TOAnd so there will be no glorious farewell for Jürgen Klopp. Saturday's 2-2 draw against West Ham, coupled with wins for Manchester City and Arsenal, means any realistic hope of a Second Premier League title is effectively over. Klopp is exhausted, his team is exhausted and the manic emotional energy that he took over the team during and immediately after the League Cup final has dissipated.
There will be questions about the wisdom of revealing when he made it go away. This has been a truism in English football since Alex Ferguson announced in 2001 that he planned to leave Manchester United. Do that, even if he is as fearsome a figure as Ferguson, and the danger is that authority will wane. Something similar seems to have happened with Emma Hayes, who leaves Chelsea Women in the summer after a period of 12 years of great success for take over the USWNT. Saturday Dispute in the band with Mohamed Salah What would have happened if the Egyptian had thought that Klopp would still be his coach next season? (It now seems likely that Salah, who has only one year left on his contract, will also leave in the summer.)
The curious thing is that Liverpool They haven't played particularly badly in recent weeks. As Klopp has pointed out, they had chances to beat not only West Ham, but also Manchester United in the league and FA Cup, Crystal Palace and even Atalanta. The thing is that when the wheels come off, they all come off. Opportunities were missed, defensive errors were made and, little by little, a spirit-sapping combination of fatigue and anxiety spread through the team.
Injuries haven't helped. Given the changes in midfield, it was always likely that this would be a season of transition; There were no expectations of Fabinho or Jordan Henderson leaving, let alone both, and Wataru Endo, however well he performed, was only a stopgap signing. It's not unreasonable to wonder Whether Darwin Núñez or Luis Díaz has the finishing precision to be a top-level striker. Salah, who started the season brightly, has been desperately out of sorts since injuring his hamstring at the Africa Cup of Nations.
In that context, Liverpool have done exceptionally well to remain in the title race. And yet these last few weeks have meant that Klopp has ended his time at Liverpool with the kind of season that has been characteristic of his career. With Mainz, with Borussia Dortmund and with Liverpool he has always been fighting against all odds. He's always had at least one much better-resourced opponent to fight, and yet at the same time he's narrowly missed out on the prize far too often.
With Liverpool he won the Champions League but also lost in three European finals. He ended the league title drought but also finished second twice; This season will likely be his second third-place finish. With Dortmund he won the Bundesliga twice but finished second twice. He won the Pokal once but lost twice in the final and also lost in the Champions League final. With Mainz, there were two agonizing attempts at promotion (they took two points from their last three games in 2001-02 and were beaten by three goals in the last 10 minutes of the following year) before it was possible. insured.
Obviously, it would be foolish to be overly critical when in many of those cases the achievement is having gotten to the position in the first place. But it is equally a telling flaw that Klopp has failed close to the line so often: it is one thing to be beaten in the final by Bayern, Real Madrid or City, and another to have lost to Eintracht Frankfurt, Wolfsburg or Sevilla.
There are those for whom his record of a Champions League and a first division It seems a little sparse, but context is essential. He has done it against a much richer club, City, which has one of the best coaches in history. In those two seasons in which Liverpool finished second, they accumulated 97 and 92 points, figures that even 15 years ago would have guaranteed the title.
Or put another way. Who are the five best managers in Premier League history? Would anyone really not have Klopp alongside Ferguson, Arsène Wenger, José Mourinho and Guardiola? He has transformed Liverpool from faded giants into serious contenders. He took a form of football favored in England 40 years ago, rejuvenated it, reformulated it and sold it back to the English. He has produced a team that even neutrals are excited to watch.
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It hasn't ended the way Klopp or Liverpool would have wanted. Fatigue has won and reality has imposed itself. It has been another season of excitement, of greatness glimpsed but not fully understood. And for Klopp nothing could be more characteristic.
This is an excerpt from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, Guardian US' weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have any questions for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will answer the best in a future edition.
