Thursday, November 4th, 2021
Flawless in league and Europe
How Liverpool and Klopp turn back time
By Hendrik Buchheister, Liverpool
Atlético Madrid’s visit to Anfield brought back memories of a game that should never have happened. In terms of sport, Liverpool FC is back to the way it was before the pandemic. Against the Spanish champions, the Reds manage something historic in the Champions League.
The jubilation over an unprecedented success was muted, almost hypothermic, in keeping with the temperatures that prevail on the Irish Sea in November. The players of Liverpool FC waved briefly into the audience, then they disappeared into the dressing area of the Anfield Stadium. Coach Jürgen Klopp took a few steps in the direction of the Kop grandstand, but did without his triple punch with which he usually garnishes special victories. It didn’t take long for the venue to empty.
Liverpool had achieved something historic. The 2-0 win against Atlético Madrid was the fourth win in the fourth Champions League preliminary round, a record like this is unique for the club. And that in a demanding group in which, in addition to Liverpool and Atlético, AC Milan and FC Porto are active. “Nobody would have thought that after the draw. To do that is quite special,” said Klopp at the end of an “almost perfect game” about the immaculate yield. Liverpool have qualified for the round of 16 two games before the end of the group stage. Incidentally, the team extended their series to 25 games without defeat in all competitions. The club had only managed that once, between March and September 1982 under coach Bob Paisley.
Hardly any transfers, no defeats
It runs for Liverpool, internationally and in the Premier League, where the team is the only club still unbeaten after ten match days and only because of four draws is second in the table behind coach Thomas Tuchel’s FC Chelsea. After the unfortunate pre-season, in which Liverpool as the reigning champions had slipped to eighth place, the team is back in position as a candidate for titles and trophies. That is quite surprising. Many experts had expected that the club could lose touch. Because while champions Manchester City, Champions League winners Chelsea and Manchester United were opulent on the transfer market, Liverpool held back for English conditions and only signed Ibrahima Konaté from RB Leipzig for 40 million, and that as a supplementary player.
But Klopp is in the process of using proven means to lead Liverpool back to the class with which the team won the Champions League in 2019 and the championship in 2020. Defensive boss Virgil van Dijk gives the ensemble the stability it missed last season after his cruciate ligament rupture, right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold operates again as a playmaker in disguise and prepared both goals against Atlético, and Mohamed Salah is currently considered the best player in the world in England . Against Diego Simeone’s team, however, he let colleagues Diogo Jota and Sadio Mané take precedence in scoring goals.
Mané fears provocations
The game was wild, especially in the first half when Liverpool scored both goals. After the red card against Atlético defender Felipe in the 36th minute, the event was practically over. The hosts could have made the victory in the second half even clearer, but in the end they limited themselves to bringing the game to an end in a controlled manner. After all, the infamous English winter is approaching, when the game plan is particularly full. In addition, Liverpool are once again struggling with injuries. While the defense was plagued by epic personnel concerns last season, this time the midfield is affected, where James Milner, Naby Keïta and Harvey Elliott are currently indisposed. Thiago Alcântara made his comeback against Atlético after a break of more than six weeks, but Curtis Jones missed the game at short notice because he got a finger in the eye during training. Roberto Firmino, Liverpool’s frontier between midfield and storm, was replaced in the 78th minute with a muscle injury.
To be on the safe side, Sadio Mané cleared the field at the break, because Klopp feared that the opponent’s provocative style could bring him a dismissal. “We have all seen what the Madrid players did. They kept rolling over the field in all situations,” complained the coach. However, these tricks were as expected as the fact that Atlético coach Diego Simeone would not be available to shake hands with Klopp after the game. Even after Liverpool’s 3-2 win in the first leg, the Argentine had denied the German this gesture. Prior to the Anfield event, Simeone shared that he thought the handshake between competing coaches was hypocritical and hypocritical.
Klopp’s gloomy premonition
A reasonable rivalry has recently developed between Liverpool and Atlético. The Champions League round of 16 also contributed to this last year, when the Madrilenians eliminated the defending champion at the time. The return leg from that time has now achieved notoriety, but not because of Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat after extra time, but because it should never have taken place. The game on March 11, 2020 was the last elite-level football game in England before the Corona lockdown, which was played in a full stadium. Around 3,000 fans from Madrid, which at that time was already in a state of emergency pandemic, had also traveled. An investigation by the British Parliament recently even quantified the devastating effect of the game. According to the report, 37 corona deaths in Liverpool and the surrounding area could be directly linked to the Atlético game.
Before the new edition, Jürgen Klopp reported that on March 11, 2020, he could not concentrate properly on football for the first time. “The world has turned upside down. We all had an inkling that something interesting could happen to us and society,” he said. Almost 20 months later, only the sparsely filled guest block in Anfield indicated that the world is still far from normal. Liverpool fans sang as passionately as ever against Atlético when the floodlights are on and Champions League colors can be seen in the stadium. And the team is playing as well as it was before the pandemic.