At the beginning of 2024, Jurgen Klopp shocked the world when he announced that this would be his final season at the helm of Liverpool. Reds fans are undoubtedly sad about the impending departure of their most successful manager of the 21st century, but those concerns were momentarily paused on Sunday as the German claimed his eighth piece of silverware since his Anfield appointment in 2015. The celebrations were loud and long, not only because of the circumstances surrounding the game, but because supporters know they have only four months left with this special coach. Soccer Laduma international writer Kamogelo Motecwane decided to look back on what has been a successful tenure for the Stuttgart native.
Before Klopp
When England's top division was renamed the Premier League from the Football League First Division, Liverpool were the most successful side in the country by some way. The Merseysiders had 18 league titles to their name, with the next best side, Arsenal, only having 10. Heading into the Premier League era, they were expected to carry on being the nation's serial winners, but unfortunately for them that was not the case. They had to bear witness to bitter rivals Manchester United, under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson, usurping them as the club with the most league championships, with 20, by the time of the Scotsman's retirement in 2013. During the two decades the EPL had existed up until that point, the Reds had gone from being perennial title contenders to being, at best, bridesmaids of the competition. Before Jurgen Klopp's arrival at the famed football institution, Liverpool finished second in the Premier League three times. The first was under French tactician Gerard Houllier during the 2001/02 campaign, when they were able to win the FA Community Shield, UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League) and FA Cup, but were beaten to the title by Arsenal. The second time was with Rafael Benitez in 2008/09. The Spaniard looked to supplement his 2004/05 UEFA Champions League triumph with a long-awaited league championship, and after sitting atop of the log standings for most of 2008, they relinquished top spot to the Red Devils in January and the Mancunians never looked back.
The third time was perhaps the most agonising as, in 2013/14, Liverpool were a Steven Gerrard slip away from ending a 24-year wait for a league title. With three games left to win before being crowned kings of England, one of the club's most iconic players slipped against Chelsea as Demba Ba pounced to score and earn the Blues a pivotal 1-0 victory. Their next game against Crystal Palace was, however, the nail in the coffin as it ended 3-3, effectively ending their title aspirations. That happened under Brendan Rodgers, and with Luis Suarez sold at the beginning of the following campaign, the club would essentially revert to being a Europa League side. After an underwhelming start to the 2015/16 season, coupled with frustrations from the previous campaign, Fenway Sports Group decided they had seen enough from Rodgers and fired the northern Irishman. It was time to find a manager who not only had the tactical know-how to finally win the club its first-ever Premier League title, but also the charisma to connect with the fans and reinvigorate the famous atmosphere that Anfield had become world-renowned for. Names like Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo were touted for the role, but the American ownership decided that Jurgen Klopp was the man for the job.
Rock and roll football
Acquiring former Borussia Dortmund tactician's services proved a major coup for FSG, because the two-time Bundesliga winner was still taking a sabbatical from football. Klopp had managed to successfully loosen Bayern Munich's stranglehold on German top-flight football when he took Die Schwarzgelben from a struggling midtable side to back-to-back title winners in 2011 and 2012, before taking them to the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League final too. Now he had to awaken another sleeping giant of European football in Liverpool, and while his first season in the league did not go according to plan, finishing eighth, the club's upward trajectory was evident by his second campaign in charge. Working alongside Michael Edwards, the team was able to recruit savvily, and together they were able to assemble what would go on to be categorized among the best on the continent. Success, however, was not immediate at Anfield. What he dubbed as "rock and roll football" in his first press conference at the club was not yielding any tangible success as far as silverware was concerned. His high-pressing, high-intensity football got him to two finals in his debut campaign on Merseyside, the Carabao Cup and Europa League finals, both of which Liverpool lost, and by the time 2018 came around, Real Madrid had inflicted yet another cup loss on them, this time in the Champions League. This would have angered most fanbases of clubs as big as Liverpool, but they were patient and understood where they had come from. Klopp managed to turn a team that was struggling to qualify for Europe's premier club competition to one that got to its final in the space of three years. He had expedited the club's transition in a tremendous way and the longer he stayed, the more it felt as though it was inevitable he would finally win a trophy for the Reds. His time at Melwood would begin its peak in the 2018/19 campaign, by which time he had assembled one of the greatest-ever Premier League sides to ever grace a top-division pitch.
His fearsome front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah were being fed goals from two of the league's most effective, ever-offensive fullbacks in Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The African duo were the main beneficiaries of the marauding fullbacks as they were often on the end of their deliveries, with both CAF Men's Player of the Year winners ending that campaign, along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with the EPL's Golden Boot. Robertson and Alexander-Arnold were able to do this because of the industry of the midfield duo Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum, while Fabinho served as the lynchpin. The Brazilian formed part of a spine that included Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk, who would be nominated for a Ballon d'Or at the end of that season, with Allison Becker between the sticks. These eleven players achieved the third-highest points tally in EPL history at the time, 97, but were unfortunately still unable to win the league as City pipped them to the championship by a single point. Klopp did, however, manage to get his hands on his first trophy with the club, a cup Liverpool have a strong affinity for, the Champions League. Having lost his first UCL final in the city of London, he was able to beat a club from the English capital, Tottenham Hotspur, in 2019 to finally get his hands on the big-eared trophy at the third time of asking.
By the time the 2019/20 season kicked off, it was clear what the mandate for Klopp's charges was, to win the English top-flight title. Having come so close the season before, it was evident that everybody involved on Merseyside knew there would be no room for error this time around as a 1-1 draw with Manchester United was their only dropped points during their first 26 games of the EPL season. By the time Liverpool lost their first game of the season to Watford in Matchweek 28, they were already 19 points ahead of the reigning champions, so it became a matter when and not if the German would finally get his hands on the Premier League trophy. That apparent inevitability would be halted, however, when the league, and sports across the world, stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The EPL resumed in June, though, and having reached unprecedented levels prior to the pause in proceedings, the Reds didn't quite look the same after that as they only won six of their remaining 10 matches. It didn't matter because, following City's defeat to Chelsea on 25 June, they were crowned the earliest league title winners in English top-flight history. He finally emulated what icons such as Bob Paisley, Bill Shankly and, more recently, Sir Kenny Dalglish, were able to do, and that is hold the league title aloft.
The last dance – one trophy collected, three to go?
Since that league-winning campaign, it's been hard replicating the feat, but he came close once again in the 2021/22 season. An Aston Villa collapse on the final day handed Pep Guardiola his fourth EPL title as Klopp missed out on the league by a single point once again to the Spaniard and his Citizens. He suffered heartbreak continentally as well, when Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 in that season's UEFA Champions League final. Having won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup that season, the Reds almost completed a historic quadruple, but it was not to be. This season, he has another chance at undertaking this monumental task, and this past weekend, he won the first piece of silverware available this campaign, beating Chelsea in the League Cup final thanks to a Virgil van Dijk goal in the 118th minute. Liverpool are currently top of the league table, are in the round of the 16 of the Europa League, and are also still in the FA Cup. The victory over the Blues takes the 56-year-old's trophy haul since arriving at the club to 10, and while, in the future many, will likely look at it and think he could have perhaps achieved more for a manager that is held in such high regard, context is important. Klopp rebuilt what was slowly regressing into a mid-table side and turned them into world-beaters, but unfortunately came up against some formidable Los Blancos and Citizen teams during his reign. In 2023/24, the former defender has the chance to bow out on an even greater high as, despite being plagued by injuries to many of his starters, the team has still managed to compete at an extremely high level. It speaks to the culture he has cultivated over the past eight and a half years he has been at the club, and whether or not he wins another trophy at Liverpool, he will undoubtedly be remembered as one of their all-time great managers by their supporters.
