Klopp has given Liverpool fans plenty of reasons to smile

Opinion

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This article was published 26/04/2024 (504 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Standing on the touchline at Goodison Park, it finally sunk in. You could pinpoint the exact moment when it did.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin had just evaded both Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to connect with Dwight McNeil’s high, arcing corner. Almost pausing mid-leap with hang-time Michael Jordan would be proud of, his well-placed, downward header was even more impressive than the jump, and suddenly Everton were beating Liverpool 2-0 in the Merseyside Derby.

And all he could do was smile.

At Wednesday’s kickoff, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds were 90 minutes away from rejoining Arsenal atop the Premier League table — a position they’d targeted with particular vigour since the German announced he’d be stepping down at season’s end. Going into Saturday’s match at West Ham, Liverpool were sitting third in the standings and needing what Klopp called a “miracle” to rejoin the title race.

Even if no one else could see a loss to the relegation-threatened Toffees coming, you wonder if he did. There are any number of ways to read into that grin he flashed in the 58th minute when he knew the jig was up, but perhaps his Mona Lisa moment was as curious to himself as it was to the rest of us.

Perhaps it was the cynical reflex of a much-accomplished coach who has nevertheless seen this film before.

In his first job at his beloved Mainz, Klopp took Die Nullfunfer into the Bundesliga for the very first time. When he left, they were back in the second division.

At Borussia Dortmund, with whom he is still so closely associated (he has actually managed Liverpool in 160 more games than he did Die Schwarzgelben), he delivered back-to-back championships and established himself as one of the sport’s great innovators. When he rode his bicycle home in the spring of 2015, they were seventh.

The valley, the top of the mountain, and the valley again.

If Klopp tends to leave his teams almost right where they were when he joined them, it’s because his methods, his style, are so demanding that they eventually wear a squad down. But not before they’ve done some quite incredible winning.

Should Liverpool finish the season with only a top-three finish and Carabao Cup to show for it, the grind through which Klopp puts his players — one that emphasizes non-stop energy and winning the ball high up the pitch — will be at least partially to blame for the disappointment. The proof is in the staggering number of man-games lost to muscle injuries.

Perhaps his smile showed a 56-year-old who has come to terms with defeat and is already considering his Anfield tenure with reflection.

The very fact that “only a top-three finish and a Carabao Cup to show for it” is currently considered a disaster on Merseyside is because of the standards Klopp has set over his tenure at the club.

When he arrived eight-and-a-half years ago, the Reds had won exactly one League Cup in eight seasons and completed five of them no higher than sixth in the English top flight. It was slow work, but the fourth-place finish in his first full term would be his lowest until the 2022-23 campaign.

Between 2018 and 2022 his teams were among the best in the world, securing his legacy as one of the great Liverpool managers.

Under Klopp, they won a first title in 30 years and contested three Champions League finals, lifting the European Cup in 2019. Mohamed Salah, as part of a deadly attack including Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, topped the Premier League’s goalscoring chart on three occasions. He, himself, was named The Best FIFA Men’s Coach twice.

And yet, and as the Goodison faithful were only too gleeful to point out on Wednesday night, Klopp will leave the city with fewer titles than former Blues managers Howard Kendall and Harry Catterick — only the one, while he watched Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City win five.

Perhaps, in that light, his smile was almost sarcastic. Twice he had taken his side beyond 90 points, only to come second to a club that is alleged to have broken almost every financial regulation in the book.

What more could he have done?

Twenty-four hours after the Everton defeat, City hammered Brighton 4-0 on the Sussex coast and leapfrogged Liverpool into second. With a game in hand on Arsenal, they’re almost certain to claim top spot yet again.

Meanwhile, that valley with which Klopp is so familiar is coming into sight once more. Salah, for one, is 31 now and enduring his most difficult season at the club. Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold are rumoured to be mulling their futures. All three players are out of contract in 14 months. Overall, the Liverpool squad could look a lot different by the start of next season.

Klopp’s, then, will be a bittersweet departure, but it was never going to be otherwise. If they’re already looking back on his time with them, on the triumphs and on what might have been, Liverpool fans can really only smile along with him. He’s given them many reasons to do so.

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