Gerrard a younger version of Sir Alex Ferguson – Klopp

Jurgen Klopp has been congratulated on his start to life as Liverpool manager by Sir Alex Ferguson – and has compared Steven Gerrard to the Scot.

Liverpool have won seven and lost only one of their 11 games under Klopp and can move level on points with fifth-placed Tottenham if they win at Newcastle United in the Premier League on Sunday.

The Reds have also reached the Capital One Cup semi-finals courtesy of a 6-1 thrashing of Southampton in midweek, for which Klopp has received his second LG Performance of the Week award during his short tenure in charge.

Klopp, who also won the award for the 4-1 win over Manchester City last month, was congratulated by Ferguson, who forms part of the League Managers Association panel which decides the winner.

“He said congratulations and the rest is private,” Klopp said. “But I’ve had the huge honour of meeting him a few times and of course he is a role model for every manager in football.

“It was a big pleasure because he’s a funny person and something like a book of history in football so it was good to spend some time with him.”

Klopp then compared Gerrard to Ferguson, with the former Liverpool captain and current LA Galaxy midfielder currently training at Anfield.

“He has the same thing as Alex, only a younger version,” said Klopp. “It’s good to have him here.

“It’s very important to us because we can show that if you behave like Steven Gerrard in the years he was here and work like he did, then the door has to be open always and that’s what we’re doing now.

“Everybody knows him better than myself so it’s good to have him around because he’s a nice person and all the players love him.”