Last night was just so frustrating. I really hope Liverpool can win the league by some miracle and we don’t go out of that with a whimper too. For me, we’ve only really had 3 successful / title challenging seasons in Jurgen Klopp’s era and that was 18/19 (2nd and Champions League (CL)), 19/20 (Premier League (PL)) and 21/22 (2nd and Cup double).
The first 3 years of his tenure was building us up from nothing, so being successful or mounting a legitimate challenge wasn’t really possible, but the job Klopp did in those early years to rebuild on a limited budget was still exceptional. Nobody can deny that or ever take it away from him. That 5 year build up to winning the league was magical for the Liverpool FC family.
The 4 years that have come after the league title winning season has mostly been chalk and cheese though compared to how it began though and the 21/22 Quad chase is starting to look like the blip in this period! Especially considering we started investing so much more in the playing staff and it just hasn’t pushed us on to the next level (in my opinion due to the change in tactics away from what brought us the success).
In 20/21 we immediately followed winning the league with a dreadful season where Alisson had to score a header against West Brom to scrape 4th. Then the 21/22 season we may have come away with the League and FA Cup, but we got found out in the CL final against Madrid and lost the league by 1 point. 22/23 was the worst season of the lot finishing outside the top 4 and just generally not playing well all year with only a Community Shield to show for ourselves.
Then 23/24 season we’ve yet again limped through the season scraping a League Cup final against Chelsea and we’re now on the cusp of bottling all 3 of the other pieces of silverware in less than a month. We were running on emotion and it’s all just derailed itself.
I’ll be gutted if the Klopp era ends with only 1 PL and 1 CL in the middle. Klopp and the players can’t let that happen, surely? That just would not do justice to the emotional journey we’ve all been on together. Klopp is the best manager we’ve had in my lifetime, but if we don’t win the league this season, has he arguably under achieved? 18/19, 19/20 and 21/22 are the only season’s where you can argue we’ve really given it a right go in the title race and come away with a decent return in terms of silverware.
3 seasons in 8 as it stands and I know he was hampered at the start by what he inherited, but the history books won’t remember that. I want more for Klopp and this group of players, so I’m praying they don’t let it end under a dark cloud. If we lose the league on the last day having won well in our last 6/6 then fair enough, but if we were to fall away and finish top 4 with just a League cup that will feel like a huge anti-climax. We’ve got to sustain the challenge for the title to the last day and hopefully we can pressure City and Arsenal into blinking and end this beautiful journey on the ultimate high.
I have to say on a more positive note though that unlike Wenger and Ferguson, I feel like Klopp is leaving the club behind in a position from which it can kick on. The defence definitely needs tactical work and big players like Mo Salah (top scorer) and Virgil (captain) will need to be replaced soon, I get that. But he’s leaving a core of players aged 20-25 that have absolutely huge potential as a group. Trent, Mac Allister, Quansah, Szoboszlai, Elliott and Bradley are all exceptional talents and if we can get a manager in who can get the best out of them in the team all together (albeit Trent / Bradley might be tricky) then I genuinely believe there is a spine there that can go and do something special.
As much as the success might not have flowed as we would have liked, you have to say that Klopp is probably the first Liverpool manager for 35 years who will be leaving the club in a better position than the day he came in the door. I’m not going to buy in to the doom / gloom and say that our team is awful (some need replacing, but there is also a lot of good about our squad).
I really do think that this recent run of games is purely down to a loss of energy, momentum and focus. Whatever happens in the final 6 games, Klopp might not have replicated the success of Paisley, but hopefully he’ll be looked back on in a similar light to Shankly, in that he laid the foundations for something truly remarkable to follow. Fingers crossed.
Written by MK Scouser April 19 2024 13:18:24
