This is not to criticise what was achieved or not achieved before, more to put into context why Klopp has been canonised by Liverpool fans. Liverpool won the league for the 18th time in 1990 under Kenny Dalglish, after that there were spells of 6 years and 7 years when we won absolutely nothing. That is a shock to the system when you've grown up watching your team win year after year - the double in 86, the league in 88, FA Cup in 89, league again in 1990. This doesn't tell the whole story because we also lost the World Club Final in 1984, the European Cup final in 1985, the League Cup Final in 1987, the FA Cup Final in 88 and the league at home to Arsenal in a final day decider, lost in the most dramatic of circumstances. We were also runners up in the league in 85 and 87. Simply put, Liverpool were always winning trophies or losing them.
After that 1990 League triumph, it was business as usual in the 90/91 season as Liverpool topped the league approaching the business end but everything came to a juddering halt as Kenny Dalglish ended 14 trophy laden and latterly grief stricken years with the club. Graeme Souness was the obvious replacement but could only lead the team he inherited to runners up in the league. 1992 saw us win the FA Cup but poor league form and ill judged interview by Souness on the anniversary of Hillsborough saw the pressure build on one of Liverpool's greatest ever players. We won nothing in 93 and were headed for similar in 94 when the axe fell on Souness. Boot Room Boy and long time Liverpool coach, Roy Evans took over and won the League Cup in 95 with some excellent youngsters. Then came the first long barren spell of 6 years without a trophy. We lost the FA Cup Final in 96 to the now dominant Manchester United and after a couple of years were we showed improvement in the league by the autumn of 1998, it was time for another managerial change.
Gerard Houllier was Liverpool's first ever non UK or Ireland manager but this European route would prove to be a recipe for success at the club then and after. The French man needed a couple of years to get a cup winning squad together and when he did, there was silverware everywhere. In 2001, we won the cup treble of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. We also qualified for the Champions League for the first time with a top 4 finish. At the start of the 2001-02 season, we won the Charity Shield and European Super Cup. Unfortunately, in the league, if it wasn't United it was Arsenal but 2002 was our first serious title challenge since we won it in 90. We got deep in our first Champions League campaign, losing to eventual finalists Bayer Leverkusen. Another League Cup in 2003 was the high point of a poor season that saw us lose to Celtic in the UEFA Cup having exited the Champions League in the group stages. The writing was on the wall for Houllier who had awoken the beast but couldn't get it out of the cave.
Rafa Benitez was the next man up. The Valencia manager had taken on and defeated the might of Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain as well as conquering Europe in the UEFA Cup. He immediately had Liverpool back in another League Cup Final in which we lost narrowly to Chelsea. The 2005 Champions League is etched in the history of not only Liverpool FC but in football folklore when Benitez took an unfancied team all the way to victory in the final against the mighty AC Milan. We won the European Super Cup but lost the World Club Final then we were back in another final, the FA Cup in 2006 - The Gerrard Final, named after the Liverpool captain and match winner, Steven Gerrard. The Charity Shield followed and another Champions League Final was set up by victory over Chelsea on penalties at Anfield. AC Milan were waiting again and this time had their revenge. 2008 and 2009 and are good examples of seasons on paper where we won nothing but it doesn't tell the whole story. We were Champions League semi finalists going into the second leg at Stamford Bridge with a 1 goal lead until an unfathomable own goal in the last minute gave Chelsea the advantage going into their home leg. 2009 was our first serious title challenge in 7 years but United had built again and completed another 3 titles in a row. The Benitez era was fizzling out framed by a failed takeover and terrible infighting at board level.
Roy Hodgson was brought in to steady the ship while a new buyer was found to replace the disastrous Hicks and Gillet. It would prove to be one of the shortest managerial tenures in the clubs history as he was quickly moved out for the Return of the King - Kenny Dalglish. The move brought much needed unity amongst players, fans, owners and manager. It also brought much needed silverware in the form of the old reliable - The League Cup in 2012, while there was also defeat in the FA Cup final that year against Chelsea. That was as good as it got under Kenny second time round. The club decided to go in a new direction with a new young Northern Irish coach called Brendan Rodgers whose newly promoted Swansea team had impressed many. Another example of a season when Liverpool won nothing but those statistics fail to tell the whole story, is the improbable title challenge in 2013-14. Something different was reignited in Liverpool fans that season. We remembered that long winning runs get you into serious title challenges. We won 11 in a row to put us top with 3 games to go Anfield was alive again and it didn't need european nights to create the best atmospheres since those great nights under Benitez but we couldn't see the job out, City taking advantage of 5 dropped points in the last 3 games. After the almighty highs of that season and the loss of our talisman Luis Suarez, the next season was going to be make or break for Rodgers. Liverpool came back down to earth in 2014-15, we won nothing and there was nothing to take into context.
Jurgen Klopp had left Borussia Dortmund at the end of that season and was supposed to be on a year long break when Liverpool came calling 5 months later in October 2015. It didn't take him long to turn doubters into believers. We were in the League Cup and Europa League Finals in 2016. The following season we had our first whiff of a title challenge when we beat City on New Years Eve to go second behind Chelsea but it was snuffed out early in the new year following a run of bad results. That season ended with qualification for the Champions League in the 2017-18 season which led to the beginning of the most important period of the Klopp era. Salah was signed from Roma and was a revelation, scoring over 40 goals, the first Liverpool player to do that since Ian Rush. The Egyptians goal scoring exploits propelled us to a first Champions League Final in 11 years. The belief was growing and growing. Alisson and Fabinho were signed as the final pieces of the jigsaw and we took City to the final game of the season in the league then went to Madrid and won the European Cup for the sixth time. Winning a Champions League gets a Liverpool manager into a very exclusive club but winning the league especially after not winning one for 30 years, makes you the founding member of a club not seen before even at a storied institution such as Liverpool. Winning the Premier League in 2020 is Klopp's greatest achievement as Liverpool manager. 2021 saw the effort of the previous two seasons take their toll but we bounced back in 2022 winning two domestic cups, losing the league in the final minutes of the final game and losing the Champions League Final. There is confusion as to how many major trophies Klopp won in his time at Liverpool. I've read 6 or 7 or 8, I'm counting them all including the Community Shield because you have to win something or finish runner up to play in it plus we hadn't won it for 16 years and show me a red who didn't absolutely love beating City that day in Leicester. That was as good as it got in the 2023 season. Liverpool 2.0 was assembled that summer and unbelievably the team gelled immediately and we were back in the mix for trophies. The League Cup was won for a 10th time and we were still in everything else up until March/April.
The record books paint a very black and white picture of any manager and what they won and while that is fair, it doesn't take everything into consideration. You have to get to the finals before you win them, you have to be in a title race before you're champions, you have to qualify for the Champions League before you can win it. Every game along the way will have been someone's first game at Anfield or their first European away or first time at Wembley or Cardiff or they've been to every game since we last won the league in 1990 or they don't go to games but never miss a game on TV in the house, in the pub or round a mates house. United play City in the FA Cup Final and whatever the outcome, United fans will never forget the day they beat us 4-3 on the road to Wembley. If they don't win the cup that won't be recorded in the end of year honours list but it was the best day they'd had in years. Whenever City win anything, I always think about the only City fan I knew in our town. It's mostly Liverpool and United where I'm from, with a few Arsenal, Everton and Spurs. I don't know this guy personally but I recall seeing him walking to the pub one time in his City shirt to see his team try and get promotion. At the time I probably thought "Liverpool aren't doing well but imagine being a City fan". In 2003, a United fan I worked with got a t-shirt at Old Trafford listing everything United had won compared to their local rivals. It was a long list on the red side and a short one on the blue. The tables have been well truly turned now but it's the times when you win nothing that give you the perspective. When you're winning you think it will never end. When you're losing and trying to get back to where you once where, you think you're never going to get there, when you do, it's even sweeter because of the experience you've had watching others do it. You can't get the full picture of an era by just looking at what was won, you also have to look at what wasn't won.
1990 - English League Champions - Kenny Dalglish (1)
1991 - English League Runners Up - Graeme Souness (2)
1992 - FA Cup Winners - Graeme Souness
1993 - Nothing
1994 - Nothing
1995 - League Cup Winners - Roy Evans (3)
1996 - FA Cup Runners Up - Roy Evans
1997 - Nothing
1998 - Nothing
1999 - Nothing
2000 - Nothing
2001 - League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup Winners - Gerard Houllier (4)
2002 - Charity Shield and European Super Cup Winners, Premier League Runners Up - Gerard Houllier
2003 - League Cup Winners 2003 - Gerard Houllier
2004 - Nothing
2005 - League Cup Runners Up, Champions League Winners - Rafa Benitez (5)
2006 - European Super Cup, FA Cup Winners and Club World Championship Runners Up - Rafa Benitez
2007 - Community Shield Winners, Champions League Runners Up - Rafa Benitez
2008 - Nothing
2009 - Premier League Runners Up - Rafa Benitez
2010 - Nothing
2011 - Nothing - Roy Hodgson (6), Kenny Dalglish (7)
2012 - League Cup Winners, FA Cup Runners Up - Kenny Dalglish
2013 - Nothing - Brendan Rodgers (8)
2014 - Premier League Runners Up - Brendan Rodgers
2015 - Nothing
2016 - League Cup Runners Up, Europa League Runners Up - Jurgen Klopp
2017 - Nothing
2018 - Champions League Runners Up - Jurgen Klopp
2019 - Champions League Winners, Premier League Runners Up - Jurgen Klopp
2020 - Premier League Champions - Jurgen Klopp
2021 - Nothing
2022 - League Cup and FA Cup Winners, Premier League and Champions League Runners Up - Jurgen Klopp
2023 - Community Shield Winners - Jurgen Klopp
2024 - League Cup Winners - Jurgen Klopp
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