The first time Juergen Klopp asked his Borussia Dortmund players to go for a run at midnight, Roman Weidenfeller thought it was a joke and had murmured under his breath “f*** o**”.

The former Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper was unravelling the Klopp myth during an interaction with a select group of mediapersons at a city hotel on Friday.

Weidenfeller had played under his favourite coach for seven seasons at Dortmund — the goalkeeper spent 16 seasons at Westfalenstadion — and won two consecutive Bundesliga titles and a German Cup. The 31-minute interaction had almost 17 minutes on what it makes the Liverpool coach so important.

“When he told us to run at night during a pre-season in Asia, we said ‘f*** o**’. Second time we understood his mind and third time we had enough inspiration to do what he was asking us to do. We were getting the results on the pitch and everything he wanted us to do was very motivating.

Six in the morning he used to tell us to run. We used to train three times a day and yet nobody complained,” the 2014 German World Cup winner said.

“He is a machine on the pitch as well off the pitch. A great coach and a great person, someone you can go to anytime and talk. He keeps his eyes and ears open and that gives him an edge over his contemporaries.”

Weidenfeller believes Klopp with experience has become smarter and it’s showing in Liverpool’s performance. “He is now more technical and more tactical. He is asking his players to keep the ball more like Guardiola than he used to do at Dortmund. He came from Mainz, learnt in Dortmund and then learnt more in Liverpool. But one thing remains unchanged with Klopp. All the time it’s football. In front as well as at the back...

“Like when we played bigger teams like Barcelona, he used to say we will pull this down to our level, then we fight and would try to win. He was clear and straight. That’s a big thing.”

Weidenfeller feels Klopp moved to Anfield at the right time. “He did a really good job at the Dortmund and Liverpool was under trouble. The same situation was same like Dortmund. And Klopp saw this chance to put Liverpool at a higher level and he did just that.”

Weidenfeller was in the city along with Dortmund officials Max-Jannis Foerster and Suresh Latchmanan. He spent some time with club fans also. Dortmund intend to play a Legends match here at the Salt Lake Stadium. They held meetings with IFA and state sports ministry officials too.