Jurgen Klopp’s assistant Zeljko Buvac let the cat out of the bag when he told a newspaper in his native Croatia that he and Klopp were heading to Liverpool. Carlo Ancelotti was also being touted and if I’m honest he seemed like the obvious candidate with his long record of success. Klopp was a bit like Rafa in the way he had taken Dortmund to the top of the Bundesliga above perennial winners Bayern Munich. I wasn’t well placed to have an opinion on Klopp as I’d seen one game against Munich in the 2013 Champions League final and I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about this Dortmund team which of course is completely unfair. What I do remember is Klopp taking his Dortmund team to training at Wembley via the tube. So when he breezed into Anfield in early October referring to himself as “The Normal One”, that wasn’t bullshit. There was an honesty about the new manager but also a total confidence in his own ability. He promised to turn doubters (like me) into believers and he would win something within 4 years. The rest of the league season was going to be about Klopp getting the players used to his style of football. It was described as heavy metal football and that’s what it was. The gegenpress wasn’t something new. It’s what Barca had been doing for years under Guardiola - lose the ball? get it back quickly and work in packs to do it. We’d been using a high press under Rodgers when we were at our best in 2014. Klopp’s gegenpress seemed to be more high octane and his exuberance on the touchline along with his already famous hugs drove the team on to run themselves into the ground for their new manager. The league was a write off but the cups offered a chance for Klopp to get an early piece of silverware to take the pressure off. There were some significant performances along the way which pointed towards a brighter dawn for the redmen. A 6-1 win at Southampton in the League Cup saw Origi get a hat trick and Sturridge return to the team with a brace. This set up a semi final with Stoke and it was funny to see how exasperated Klopp was that the competition became a two legged affair at this stage before reverting back to a one game final. This did not compute in German pragmatism. Stoke were defeated on penalties at Anfield to set up a first final under Klopp and of course it was Man City waiting for us at Wembley. For 10 years, it had been Chelsea waiting for us every time we were going for a trophy and now it was the nouveau riche from the other side of Manchester at every turn. City led just after half time but Coutinho equalised in the last 10 minutes. We should have won it in normal time but it went to penalties and we missed 3 of our 4 spot kicks to hand it to City. A few days later, I was at Anfield with my father in law, Ronnie, for an evening game against City. We beat them 3 nil. Sterling was taken off at half time, such was the grief he was getting from the home fans. We stayed over this time and the next day, Ronnie had me away up in Kirkby to see where he first worked as a teacher.
Unbelievably, Leicester went on to win the league that year which was a massive kick in the balls but they took advantage of the usual suspects finding themselves in various stages of rebuilding. 26 years were up. We had gone past how long it took United to win it again. How long would it take to win the league? 40, 50 years like City and Chelsea? For us, that season became all about the Europa League as Klopp brought the good times back to L4. United, Dortmund and Villareal all succumbed to the power of Anfield. Unfortunately, we couldn't replicate our home advantage for the final in Basel despite leading one nil at half time through a brilliant outside of the left foot bender from Sturridge. We fell apart in the second half through a combination of tiredness and poor game management. Dutch fitness coach, Raymond Verheijn started to publicly criticise Klopps methods, claiming the players were too exhausted to see the season out. In fairness, Sevilla were Europa League specialists and this was their third straight victory in the competition, their fifth overall, two more than Liverpool. This was also our last chance to get into Europe the following season - the winners of Europes second trophy now qualified for the Champions League. Henderson was still captain under Klopp but he only made the bench in the final. He was in another battle for his place with Klopps fellow German, Emre Can. The skipper only made 23 appearances in Klopps first season as injuries began to take their toll. Divock Origi had started to make a big impression in the last third of the season but he was hacked down by Evertons Funes Mori in the derby and missed the rest of the season. Mamadou Sakho also missed the final when he failed a drug test, he took unprescribed medicine for something minor. It was later rescinded but the damage was done and Sakho was on his way out of the club for this and a lack of discipline on the U.S. summer tour. Klopp also sold Skrtel, Toure, Allen and Benteke while managing to get £18m out of Bournemouth for Ibe and Brad Smith. In came centre back Joel Matip, keeper Loris Karius, Gini Wijnaldum and Sadio Mane. The season started well with a 4-3 win at the Emirates, Mane scored on his league debut. Defeat at Burnley in the next game was followed by an unbeaten run that ended with a 4-3 defeat to Bournemouth when we were leading 3-1 with 15 minutes to go. Old habits die hard. New keeper Loris Karius wasn't displaying any greater ability than Simon Mignolet. We beat City on New Years Eve to go second behind Chelsea and there was a definite feeling of something building. In January and into February we only took 3 points from a possible 15 which brought the dream to an end for another year. My mate, Smiddy, who had been at the Dortmund game with me, took his oldest son, Tom over for his first game. He was only 7 or 8. It was Crystal Palace and we haven't lost a league game at Anfield since. We had a great day - we spotted Ronnie Whelan outside and got a photo with him. The game was awful as Benteke gave Lovren a terrible time and rubbed salt in the wounds by celebrating the winner, with the on loan Sakho, in front of us in the new main stand. Afterwards at Manchester Airport, as we headed towards security, I was about to regale Smiddy and Tom about how I'd met Pepe Reina at this spot a few years earlier when the whole Palace team came walking towards us and we got pictures with all the ex Liverpool players including their coach Sammy Lee. I always regret us not getting a photo with Martin Kelly who was there but went unnoticed. Smiddy, Chops and I were back over for the final game of the season against Middlesboro. We needed a win to guarantee a top 4 finish in Klopps first full season. We were stood outside a Beatles themed pub just up from the King Harry and got talking to some local fans who told us they saw King Kenny coming walking down an alley in his club suit heading for the ground. He could have just been some supporter caught short the way he just wandered out like he wasn't one of the greatest players and managers the club has ever had. Smiddy tried to match his story by saying we'd met Ronnie Whelan last time we were over but that was like meeting a disciple and this guy was telling us he'd just seen Jesus! I was bumping into ex Liverpool footballers all over the show at this point. Harry Kewell was in my gym in Belfast the week before. He was over to do his coaching badges. Liverpool made hard work of beating Boro. Lovren almost gave away a penalty at nil nil but Coutinho took the game by the scruff of the neck to score the decisive second goal and finish the season as top scorer. Mane scored 13 goals in his first season and was club player of the year. Lucas played his final game for us ahead of a move to Lazio. Jordan Henderson had seen off another midfield competitor. More importantly, the reds were back in the Champions League and as usual that meant Europe had better watch out.
Comments
Post a Comment