daily work. You see players every two or three months, you don’t have the time to create that deep bond, that family feeling that then comes together and goes all in the same direction. Coaches like that, very much of the field and daily work, like Klopp or Spalletti, are ‘animals’ of the technical area, of continuous work, not of remote management” Di Canio’s conclusion.