Neil Critchley lived and breathed the Jurgen Klopp revolution for four years at Liverpool.
His daily brief might have been to coach the next generation in the academy but Klopp’s all-inclusive culture meant Critchley was made to feel as important to the man who would lead the club to Champions League and Premier League glory as any other member of staff. The Anfield Boot Room – hailed for producing some of the greatest managers in their history including Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalglish and Roy Evans – might have been demolished in the 1990s.
But Critchley reckons it was almost rekindled by Klopp. And it’s that ethos the man now entrusted with lifting Hearts off the deck reckons can breathe new life into the Tynecastle club. Honesty, being humble, and good old hard work are at the core of what Critchley – who acted as stand-in manager for Klopp on two occasions when fixture congestion led to problems at Anfield – will install in Gorgie.
When it was pointed out it sounded like the German had almost rebuilt the famous boot room mentality of the 70s, Critchley said: “He did. I wasn’t there all the time, every day, but I lived it and I had enough experiences of being around it, speaking to him to know that it was something special. It sounds a bit cheesy or corny, but they’re good people.
“The players were a good group of people, humble, hardworking, and you can’t play for Jürgen Klopp in one of his teams if you don’t have certain characteristics. That’s what I want to try and bring and replicate here.
“His advice was to be yourself. I think one of his greatest strengths is his authenticity, what you see is what you get. He just had a way of speaking to people and dealing with people which I thought was fantastic. That’s why he created an environment that was unique and very special. I think they got the success, not just because of the quality of the players that were there, but also because of the human aspect. I thought there was no better than him in producing that.”
Critchley has brought his own trusted lieutenant Mike Garrity, who was by his side at Blackpool and QPR, to Tynecastle as his assistant. But academy chief Liam Fox will continue to play a major role in the short term at least after helping steady the ship following the sacking of Steven Naismith last month.
Fox secured the Jambos’ first win of the season with a 2-1 Euro triumph over Dinamo Minsk but could only deliver one point from Premiership clashes with Ross County and Aberdeen. Critchley said: “Liam has been with me. I’ve been speaking to him a lot, so he’s with us on the training ground and he’ll stay with us in the immediate future.
“Credit to him and his staff for the interim period. I watched those games and thought they could have easily got something at Aberdeen, had a good win in Europe, to come from behind, I know it was late on against Ross County, but arguably could have won that game as well.
“Also, Steven [Naismith] did a fantastic job last season with his staff, and sometimes these things happen unfortunately, and it’s a fresh start for me now and I’ve got to try and come in and get the team moving in the right direction again.”
Critchley is well aware of the pressure that comes with the Tynecastle job. Particularly when the Jambos are rooted to the bottom of the table. And even more so when the reaction of the punters to his appointment on Tuesday was lukewarm to say the least. But the 45-year-old, sacked in his last two jobs at Blackpool and QPR, insists that pressure is a positive. He said: “There’s an expectation here because of the size of the club and where we want to get to. I’m comfortable with that.
“It’s actually a good thing. You’ve got to use that as a positive. I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t fancy that challenge and I didn’t want to be here. I want to be here. I want to have expectation, I want to have pressure because if you then are successful, that meaning of what you’ve done, I think it means more.
“Why was I attracted to Hearts? The enormity of the club, you’ve only got to come out here and look around the stadium and the facilities and look at the training facilities. I think there’s stability in the background, I think I’m going to get really good support and the right conditions.
“We want to be forward-thinking in how we play, so attack with the ball, attack without the ball, have intensity, have aggression. If you’ve got possession of the ball, it gives you a better chance of deciding what happens on the pitch.
“But sometimes at this moment in time you also have to do what you think is the right thing for the players and sometimes simplicity is genius and just putting the right players in the right positions and allow them to do what their attributes bring to the pitch, I think that’s also something for me to consider right now.”