What best advice Jürgen Klopp gave to Steven Gerrard
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Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has revealed the best advice that Jürgen Klopp gave him at the start of his managerial career.
Back in 2016, Gerrard took his first steps into management when he was appointed youth coach at Liverpool before going on to manage the U-19 team in the UEFA Youth League.
Whilst other former players such as Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes took the direct route into management, the 39-year-old decided to start at youth level following a chat with Klopp.
Gerrard then took the managerial position at Scottish giants Rangers in April 2018, with the words of Klopp having been heeded as he sought to edge his way up the ladder.
Speaking to UEFA's official website, the former England captain spoke about one piece of guidance from Klopp that has proved particularly useful.
The best thing I ever did was to go away from the cameras in the beginning.
I had a real honest and open conversation with Jurgen Klopp for a couple of hours and the advice he gave me was: "Don't go into this as Steven Gerrard with the name on your back. Go back to the beginning and strip it back like a car.
Get your pitch confidence and get used to tactics and different formations. Try things, make mistakes and get it horribly, wildly wrong. Experiment and do all these things away from the camera but before you test yourself in the Europa League, before you test yourself in front of thousands and thousands of fans - put yourself in a better position before you go in there.
Because I've seen tons of footballers with their names on their backs go in there and it doesn't work."
That was the best bit of advice. I don't think I will ever get a better piece of advice than that. Strip it right back and go back to the beginning.
I have made mistakes over the last couple of years as Rangers manager but the trick is to learn from them.
But this is a job where it's impossible not to make them because you're up against so many other good coaches.
Since taking over at Ibrox, Gerrard has overseen some memorable occasions including two wins in the Old Firm derby over rivals Celtic and some sensational Europa League performances.
However, he has yet to win any silverware at Rangers and is under pressure to break Celtic's stranglehold on Scottish football.
