I find it difficult to come up with an honest answer when I get asked “What will you be doing in 5 years?” during an interview. 5 years is such a long time and so many can happen or change. Take this for an example: Around 4 years ago, Liverpool had just lost a Champions League final – their first in 11 years at the time – to Real Madrid, and I wrote about how that failure felt different than the previous ones. Fast forward to today, and Liverpool have booked their place in the 2021/22 Champions League final – their third in 4 years – and are on the brink of footballing immortality.
Not only that, after the result a few nights ago, Liverpool are also granted a chance at redemption against Real Madrid in the final – because life is just funny that way. These finals against Madrid feel like perfect bookends to capture just how far this Liverpool team had flown.
“And so Liverpool will not just be fine, Liverpool will be fucking flying.”
Melissa Reddy, 2019
The sight of Karius’ howler is not lost on any Liverpool fan, but not many would have known that it would be his last appearance in a Liverpool shirt – at least other than pre-season. Come season’s end, Liverpool’s front office were poised for a busy summer, one which saw the next installments of Liverpool’s true greats, and the changing of the old (underwhelming) guard, including our dear friend Loris.
Patience is A Virtue
Recruitment has been one of Liverpool’s main driver of success. One thing I’ve always admired of Klopp is his unmovable philosophy on how to achieve success in modern football.
In Germany, he had faced a rival club in Bayern Munich which was the single most powerful hegemony in the country, with a history of snapping up the best German talents even from its closest competitors. In England, he’s now competing against Manchester City, basically a state-funded project club and a financial juggernaut, capable of buying the best players and lawyers in all of the lands.
In these situations, you have to get creative to gain that edge. Klopp knows this, and so do Mike Gordon, Ian Graham, Michael Edwards, and Liverpool’s recruitment team.
In the summer of 2018, on the back of Kiev disappointments, Liverpool got creative. They’d just survived a winter standoff with RB Leipzig over the service of Naby Keïta, which Liverpool finally acquired with a fee of €60 million.
They then battled Chelsea for the signature of highly-rated Brazillian ‘keeper Alisson Becker from Roma, who accepted Liverpool’s bid of €62.5 million. Then, out of absolute thin air, Liverpool completed a €45 million transfer of Fabinho, merely hours after initial links were established – a move that embodies Lil Wayne’s notable “real G’s move in silence like lasagna” line.
A low risk-medium reward signing of Xherdan Shaqiri completed the incomings for Liverpool’s summer. €182 million isn’t exactly a shoestring budget, but consider the fact that Liverpool had already sold Philippe Coutinho for €135 million in the previous winter and still have some spare funds after acquiring Virgil van Dijk for around €85 million.
Even when Liverpool spent big, they had to spend it right – Van Dijk, Alisson, Fabinho, and Keïta became the main core until now and developed into, arguably, one of the best players in their respective positions, bar maybe Keïta. Even Shaqiri popped up in some big moments, most notably scoring a brace against Manchester United and played a big part in the 4-0 comeback against Barcelona in that season – we’ll talk about this later.
This became the typical transfer approach for Liverpool & FSG in the Klopp era; shrewd, no-nonsense, and more importantly, the unflinching focus to find the perfect fit.
Rarely do we find a Liverpool transfer in this period that end up being surplus to requirements. Players like Diogo Jota, Thiago, Ibrahima Konaté, Kostas Tsimikas, and more recently Luis Díaz instantly became important contributors. Harvey Elliott and Sepp van den Berg are ones for the future. Even the low risk-medium reward signings of Adrián and Takumi Minamino, similar to Shaqiri, had their purple patch trophy-winning moments.
Klopp and FSG were never moved by the big name and big money transfers of their rivals, and chose wisely to back out when a bidding war drove the price up beyond their sensible calculation – take example the Timo Werner saga. This unflinching approach did cause some unrest within the fanbase, especially during the injury-ridden 2020/21 season where FSG refused to act until the final day of the winter transfer window to bring in the backup cavalry of loanee Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies, who spent the rest of that season in Klopp’s basement anyways.
One thing that, I believe, Liverpool fans need to understand especially when it comes to transfers is that patience is Klopp’s virtue, and it has been paying off. Klopp maintained his trust in FSG’s vision and his recruitment team’s ability to provide him the right tools, and his willingness to listen to his colleagues is what makes him a great collaborator. In any case, the transfer window is merely a small portion of how a team can achieve success, the rest of the work is mainly on the training pitch.
From Melwood to La AXA
History can become a club’s greatest attraction and it certainly rings true to Liverpool, but it can also be something that hold the club back. In the 1990s, Liverpool fell far behind rivals Manchester United and Arsenal who were starting to modernise their footballing approach. The introduction of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger brought along tactical innovations which led to them competing against each other for trophies for a prolonged time.
The 2000s and early 2010s also saw the introduction of New Money into the Premier League, with Chelsea and Manchester City finding much success both domestically and in Europe on the back of not only heavy financial backing, but also managerial prowess and top talents.
Their rivals are running far ahead, keeping up with the modern football currencies, but Liverpool stayed put. No league titles for 30 years; rarely competing for top European honours; ditched by world-class players; and starving local legend Steven Gerrard the trophies his stellar legacy deserves. The iconic treble-winning 2000/01 season and the Istanbul triumph in 2004/05 felt more like a bug than a feature.
Ill-fated decisions and underwhelming disappointments painted that era of the club – then a new painter came along.
In November 2020, Liverpool moved their first team training facilities from Melwood to the AXA Training Centre in Kirkby, the same training complex that has housed The Academy since 1988. The expanded and much revamped training complex cost around £50 million and consists of state-of-the-art facilities and technologies, enough to compete with Europe’s best.
This is a further sign that Liverpool are catching up. The limited space of Melwood coupled with Klopp’s desire to bring the first team and the youth academy closer prompted Liverpool to modernise their approach at training, even if that means abandoning the historic walls of Melwood.
This felt somewhat symbolic, kind of like when Arsenal first moved to the Emirates Stadium – a sign that the club has, for lack of a better phrase, grown up.
However, within the walls of “La AXA”, Liverpool didn’t stop being creative. Klopp and his coaching staff realised that small margins can go a long way in this game, and were finding ways to improve on-pitch performance.
In 2018, Liverpool hired throw-in specialist Thomas Gronnemark as an effort to maximise the potential of throw-in situations to retain possession, maintain control, create chances, and even score goals.
Gronnemark’s arrival revolutionised Liverpool’s approach in treating throw-ins just like other set piece situations, like corner kicks and free kicks. There are approximately 40-60 throw-ins in a game and most teams only retain possession for under 50% of the time (Liverpool only retained 45% possession before Gronnemark’s arrival). Clearly Gronnemark and Klopp saw that this is an underutilised yet significant part of the game. This turned out to become a worthy appointment because in the following 2019/20 season, Liverpool managed to retain 68% posession (23% increase) and score 13 goals from throw-in situations.
More recently, Liverpool also started working with a German neuroscience company neuro11 to help players “prepare for in-game set-piece situations by analysing brain activity during training drills.” Klopp, being a detail-oriented man and good collaborator that he is, of course found this idea worthy to have a go at. He even noted neuro11’s influence in Liverpool’s recent success in the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea, where Liverpool managed to score all of their 11 penalties in the shootout.
This is well and truly the modern Liverpool, a far cry of the underwhelming underachievers of yore that made a habit out of squandering leads and losing heads. This isn’t even the same team as the early iteration of Klopp’s heavy metal Reds that tend to run out of steam and be easily nullified by low blocks. This is Klopp’s new breed of monsters.
The Mentality (and Tactical) Monsters
It’s always fascinating to watch first-hand how a manager and his team evolves over time. On his arrival at Liverpool, Klopp was lauded for popularising the gegenpress while at Dortmund, and Liverpool fans couldn’t wait to see that high-intensity, high-risk football which was thought to be not only exciting, but also successful.
But back then, the Liverpool team was still recovering from the instability and imbalance suffered under former manager Brendan Rodgers. Even in his first full season, Klopp was still tinkering with the mess that was left behind, which explains why the inconsistency and imbalance show up every now and then.
However, the evolution was already underway. Grace Robertson put together an interesting article that focused on how Liverpool evolved through the examination of the ultimate litmus test for any good team; an away fixture at Burnley.
From 2016/17 to 2019/20, Robertson captured how Liverpool, and Klopp, evolved as a team both in how they play, and how they mentally deal with adversities. Burnley’s compactness and aggressiveness used to always trouble Liverpool, who mostly relied on individual brilliance in attack while being vulnerable at the back. When Coutinho couldn’t get any of his 217 shots from distance on target and Dejan Lovren was typically unsettled in defense, then it’s curtains. In 2016/17, Liverpool lost the fixture with a scarily familiar fashion.
The turning point was in 2017/18. Liverpool were more compact and more than willing to get ugly. The discovery of a young Trent Alexander-Arnold and his crossing ability also meant Liverpool found another way to hurt Burnley. Even when Burnley managed to expose Liverpool’s still-apparent weakness, they didn’t fold, and had enough mental fortitude to find the winning goal, or as Robertson puts it, the “era ending and era beginning goal.”
“Things were changing, though. Only a few months ago, Liverpool would’ve found a way to panic and throw that game away. Not today.”
Grace Robertson, on Liverpool’s response after conceding to Burnley in the away fixture of 2017/18.
Klopp further perfected that formula in 2018/19 and 2019/20 when more important puzzle pieces like Fabinho and Van Dijk came in, and by the end of that period, Burnley away felt more like a routine winnable fixture than a surefire banana skin one.
Those Burnley fixtures may have been the ones that prompted Klopp to realise that in the Premier League, the spaces are out wide. The emergence and development of Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson as brilliant creators meant that Liverpool can exploit these wide spaces and create from there. Due to this, both of them soon became assist leaders not only in England, but across Europe. Alexander-Arnold would go on to have record-breaking seasons for assists and is now one of Liverpool’s top creators.
In the back, the quartet of Alisson, Van Dijk, Joël Matip, and Fabinho are not only so assured in defending, but also so assured on the ball that they can get through any sort of press the opponent is throwing. More recently, the introduction of Thiago and re-emergence of Keïta also meant that Liverpool can now exploit central spaces when teams started to block wide areas.
This season, the evolution continues with the hotly debated high defensive line – which is basically a high risk-high reward approach. Klopp acknowledged that the reward is too good while the risk can be carefully mitigated.
I have three observations (because why not). First, it compresses the space up high making it easier to counter-press because of the limited space the opponent can exploit in transition. Second, when the opponent does escape the press, their forwards are likely to be caught offside due to Van Dijk, Matip, and Konaté’s brilliant awareness in executing the offside trap. Third, when the opponent’s forward does beat the offside trap, Alisson is too good in coming out of line and either sweep the ball or minimise the opponent’s shooting area with his elite 1v1 goalkeeping ability.
Klopp’s tactical evolution is indeed impressive, but with that said, I’m a firm believer that tactics can only get you so far, and ultimately it’s all about how much the players are willing to leave it all out on the pitch; how can they overcome their limitations and adversities. This is the other side of Klopp’s Liverpool evolution, as apparent in that away fixture at the rainy night at Turf Moor in New Year’s Day 2018 – mental fortitude.
I’ve mentioned a lot about the heartbreak in Kiev, but it’s time to mention the pandaemonium in Madrid. In the 2018/19 Champions League campaign, Liverpool were faced with a tough group consisting of Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli, and Red Star Belgrade.
The campaign already kicked off with a thrilling 3-2 win at Anfield over PSG with Roberto Firmino netting the late winner – already showing signs of Liverpool’s fortitude and willingness to do anything necessary to get a win. However, Liverpool couldn’t earn a single point from all 3 away fixtures in that group. But after a routine win against Red Star at home, Liverpool still need all 3 points against Napoli to secure their place in the knockout round.
In a high-stake European night at Anfield, up stepped Mohamed Salah, who sent the crowd into ecstasy by scoring with a low shot through David Ospina after beating two defenders. Then, in the dying final seconds, it’s Alisson’s time to shine, making himself big to deny Arkadiusz Milik’s close range shot at goal. Again, more signs of the mentality monsters coming to the fore.
But the big reveal comes later in the semifinal stage, where after dominantly dismissing Bayern and rampantly running past Porto, Liverpool were faced with Lionel Messi’s Barcelona – an incredibly tough adversary. But, Liverpool were also tough, which makes it weird when they lost 3-0 at the Camp Nou. They played good, but Messi’s brilliance was too hot to handle.
“We don’t want to be the best team in the world, but we want to be able to beat the best team in the world, with our way.”
Pepijn Lijnders, Coaches’ Voice, 2022
In a recent Coaches’ Voice video, Klopp’s assistant Pepijn Lijnders said that once the team got back to the dressing room after that wrenching defeat at Camp Nou, he learned that the “five minutes after the game are more important than the five days leading up to a game.” The reason he said this is that, in that dressing room, Klopp said to the players – after receiving a text message from youth coach Vitor Matos – “if there’s one team in the world of football who is able to turn this around, it’s you guys.”
That is Klopp’s Liverpool in a nutshell. The “from doubters to believers” era. That pep talk had surely left a mark on the players because come the second leg, although without the service of Salah and Firmino due to injury, Liverpool came out running – and I mean running their lungs off. Henderson chased everyone and their mums out the pitch. Alisson played out of his mind. Wijnaldum reignitied the spark while Alexander-Arnold and Origi combined to create one of the most iconic moments of Liverpool’s 130-year history.
“Corner taken quickly, ORIGIIIIII!!!”
LFCTV Commentary Team, 2019
4-0. Game, set, and match. Liverpool knock Barcelona out and advance to the final. “Fucking mentality monsters!” Klopp uttered emphatically in the post-match interview. Watching this unfold felt like an out-of-body experience. It was during Ramadhan, around suhoor time, on a workday, and I didn’t want to go back to sleep. Even now I find that moment indescribable.
Alas, Liverpool would then meet fellow English club Tottenham Hotspur at the Wanda Metropolitano for the Champions League title. An early Salah penalty and another legendary Origi moment – as if he hasn’t got enough of those already – sealed the win. And there goes Henderson, lifting our first silverware for God know how long; the trophy that escaped him just 12 months ago.
I noticed I’ve rambled long enough about this Champions League triumph that I haven’t even mentioned the parallel story that was emerging; the Premier League title race – I’ll keep it short for this one. Throughout the 2018/19 league season, Liverpool were dominant, only losing ONCE in the whole season. Unfortunately, Manchester City were in the same league.
I find it frustratingly unfortunate that this Liverpool team exists in the same era as that Saudi super-project led by fellow genius Pep Guardiola. They eked out 2 more wins than Liverpool which were enough to earn them 1 (ONE) more point to clinch the title on the last day. Manchester City – 98 points. Liverpool – 97 points. A title race like no other.
Still, Liverpool end up in the losing side of history. Yes, the Champions League triumph mended the wound a bit, but it still meant that Liverpool’s pursuit of the elusive and distant league title goes on for another year. However, as we’ve already learned, this Liverpool team is special. Glory may just be around the corner.
Indeed, it was just around the corner. The 2019/20 season came along and Liverpool blew everyone out the water, breaking record after record. They won 26 games and drew 1 out of the first 27 games (that is insane). They equalled the record of 18 straight wins (also insane). At one stage, they held a 25-point lead at the top of the table (still insane). They set a club record of 32 wins and 99 points in a season (have I said that this team is insane?). They dominated like no other, and finally, once Chelsea defeated the unusually lackluster Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on the afternoon of June 25th, Liverpool clinched their 19th English league title, with seven games remaining.
After 30 years of hurt, disappointment, and embarrassment, the English crown was back at Anfield. A fitting chapter of both the club’s and Klopp’s journey.
It was devastatingly unfortunate that this happened during the early peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore no bus parade was allowed. After a long break, football matches had to continue with empty crowd, and Liverpool had to lift the Premier League trophy inside an empty Anfield.
Speaking of pandemic-ridden football in empty stadiums…
Let’s Not Talk About *That* Season
But, I’m afraid we have to. You see, when people go partying and drinking all night, they’ll have a bad hangover the next day. Their heads are spinning, they’ll feel like shit, and most likely spend the rest of the day doing nothing. I feel like the 2020/21 season was Liverpool’s hangover. It just didn’t happen.
Well, it did happen, in the record books at least.
The entire world was dealing with a pandemic so everyone was generally going through a very tough time. But, the powers that be decided that the footballing show must go on, and because the previous season had to finish much later due to the prolonged pandemic break, they also decided to cram the fixtures into a tight period.
This is an ill-advised decision because it lacks the consideration of the players’ well-being. After adjusting to a long break from playing and slowly getting back the fitness level, to being rushed back and playing 3 games a week, players just lack the consistency and recovery time to fully recharge and maintain fitness. This leads to injuries, and there were tons of them (shocking, I know).
I concede that this rant may or may not be my way of coping with just how bad Liverpool’s season was. Similar to the season before, we were still breaking records – just the wrong ones.
Before *that* season, Liverpool held a proud record of remaining unbeaten at home for THREE consecutive seasons. *That* season, they broke the club record of losing SIX straight matches at home. One of those losses was against Merseyside rivals Everton, who previously had never won at Anfield since 1999. Also, forgive me but I *really* don’t want to talk about the 7-2.
Weird thing was, there was actually a sense of optimism in the start of the season, and fans believed that we would go on to compete again for the title. We had just acquired world-class midfielder Thiago and forward Diogo Jota, who had a blazing start to the season.
I divided the season into three parts. The first 20 percent-or-so was, still, quite alright. Liverpool still picked up wins albeit not always convincingly, but they’re still in and around the top of the table. The second 60 percent went absolutely downhill, and the turning point, I believe, was the 2-2 draw at Goodison Park on October 17th, 2020.
Everton ‘keeper Jordan Pickford had lunged into Van Dijk’s knee which prompted him to go down injured – Pickford on the other hand escaped punishment because the referees decided there was an offside before the fact, which made the events after the offside null and void. It was such a total nonsense but it was made worse when it turned out Van Dijk suffered a career-threatening ACL injury because of that challenge and would never play again for the rest of the season. Arguably our best player, out, just like that.
The season was made much worse when Richarlison also made a dangerous lunge towards the legs of Thiago. Richarlison was then given a red card, and Thiago initially looked fine, but it turned out he suffered a long-term injury as well, although not season-ending.
Those two injuries started the domino of a whole lotta more injuries that season. Almost all of the first XI, bar Wijnaldum and Robertson, had suffered injuries or missed games due to COVID. Loads of these injuries were quite lengthy as well – defender Joe Gomez suffered a long-term injury while away on international duty and missed 39 games; injury-prone Matip missed 27 games while Keïta missed 23; other vital midfielders Henderson and Fabinho missed 17 and 11 games respectively. The most incredible stat is that Liverpool played EIGHTEEN different centre-back partnerships throughout the season, mainly featuring academy products Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams.
The massively injury-hit defense and midfield caused massive instability and imbalance. Morale was also depleted and the players didn’t have the Anfield crowd to push them on. Lackluster performance after lackluster performance, the title became an afterthought, and once Liverpool find themselves 8th after the loss to Fulham at home in matchday 28, I was ready to dismiss this season entirely and hibernate until the reset next season.
I had forgotten that there was still some mentality monster DNA within this team.
In the last 20 percent of the season, things were turning around. Liverpool slowly picked up hard-fought wins and at one point, Champions League qualification became a possible reality (yes, it has come to that unfortunately).
Remember when I said Liverpool were still breaking records this season? Well, we broke another one when Alisson (yes, the ‘keeper) came up and score A LAST-MINUTE WINNER with a smooth header from Alexander-Arnold’s corner, and became the first ever goalkeeper to score in Liverpool’s 130-year history. 2-1. Liverpool defeated West Bromwich Albion and found themselves 5th with 2 games to go. Morale was through the roof at this point.
“You can’t explain a lot of things in life. For me, the only reason is God, and He put His hand on my head today.”
Alisson, speaking after his match-winning header against West Brom in May 2021.
In the next game, they were faced again with the ultimate litmus test; Burnley away. I said before that Klopp’s and Liverpool’s evolution made “Burnley away felt more like a routine winnable fixture than a surefire banana skin one.” The statement STILL applied even in *that* season as Liverpool cruised to a 3-0 win, and now they’re 4th. With a Champions League spot almost certain heading to the final game of the season, Liverpool further cemented their place as they beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at home to send themselves 3rd.
From being 8th in matchday 28, Liverpool won 8 of their last 10 games to propel them to 3rd place. This was an amazing turnaround, maybe not as glorious as the 4-0 win against Barcelona, but amazing nonetheless. This was the mentality monsters once again coming to the fore, to save what otherwise would a completely forgettable season, to a memorable one.
This momentum felt like a significant stepping stone heading into the next season. Morale was back up while Van Dijk and Gomez were set to return. We would play in the Champions League again and ready to compete for the title.
But no one was betting on us to challenge, so we bet on ourselves.
…And Here We Are Now
Liverpool had a quiet summer, only bringing in highly-rated young centre-back Ibrahima Konaté. Stark contrast to the blockbuster window our rivals have had – Chelsea brought back Romelu Lukaku for €113 million; Manchester City bought Jack Grealish for €117 million; while Manchester United bought Raphaël Varane, Jadon Sancho, and club legend Cristiano Ronaldo for a combined fee of €140 million. Even Arsenal had a productive summer, spending upwards of €160 million.
English media, the fickle beings that they are, gave Liverpool no chance of competing for the top honours, and were banking on Chelsea and Manchester United to challenge Manchester City for the title. Liverpool fans were quite divided as well, with some being dissatisfied at Liverpool’s lack of transfer activity. This is to be expected though, as fans were wary of just how injuries can ruin a season. “What if x, y, or z are injured? We need more players!!”
But, as I said in the first part of this article, patience is Klopp’s virtue. Our full squad is slowly coming back, including Van Dijk and Gomez, and Klopp trusts them to do the job. The return of wonderkid Harvey Elliott from his fruitful loan spell also gave the squad a boost. Klopp even trusted him to start a number of games up until his unfortunate injury. Klopp trusts these players and his staff, and so should we.
As the season goes by, Liverpool picked up the pace. Salah and Alexander-Arnold hit top form and Alisson is performing in an elite level. Van Dijk picked up where he left off and returned to his very best. Injury-prone players like Matip, Thiago, and Keïta slowly picked up and maintained their fitness, and even managed to be available and playing for a prolonged time. Diogo Jota is embracing his poacher role and although Sadio Mané has been having a hit-and-miss season, he still comes up in clutch moments.
By having far less injuries, these players can have more stability and consistency in their performance, hence why some players can hit top form. This also equals more good results. Liverpool maintained their pace with Manchester City and proved everyone who said they’d be miles off wrong. On the European end, Liverpool were drawn in the toughest group in the tournament, along with Atlético Madrid, FC Porto, and the resurrected AC Milan. Klopp looked at this and went on to lead his team to SIX WINS – yes, he beat Diego Simeone’s anti-football TWICE. A perfect European record.
In parallel, another story is brewing where third-stringers Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi, who is already a folk hero at Liverpool, become the main actors in Liverpool’s journey to the final of the Carabao Cup – a tournament where Liverpool have never seriously competed in. It felt different this season.
The quarter-final stage saw Liverpool come back from the dead against Leicester City. Down 3-1 at half time, Liverpool brought it back to 3-3 thanks to Diogo Jota and a 95th minute equaliser from our dear fellow Minamino. Second-string ‘keeper Caoimhín Kelleher has been trusted by Klopp to play the whole tournament, and in this match, to save Liverpool in the penalty shootout. And so he did, as Liverpool won 5-4 on penalties.
In the semi-final, the stubborn Arsenal managed to held Liverpool to a goalless draw in the first leg at Anfield. Come the second leg, it was Diogo Jota’s turn to dispatch Arsenal at their back garden with his two goals. Off to the final we went as we faced Thomas Tuchel’s new-look Chelsea at Wembley.
The final was end-to-end, with Liverpool surviving multiple scares that their high defensive line had caused while Chelsea had ‘keeper Edouard Mendy and the VAR to thank. A goalless draw in normal time, and then extra time, means the winner had to be decided via penalty shootout. Chelsea had brought on second-stringer Kepa to rely on his penalty-saving, while Klopp stuck with Kelleher. Neither of them saved any penalties, and then it was their turn to take. Kelleher went first, calmly slotting the ball down the middle as Kepa dived to his left. Advantage Liverpool. Up stepped Kepa, the supposedly Chelsea’s secret weapon for penalty shootouts… and he skied it. That was all she wrote.
11-10 on penalties. Liverpool are the 2021/22 Carabao Cup champions. “One down…” wrote Salah.
As for the FA Cup, another competition where Liverpool have usually ben hilariously bad in, they were also silently progressing. Granted, the opposition level hasn’t been that good, but they did face Manchester City in the semi-final. The blockbuster tie saw Liverpool rocketed to a 3-0 lead by half-time on the back of Mané’s deadly brace. Liverpool then survived City’s late 2-goal comeback and held on to a 3-2 win, as they proceed to the final to face (ugh) Chelsea, again.
In the league, however, Liverpool did have a slump in the December-January period where dropped points against the likes of Brighton, Brentford, and West Ham United saw them at one point trailing 14 points to Manchester City at the top of the table, albeit Liverpool having a few games in hand.
Liverpool cracked on, and the introduction of Luis Díaz reinvigorated the spirit and provided Klopp another tool at his disposal to dismantle teams. With Luis Díaz hitting the ground running and Thiago having a prolonged spell of being exceptionally world-class, Liverpool pick up win after win after win, and that 14 point gap has been dashed to just one point. Liverpool had the chance to alter the title race into their hands when they visit Manchester City last month, but the exhilarating game ended 2-2 and Liverpool now have to win the rest of their games and rely on City slipping up to have a chance at clinching the title. At the time of writing, there are 4 games left in the league. The window is closing…
The European journey went on pretty smoothly for Liverpool. Faced with Italian champions Inter Milan in the R16, Liverpool snatched a 2-goal lead in the first leg and survived a 1-0 loss in the second. In the quarter-finals, high-flying Benfica, powered by top-rated striker Darwin Núñez, gave Liverpool a tough time in forcing a 3-3 draw in the second leg at Anfield. But it was to no avail as Liverpool already dispatched them 3-1 in the first leg.
Come the semi-finals, Liverpool managed to secure a hard-fought 2-0 home win against giant-killers Villareal, who have already beaten Juventus and Bayern Munich on their way here. In the away fixture, Liverpool was taken aback by Villareal’s high-intensity, and instantly lost their 2-goal aggregate lead in a matter of minutes. 2-0 down at half time, Klopp unleashed Luis Díaz. His intensity and drive helped power Liverpool to a 3-2 comeback win, also scoring a goal in the process.
Liverpool have reached their third Champions League final in 4 years, and in this year’s installment, they have a shot at redemption against Real Madrid, whose journey to the final is as incredible as any storyline this rich competition has ever produced – they’ve dispatched Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, and Manchester City, all in unbelievable fashion.
And so, here we are now. Four games left in the Premier League, one FA Cup final, and one Champions League final. Six matches to achieve footballing immortality. Six matches to achieve total dominance. Six matches that everything Liverpool have worked on and endured through has been leading up to. Six matches to win the Quadruple.
What If?
This can either go heavenly right, or hellishly wrong – or we can win like 2 or 3 out of 4 and be happy with it. But we shouldn’t be held back by the thought of what’s possible, the what ifs, or the shoulda-woulda-couldas. The draws against Brighton, Brentford, and West Ham shouldn’t send you into a downward spiral. The penalty non-decision at Spurs or the deflected Kevin De Bruyne call shouldn’t drive you crazy.
This is already an incredible season, an amazing feat – I’d even say that this overshadows the glory of 2018/19 and 2019/20. And if Klopp has taught us anything all this time, it is to enjoy these moments. These are the times; these are the days. These were the legends of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley era, reincarnated in colourful Nike apparels with a Standard Chartered logo slapped on the front, on the brink of immortality. These days don’t come too often for Liverpool fans.
Melissa Reddy wrote in 2019 that Liverpool would be fucking flying, and we fucking did. We flew higher and further than even I thought we could. Klopp has delivered his promise, when he said it’s time to turn doubters to believers.
I say this mainly because the last time I wrote about Liverpool, disappointment and embarrassment were still the familiar feelings associated with watching the team. Now? I’m still in awe at how we managed to win after down 2-0 to a bullish Villareal side; how we managed to blitz past Manchester City and score 3 by half time; how we could easily dominate Manchester United and Everton, home and away; how we came back from 3-1 down against a full-strength Leicester City with a bunch of second-stringers. This is to only name a few from just this season…
This Liverpool is different. The players made it different. Klopp, Lijnders, and Krawietz made it different Mike Gordon, Michael Edwards, Julian Ward, and Ian Graham made it different. It would be a travesty and a major disservice to these people if I start to doubt this team now. Allez bloody allez.
Grey-Tinted 