Klopp bids to win title that Rafa’s Reds lost
WHEN Rafa Benitez returns to Anfield on Boxing Day, he may see something he remembers well. The ground. The fans. The blueprint to win the title.
Jurgen Klopp (above) may look like Benitez’s opposite, the emotional, outgoing manager who has a very different personality to the mildmannered Spaniard.
But when Liverpool host Benitez’s Newcastle, the German may be borrowing from a predecessor.
While Klopp used to embrace chaotic football and the Newcastle manager is a control freak, the last two managers to take Liverpool to Champions League finals have more in common than it first seemed.
It is almost three decades since Liverpool won the league. Arguably their best team in that time won nothing: Benitez’s class of 2008-09. They were potent in attack, strong at the back and very difficult to defeat. They scored late goals, kept clean sheets and did not lose at Anfield. Ten years on, they do the same.
Klopp’s Liverpool used to have more in common with Brendan Rodgers’ 2013-14 runnersup, a flawed but entertaining side who scored a century of goals but conceded 50, who seemed more likely to win 4-3 or 3-2 than 1-0.
Not now. Not after the signings of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson to complement the attacking flair of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
They are a team still unbeaten in the league, who have a brilliant defensive record, and who are rivalling perhaps the best teams in Europe.
They have echoes of 2008 when the Reds were the most solid of sides and had dynamic brilliance going forward, courtesy of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.
They were so good they beat Manchester United 4-1 and Real Madrid 4-0 in an incredible week.
They ended the season without silverware.
The final verdict