Klopp at Liverpool, Season 7: Two cups please, no more lockdown, two wins short of immortality
This is the seventh part in our series charting Jurgen Klopp’s nine seasons at Liverpool from his 2015 arrival to his upcoming departure from Anfield.
Liverpool had taken their first backwards steps under Jurgen Klopp in a challenging 2020/21 season, with their Premier League title defence nuked after a woeful run of form in the winter, but the manner in which they rallied to secure Champions League qualification ensured that they went into the summer on a high.
Despite the squad being ravaged by injuries in the previous campaign, especially at the back, there was only one new arrival in Ibrahima Konate. Gini Wijnaldum left at the end of his contract, while Xherdan Shaqiri and Harry Wilson were sold. Harvey Elliott returned from a prosperous loan spell at Blackburn ready to make his mark on the Reds’ first team, but otherwise it was the same group as before.
There was one very welcome sight at the start of 2021/22 – stadia packed to the rafters once more. After the run-in to 2019/20 and almost all of the subsequent season were played behind closed doors amid the global pandemic, restrictions had lessened substantially by the time August rolled around.
Even though the spectre of COVID-19 hadn’t gone away completely, with a spate of postponements over the winter as cases spiked again, lockdown football was (and will hopefully forever remain) a thing of the past.
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In a firm statement of intent after the troubles of the previous campaign, Liverpool started so strongly that they were still unbeaten in all competitions by the end of October. There were still off-days such as a 3-3 draw at Premier League newcomers Brentford and being held 2-2 at home by Brighton, but those were offset by convincing results such as yet another emphatic win away to Porto, this time by 5-1.
The Reds sent out a message that they’d be in the title race to stay after a thrilling draw against Manchester City at Anfield, and then on 24 October came a day for LFC fans to savour.
Klopp had gained his first win at Old Trafford five months earlier, but that was surpassed by what happened this time around. Liverpool were 4-0 up by half-time and tacked on one more after the interval, prompting a mass exodus of home fans as Mo Salah helped himseld to a hat-trick. It was ecru-clad bliss!
The unbeaten record fell in a 3-2 loss at West Ham in early November, but it proved a mere blip as the Reds followed it up with eight successive wins in all competitions, including another memorable away day against an eternal rival.
LFC hadn’t won at Goodison Park for almost five years when they crossed Stanley Park on 1 December, and they showed no mercy for beleaguered former boss Rafael Benitez, who was the subject of vitriol from the home crowd as his Everton side were thrashed 4-1.
All the while, Liverpool breezed through their Champions League group with a 100% record (no mean feat against Porto, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid) and reached the last four of the Carabao Cup, making it to a first domestic cup semi-final since January 2017.
There was a stumble in their Premier League campaign over the festive period, though. A contentious 2-2 draw at Tottenham, insipid 1-0 defeat at Leicester and relinquishing of a 2-0 lead to draw at Chelsea left the Reds 11 points behind runaway leaders Man City. A scrap for second seemed to be the best they could hope for.
Nor did it help that Salah and Sadio Mane were leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations in January and would both make it all the way to the final (where Senegal beat Egypt on penalties), but at least now Klopp had imperious depth in attack. In late January, Bobby Firmino and Diogo Jota were joined by Luis Diaz, the Colombian who impressed in Porto’s two matches against LFC over the autumn.
In stark contrast to their wretched start to 2021, Liverpool won nine matches in a row from mid-January to late February this time around. That included hard-fought victories at Crystal Palace and Burnley, a 6-0 hammering of Leeds and a 2-0 win away to Inter Milan as the Champions League resumed.
The prospect of four trophies was somewhat plausible when they travelled to Wembley to face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final. Thomas Tuchel’s side had already drawn twice with the Reds that season and did so again here, taking the match to penalties, but a marathon shootout ended with Kepa Arrizabalaga blazing his kick over the bar to conclude it at 11-10. Another trophy had been added to Klopp’s CV.
Liverpool hadn’t done much in domestic cups under the German until this season, as that triumph was soon followed by progression to the last four of the FA Cup. The Champions League run also continued into the quarter-finals and they kept winning in the Premier League, so the quadruple was very much on at the start of April.
It was a sign of strength, depth and maturity that the Reds played nine matches in that 30-day month and didn’t lose a single one. An entertaining European tie against Benfica ended 6-4 on aggregate, and a four-day period in mid-April saw two of the greatest LFC performances of the modern era.
Man City were blown away in the first half of the FA Cup semi-final, with Klopp’s side racing into a 3-0 lead. The Sky Blues pulled two goals back but were distinctly second best, and three days later came another thrashing of Man United, this time on a 4-0 scoreline at Anfield. Kopites had to pinch themselves; were things really this good or were they merely dreaming?
In the first week of May, there were signs that the relentless quadruple pursuit was starting to catch up with the Reds, though. A truly abysmal first half performance in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Villarreal left them at real risk of elimination, but this indefatigable group responded with three goals after the interval to set up a date with Real Madrid in Paris later that month.
Then came two costly dropped points in the Premier League at home to Tottenham, and although Liverpool pulled through against Aston Villa and Southampton, they looked like they were running on empty. At least Man City slipped up at West Ham to take the title race into the final day for the second time in four years.
Before then, Klopp’s team had another domestic cup final date with Chelsea at Wembley, this time in the FA Cup. Again it was 0-0 after extra time, again it went to penalties, and on this day the hero was Kostas Tsimikas, whose successful spot kick secured the second leg of a potential quadruple.
On the morning of 22 May, Liverpool were potentially two wins away from ending the season with four major trophies, something that no English club had ever done. They won their concluding Premier League game, coming from behind to defeat Wolves 3-1, but the news from elsewhere wasn’t good.
Man City had been 2-0 down at home to Aston Villa with 15 minutes remaining but scored thrice in five minutes to claim a fourth title in five years. The one minor consolation for the Reds was that they didn’t lead the live table at any point that day, as they were being held at Anfield by the time Guardiola’s team completed their comeback.
It wasn’t quite as painful as the 2018/19 near miss, but to accrue 92 points, lose only twice in the campaign and still finish second was a bitter pill for Liverpool to swallow. The quadruple was now gone, but the prospect of finishing a memorable season on a real high remained.
Sadly, the 2022 Champions League final would go down as a dark day, with UEFA’s pathetic organisation and the excessively heavy-handed French police combining to make the matchday experience a harrowing one for supporters of Liverpool and Real Madrid. Kick-off was delayed by 45 minutes as fans endured hell in trying to get into the Stade de France.
When the football finally got going, the Reds were dominant but simply couldn’t find a way past an inspired Thibaut Courtois, and a Vinicius Junior sucker punch decided a thoroughly frustrating match. Los Blancos had beaten the Reds in the biggest game in club football once again. It was a sore one to take for Klopp’s side.
The prospect of a unique quadruple had given way to what felt like the anti-climax of just two domestic cups, but the phenomenal turnout in Liverpool the day after the defeat in Paris showed that those tropies were still well worth celebrating.
The Reds fell two wins short of immortality, but after the difficulties of the preceding campaign, the 2021/22 season would go down as one of the most enjoyable of all for supporters of the club.
In case you’ve missed them, you can check out previous episodes of the series:
2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21
READ MORE: The evolution of Liverpool’s starting XI under Jurgen Klopp
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