Klopp seeking a new Liverpool miracle to deliver greatest title
Manager claims that his team have a free hit going into the last day of the season, with all the pressure on leaders City
Liverpool have dealt in the currency of football miracles throughout their history and Jurgen Klopp needs another one to lift his second Premier League title tomorrow.
Hope springs eternal at a club accustomed to turning the nearimpossible into thrilling reality. If Liverpool take advantage of a Manchester City slip akin to Devon Loch, a 2022 title will sit alongside Istanbul and the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona as one of their greatest comebacks.
“We have the best opponent in world football, which is a bit of a shame. But they have us in their neck, which is not too cool as well,” was Klopp’s summing up of the final day shoot-out.
He knows destiny is in the hands of others, not least one of the most revered Kop agents, Aston Villa head coach Steven Gerrard, dispatched to enemy territory like Ethan Hunt on a rogue mission.
Urged to embrace the romanticism of Gerrard potentially choreographing City’s downfall, Klopp imagined himself back in the Bundesliga, leading a team (probably against Bayern Munich) knowing that a positive result would benefit his former clubs Mainz or Borussia Dortmund. “That would be, for me, extra motivation,” he said. “But I don’t play. And Stevie doesn’t play. That is a shame, much more of a shame that Stevie is not playing than I am not playing.”
The mild concession to “mind games” was Klopp arguing that Liverpool had a free hit. “I cannot talk about pressure for the other team, but it’s like this for us. There is no pressure,” he said. “If you have something to lose, it feels different. But we don’t.”
Klopp knows the power of his messaging ahead of career-defining games. His demeanour can be as revealing as his words. When Liverpool went into the last day in an identical position three years ago – a point behind City – Klopp was in a phlegmatic mood, insisting that “moments can mean more than trophies”. He was still yet to win anything at Anfield then. It sounded like he was reassuring a disheartened fan base to keep the faith.
“I don’t remember 100 per cent how I felt before the last game of the season and after that game, but I was fine,” Klopp said. “I remember walking on the lap of honour next to Trent [Alexander-arnold]. We both had a smile on our faces because it was a great season.”
Check out the photographs of that walk towards the Kop and Klopp’s memory might be playing tricks. After a hum of anticipation when City conceded early to Brighton, there was heartbreak and frustration, albeit balanced with defiance and optimism as the Champions League final loomed. Three years on, Klopp is emboldened by having won every major honour with Liverpool.
Like some manically jovial cartographer, he possesses an unerring capacity to elicit meaning from every mark on the map of his adventures, no matter how light or dark the memories. In analysing this campaign, no one should forget the impact on Klopp of the last one.
Soulless lockdown football, serious injuries to key players, and family bereavements created challenges for which he could not prepare. It felt deliberate that Klopp repeated his claim that making the top four a year ago – thus protecting the legacy of the 2020 title-winning campaign and creating a foundation for this year’s quadruple bid – ranked among his greatest successes.
“The biggest defeats in my life led to the biggest successes in my life, wherever I was,” he said. “I learned that at Mainz when we didn’t get promoted and we thought it would be really sad. We had 20,000 people waiting for us the day after we lost our dream of going to the Bundesliga. So, whatever happens on Sunday, we will not stop trying.”
That explains why, despite the likelihood of finishing second to Pep Guardiola’s team again, Klopp sounds upbeat, buoyed that a citycentre parade is guaranteed with or without the title. He said that if Liverpool was not honouring the title winners of 2022, the city would be paying tribute to those of 2020 who were denied an open-top bus tour because of the pandemic.
“We have so many reasons to celebrate. We don’t know how many reasons, but enough,” he said.
“It is enough to celebrate life. There is the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup and whatever will come. Even if we don’t win the Champions League final, we have a party afterwards. That we didn’t have the parade two years ago when we became [Premier League] champions is not ‘the’ reason – but it is another reason.”