Just as counterpoint to @Mystic's post, here's how many goals Dortmund conceded in 7 seasons under Klopp:
2008-09 – 37 (finished 6th)
2009-10 – 42 (finished 5th)
2010-11 – 22 (Champions)
2011-12 – 25 (Champions)
2012-13 – 42 (runners-up)
2013-14 – 38 (runners-up)
2014-15 – 42 (finished 7th, Klopp resigned)
And first full season at Liverpool – 42 (in 4 more games)
My thoughts on this:
2008-09 – 37 (finished 6th)
2009-10 – 42 (finished 5th)
2010-11 – 22 (Champions)
2011-12 – 25 (Champions)
2012-13 – 42 (runners-up)
2013-14 – 38 (runners-up)
2014-15 – 42 (finished 7th, Klopp resigned)
And first full season at Liverpool – 42 (in 4 more games)
My thoughts on this:
- Klopp can put together a title-winning defense. Germany is a high-scoring league and anything under 30 goals conceded per season is Champions caliber. For instance in 2008-09 both the champions Wolfsburg and runners-up Bayern have actually conceded more goals than Klopp's Dortmund, 41 and 42 respectively. The fact that Klopp achieved 25 or less goals per season twice in Germany, shows this was not mere luck.
- However, in 5 of the 7 seasons at Dortmund they conceded between 37 and 42 goals, pretty consistent spread. This shows that an element of luck is needed after all – Dortmund were impenetrable in those 2 seasons when everything came together, but various injury crises (and sales of best players year after year) undermined their efforts in other years.
- This Dortmund team was built on the basis of the best CB partnership in Germany – Hummels and Subotic who both arrived around the same time as Klopp. Both of them had long injury lay-offs in various seasons and that always hurt the team, particularly after their excellent back-up Felipe Santana started declining.
- LFC are a richer club than Borussia and in theory we should be capable of sustaining greater quality in depth at CB. But we need to get that world-class CB partnership first – we won't win anything until we have that in place.
