Football
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Jurgen Klopp appointed Liverpool manager after Brendan Rodgers exit

Liverpool have confirmed the appointment of Jurgen Klopp as their new manager to replace Brendan Rodgers.

Klopp, 48, has signed a three-year contract at Anfield, returning to football after he parted company with Borussia Dortmund at the end of last season.

The German replaces Rodgers at the helm after the Northern Irishman was sacked on Sunday following a 1-1 draw against Merseyside rivals Everton.

Klopp will be officially presented as the club's seventh full-time manager of the Premier League era at a Friday morning news conference at 10 local time.

Regarded as one of the top coaches in Europe, the fact that he has taken on the challenge at Liverpool -- who, apart from one thrilling title near-miss in 2014, have slid well down the Premier League pecking order -- is already being viewed by fans as a significant turning point in their fortunes.

Klopp's appointment immediately injects a feel-good factor into a club in need of it after they were humbled 3-0 at home by West Ham and only just scraped past League Two Carlisle on penalties in the Capital One Cup.

Liverpool are currently 10th in the Premier League table, having won three of their opening eight games of the season, but with the club just three points off the top four and only six behind leaders Manchester City there is great optimism Klopp will be able to have a considerable impact this season.

Klopp was Dortmund boss for seven years, leading the club to back-to-back Bundesliga titles and the DFB Pokal, while they finished as runners-up in the Champions League after a 2-1 loss to Bayern Munich at Wembley in 2013.

The former Mainz player, who went on to manage the side before moving on to coach Dortmund in 2008, developed plenty of promising talents into star players at the Westfalenstadion in a team characterised by their high-pressing, energetic style of play.

Robert Lewandowski, Mario Gotze, Mats Hummels, Neven Subotic, Ilkay Gundogan, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Shinji Kagawa and Nuri Sahin are just some of those who became top players under Klopp's management.

Sources have told ESPN FC that Klopp will give Liverpool's existing players time to prove themselves and is not planning a significant overhaul. 

However, he will bring in his own coaching staff after Rodgers' key staff members, including assistant manager Sean O'Driscoll and first-team coach Gary McAllister, were removed from their positions earlier on Thursday. Head of performance Glen Driscoll and head of opposition analysis Chris Davies, who followed Rodgers to Anfield from Swansea in 2012, have also lost their jobs.

Klopp is expected to bring with him Bosnian Zeljko Buvac, his assistant both at Dortmund and Mainz, and coach Peter Krawietz.

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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