PAIN..WE’LL

Liverpool have nothing to show for 92 points and 94 goals...but

THE work started seconds after the final whistle and the realisation that NINETY-TWO points had not been enough to win the Premier League.

Trent Alexander-arnold gazed into the distance, Andy Robertson looked on the verge of tears, the serial winner that is Sadio Mane struggled to get to grips with an unfamiliar feeling, Jordan Henderson put on his brave face.

Repeat, NINETY-TWO points, scoring NINETY-FOUR times with a goal difference of SIXTY-EIGHT... and still coming up short. That is an awful lot of effort for nothing but a whole heap of praise.

And that is why Jurgen Klopp visited each and every bowed red player to begin his final preparations for his next mission – the Champions League final in Paris.

We know this irrepressible Liverpool team will go again. It is their mantra.

We know the quality that streaks through this side will still be there on Saturday.

We know Klopp will work his motivational magic.

But the psychological fall-out of losing only two Premier League games all season and still being two points shy of a title is bound to be significant.

And they knew Manchester City were one and then two goals down, make no mistake.

Although Liverpool were never top of the as-it-stands table, they thought, for some time, their destiny was at their own feet. That will also take some getting over. And, in truth, even though Liverpool kept their part of the final-day bargain, they were flattered by this scoreline.

When the scores were level at one apiece, Raul Jimenez twice wasted chances to give Hwang Hee-chan a goalscoring formality.

Had Jimenez shown the composure he displayed when setting up Pedro Neto’s early finish, there might have been no need for the pyrotechnics at the Etihad.

And only one moment of class in a nervy firsthalf performance got

Liverpool level,

Thiago’s sublime flicked assist scruffily converted by Mane. But Liverpool looked vulnerable every time Wolves countered and will welcome Virgil van Dijk back into the starting line-up for the Real Madrid challenge on Saturday.

Ibrahima Konate, in particular, had a torrid time and was lucky Anthony Taylor was in the mood for ignoring penalty-area shoves.

But the Reds, as they do so often, found a way to get their own job done. Klopp sent on Mohamed Salah and the man who loves a Golden Boot (below) bundled in Liverpool’s second after a Joel Matip header was cleared off the line.

Wolves still looked a threat but Kop left-back Robertson made sure of a TWENTYEIGHTH Premier League win of the season for Liverpool with a sliding late finish.

But before Salah had scrambled in his effort to share the top-scorer award with Tottenham’s Heung-min Son, news of the City blitz had silenced the Anfield crowd.

Only a false alarm – the loudest Chinese whisper in history – brought the hopeful din back to the stadium.

It turned out Aston Villa did not have a third and Liverpool did not have a title, Liverpool did not have the Quadruple.

Only seconds before Taylor

called time on Merseyside, Michael Oliver had called time at the Etihad and Klopp could only look up at the stands, smile and shrug.

He was looking at Liverpool owner John W Henry and others from Fenway Sports Group, who returned Klopp’s look with applause. They know they have got a diamond of a manager on their books.

They know that Klopp, in the Premier League, performed a mighty task to push City to the wire. They know that there is no more inspirational boss in European football. And now, he will need to prove it again.

Against Spanish League champions Real Madrid, who beat them in the final in Kyiv four years ago. Because, after saying au revoir to their hopes of the Premier League title, it is next stop Paris.