FOUR THE LOVE OF KLOPP

Liverpool fans just adore Jurgen and that feeling has soared after they eased into the Champions League

WITH around a quarter of the game still to run, the Kop began singing Jurgen Klopp’s name. In Klopp’s theatrical world, you all know what happens next. He feigns annoyance, holds out his hands, giving them a rebuke in mock exasperation. It’s all part of the Jurgen love-in at Anfield, a lovein that has just got that little bit deeper. Reacting with delirium to snatching fourth place has never been a great look, especially for a club of Liverpool’s history and stature, but this felt like a significant step in an Anfield career that could well stretch into an era. Klopp has been at Liverpool for 19 months but, somehow, this still felt like the start of something. They will have a playoff to negotiate but Liverpool and Klopp on heady Champions League nights should be an intoxicating mix. He will be all too aware, though, that this is a squad that will need serious strengthening if it is to take a lead role on Europe’s grandest stage. Spells of what became a canter across the finishing line demonstrated exactly that. Even against a Boro side limited in the extreme, albeit unlimited in effort, they still looked defensively vulnerable, and not only from setpieces. When Patrick Bamford got clear of Dejan Lovren in the first half, it could have been a game-defining, even season-defining, moment. Whether referee Martin Atkinson judged the moment correctly or not will remain a moot point but what is indisputable is that Liverpool were fortunate. They benefited from a growing conviction among observers, official and non-official, that a striker’s first penalty-area instinct is to seek contact. With opponent not ball. Presumably, Atkinson believed Bamford deliberately squeezed the brake pedal to draw the Lovren shunt. It was an interpretation generous to Liverpool, to say the least. Eventually, the generosity was gleefully accepted. When Liverpool do bolster, it is probably going to be with players in the mid-£20million bracket. Judgement will have to be as sound, as it is proving to be in the case of the slow-starting Georginio Wijnaldum. He has developed into an essential cog in the Anfield machine, a scoring cog at that. Hardly prolific, never away from home, but a scorer of crucial goals all the same. The winner against Manchester City, the point-saver against Chelsea, now the one that lifted the burden of anxiety here. In first-half stoppagetime, his technique was slick to accept a Roberto Firmino reverse pass and his near-post finish was emphatic. With Manchester City and Arsenal already in control of their tasks, it was a crucial mood-changer. A second would still be the ultimate settler and it duly arrived soon after half-time when Philippe Coutinho lined up a freekick against Brad Guzan, just under 30 yards out. Against the hapless Brad, it was almost a curling tap-in for Philippe. Adam Lallana’s cute finish after a cute buildup put matters beyond doubt although there was still time for Boro to remind Klopp of the purchasing responsibilities that lie ahead. Perhaps he was discussing them when posing for pictures with Anfield owner John W Henry on the post-match lap of appreciation. It was a lap when Klopp finally allowed the fans to sing his name. He liked it. As if he ever doesn’t. Over a year and a half has passed, but the Klopp-liverpool love-in is just beginning.