Liverpool to ‘switch off the noise’ with title in reach
Jurgen Klopp had been in England for two months when he first encountered the scale and ferocity of its ‘Who Can Have The Most Controversial Football Opinion?’ spin cycle.
On 13 December 2015, Liverpool secured a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion on account of a deflected Divock Origi strike on 90 minutes at Anfield.
When the final whistle went, the manager – a fury of fist-pumping when the goal went in – excitedly assembled his players, walking them towards the Kop with arms interlinked
Liverpool saluted their fans and sea of criticism flooded in. Klopp was labelled “a bit of an idiot,” every synonym for disgrace and accused of reducing the club to celebrating a meaningless result against a team they should beat.
It was discussed in print, over the airwaves and on TV screens for days, but the German told his squad and staff to ‘switch off the noise.’ The show of unity wasn’t for the cameras nor for the pundits, it was to foster a spirit of appreciation and closeness between the team and the supporters.
A month earlier, Klopp had suffered his first Liverpool defeat to Crystal Palace when Scott Dann’s header put the visitors 2-1 up on Merseyside eight minutes from time.
The goal promoted home fans to exit Anfield en masse illustrating there was an absence of belief in the players from the terraces, but it also pointed to those on the pitch not having enough credence in themselves.
“Eighty-two minutes—game over,” Klopp assessed at the time. “I turned around and I felt pretty alone at this moment. We have to decide when it is over.”
Origi’s late effort against West Brom was therefore a significant development in Liverpool’s trajectory.
“I really wanted from the first day that the people know about their importance,” Klopp explained.“We know without them we wouldn’t play on our highest level, no chance. There was a big misunderstanding against West Brom.
“I wanted to say thank you to the supporters after that game so I took my team towards the Kop to do it and there was a discussion everywhere about it. For me, it was ‘why should we even discuss that?’
“I wanted to show that we really we are one unit, 100 per cent one unit.”
Liverpool do not get the scenes against Borussia Dortmund or Barcelona nor the intoxicating bliss of Shevchenko Park and Plaza Felipe II turning red without those kind of shared early moments.
Klopp has mastered the art of muting external opinions and has drilled into the club that the voices that matter most on football are at Melwood.
When Roberto Firmino was being skewered for not scoring enough, Klopp responded: “What?! He is the best player without scoring with how well he reads the game for the benefit of others. Outstanding! But then what if he starts thinking ‘oh, I need more goals’ and starts shooting from all over the place when usually, he would play a clever ball and make a run to open up the space?
“There needs to be one plan, one voice, one belief. It will not always be perfect, because we are not perfect, but it is our way.”
In August 2017, when Liverpool were drowning in pressure to sign a centre-back as an alternative to Virgil van Dijk with Southampton refusing him to sell him that summer following the tapping-up incident, Klopp refused to “buy a defender just for the sake of it. I had to make a decision and the decision was our boys are not worse than them.”
The club were derided but their resolve to wait on Van Dijk as well as invest faith in Joe Gomez and Joel Matip has been more than vindicated.
Liverpool were said to be jeopardising their season when they sold Philippe Coutinho in January 2018, but reached the Champions League final in Kiev.
That was rated as their only shot of being European champions in the near future, but they won the showpiece a year later.
When they missed out on the league title to Manchester City by a point in 2018-19, it was assessed as the closest they’d get to ending their title drought.
That view was cemented when Liverpool didn’t spend on the senior team in the summer to give them an edge over Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut.
Now, two victories away from lifting their first league championship in 30 years – a procession paused by a coronavirus-enforced suspension of football for 96 days - Klopp’s ability to turn off the sound will again be a useful skill.
Talk of asterisks and the triumph being less impactful behind closed doors is sure to be amplified.
That only underscores the enormity of Liverpool’s progress, in part due to refusing to acknowledge external voices over their own.
In 2015, Klopp was imploring his players to decide when games are over and they will now set the narrative on what the title means to the club.
The word ‘tainted’ can be thrown around to nauseating extremes, but Liverpool clearly won’t be listening.