Liverpool desperate to scratch 28-year itch

The Liverpool manager is more concerned with trying to temper what he now calls ‘crazy expectations’.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp Picture: Getty Images.

It was 6pm on Tuesday, 90 minutes before kick-off at Anfield, and Jurgen Klopp and James Milner went walkabout. Grinning from ear to ear, they wandered out through the crowds, attracting double takes from middle-aged dads and their starstruck children.

Klopp made his way to a stage and told the awestruck supporters gathering in front of him that Liverpool’s final pre-season friendly had been billed as the “people’s match” — a chance to show their supporters that “even though football is getting bigger, this club will never change”.

An hour after Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Torino, Klopp and his players were still pitchside, signing autographs for fans and posing for selfies. It is the type of exercise that the leading Premier League clubs prescribe as a matter of duty on those money-spinning trips to foreign fields, but all too rarely on home turf. By all accounts it was Klopp’s idea, another attempt to create the sense of communion he enjoyed at Borussia Dortmund, and it went down a storm.

One Liverpool official suggested on Tuesday that the mood around the club is the best that he has known. “We had years of acrimony and infighting,” he says. “For the first time in years, everyone — owners, manager, players, fans — is pulling in the same direction. Everyone is smiling. That’s nearly all down to Klopp. He has unified the whole club.”

This autumn will mark the third anniversary of Klopp’s appointment. His studied diagnosis at the time was of a fanbase that was “a little bit too nervous, a little bit too pessimistic, a little bit too much in doubt”. He spoke of his mission to “change doubters into believers”. Now, with a stirring run to the Champions League final followed by the acquisitions of Alisson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri for a combined outlay of £166 million ($288m), the Liverpool manager is more concerned with trying to temper what he now calls “crazy expectations”. These sound like what Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur and particularly Jose Mourinho at Manchester United might regard as first-world problems.

“The expectations of Liverpool fans are going into the stratosphere,” the club’s former captain and assistant manager Phil Thompson says. “I can’t explain highly enough how the goalkeeper situation, with the arrival of Alisson, has lifted everyone.

“We could all see it needed that change. Maybe we’ve been a bit too nice at times over recent years and, in Keita, we’ve got that ‘nark’ we’ve needed in midfield. Along with everyone else, particularly the former players, I’m thrilled with what I’m seeing and I can’t wait for the season to start.”

Thompson stops himself and laughs. “It has been 28 years since we’ve won the league and, to be honest, ever since 1990, as daft as it will sound, I’ve always felt like we’ve had a chance of winning it. I suppose you could call it blind optimism at times. We thrilled everyone last season with the football we played … and we finished fourth.

“And then there’s Manchester City, who were absolutely exceptional last season, so it is going to take something unbelievable to win the league. But because of the football we played last season and the run to the Champions League final and the players Jurgen has signed, there is a real excitement.”

Liverpool’s pre-season results include victories over Manchester City (2-1), Manchester United (4-1), Napoli (5-0) and now Torino (3-1). If anything, the impact made by the new signings — with Shaqiri again catching the eye on Tuesday — has been outweighed by the contributions of their established players. Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, who were all involved in the World Cup, appear to have hit the ground running. So too has Daniel Sturridge, who, after his terrible injury problems over the past four seasons, has looked fit and sharp, scoring six goals and seemingly playing his way into Klopp’s plans.

It was a similar story last season, though, when they were unbeaten in pre-season, including a 3-0 victory away to Bayern Munich, only for optimism to fade as they won just only three of their first nine Premier League matches — “and then you had people ringing in to talkSPORT to call for the manager’s head and you’re thinking, ‘What are you like? Where would we get another manager who compares to this guy?’ ” Thompson says.

“The expectation can be difficult, though. After what we did under Gerard Houllier in 2000-01 (winning the FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup, then winning the Community Shield and European Super Cup the following August) the expectation was absolutely huge. We finished second the next year and we were thinking, ‘This is it.’ And then, when it didn’t happen, there was such a downer and it became very difficult for us to right that. It was similar with Rafa Benitez after he finished second (in 2009) and wasn’t able to build on it. We finished second under Brendan Rodgers (in 2013-14) and again we fell away the next season. It’s not easy to make that next step.”

According to Neil Atkinson, host of The Anfield Wrap podcast, the title-or-bust atmosphere of the past couple of decades has given way to a different mood.

“There is a lot of optimism, but it’s optimism about enjoying it — a feeling that we’re about to get our teeth into something we can really enjoy,” he says. “What a lot of people underestimate about last season is how much fun the whole thing was for us as supporters. I think this can be difficult to put over for people outside the Liverpool bubble, but, for all the silliness and what might seem like overoptimism, it’s more this feeling that we’re going to enjoy it. Whether or not it ends up with us winning something shiny, that’s massively down to what Manchester City do as well as what we do.”

At Liverpool of all clubs, though, is there not a demand for success — tangible, glittering trophy success — as well as having fun? “We definitely could do with putting something on the sideboard, an FA Cup or a League Cup,” Atkinson says.

“But the only thing that would really scratch the itch is the league title or the Champions League title. And you’ve got no option but to be level-headed when Manchester City have just got 100 points. We could get 90-something points and still finish second.

“There’s every chance Manchester City could get 100 points again. That’s how good they are. So rather than drive ourselves mad, the important thing now — and Jurgen Klopp has communicated it really well — is that we can’t only enjoy it if we win the league. There can’t only be one way of having fun in the Premier League. That would mean one team having fun and 19 teams not having fun. That would be madness.”

There is no doubt that, under Klopp, Anfield is a happy place. Come kick-off against West Ham United on Sunday, though, the excitement and optimism will be at fever pitch. As was clear during his pre-match walkabout on Tuesday, Klopp enjoys Messianic status among fans. Leading Liverpool back to the promised land after 28 years, though, is easier said than done.

The Times