How Klopp’s vision lit up gloomy night

SEVILLA LOSS TURNING POINT

AS MOMENTS in Liverpool’s glorious history go, it hardly seemed the most auspicious.

It was May 2016, they had just been trounced 3-1 in the Europa League final by Sevilla after a second-half collapse of almost embarrassing proportions.

But it is in the darkest moments before the dawn where Jurgen Klopp’s genius is most apparent.

The Reds manager shocked his players by insisting they gather for a boozy get-together after that traumatic defeat by Unai Emery’s well-drilled team.

And, as they sang songs of defiance in the suddenly crowded bar of their sleepy Basle hotel just hours later, it dawned on his players this was a turning point for the slumbering giant of a club.

A serious knee injury confined Jordan Henderson to the bench that night. He is one of only five players from Klopp’s squad that season to remain at Anfield and, as he prepared to meet Emery – now in charge of Villarreal – in tonight’s Champions League semi-final first leg, he took up the story.

“That night always sticks out to me,” said Henderson. “Going back to the hotel, all the lads were disappointed, you want to go back to your room, not see anybody, get your head down. But the gaffer was very different from what I had ever seen before. He had everyone together in the bar. I felt as though he knew it was the start of something special to come.

“As a player, it is very difficult to think that when you’ve just lost a final. Yet he sort of knew what was coming in the next few years – and he has proven it was the start of something special.”

Henderson admits that in the wake of a harrowing cup final defeat, a glorious future was the furthest thing from his mind. But

in the days and weeks that followed, he began to understand his manager’s vision.

“We didn’t see it, because we had just lost the final, we were devastated, so it was more difficult as players to see past that moment,” said Henderson. “But that is why it stuck out, because the manager was different, his mentality was different.

“I felt that confidence transmitted to the players and we used that as motivation to try to get better.” Klopp has revealed that he told the players afterwards

they would be back “even stronger”, placing his trust and belief in them.

But Henderson admitted he did not even need that moment, deep down. For him, Liverpool’s history changed the moment the German coach walked in the door.

“The whole lift he gave to the club, the team, the players. You felt it then,” he said.

Having won the Champions League in 2019 and Premier League in 2020, Liverpool stand on the verge of history, in contention for the Quadruple. Henderson added: “It’s a massive, massive few weeks, and we need to keep the mentality, the focus, because this is huge now.”