By Richard Buxton
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – Fourth place truly has become the new first for Liverpool.
Winning titles used to be the only acceptable cause for celebration here; now the Reds revel in premature coronations and minimal accomplishments. Bill Shankly would be forgiven for mistaking a club delighting at barely scraping into a Champions League playoff for the same one he previously transformed into a footballing powerhouse.
Anfield’s late godfather had once instilled a winning mentality that dictated second was considered “nothing.” On Sunday, following a 3-0 win over Middlesbrough, its latest incarnation was euphoric at finishing 17 points adrift of the Premier League’s summit. Jurgen Klopp’s side were afforded a partisan welcome, complete with pyrotechnics and banners, as its team bus eked towards the stadium. Such vibrant sights were once reserved as a final push in the pursuit of genuine, trophy-laden glory – now they represent a morale boost for a squad beset by an increasingly fragile mind set.
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Amid all the various scenarios and permutations, a win was all that the hosts had required against Middlesbrough to ensure their return to Europe’s elite competition edged a step closer. But nothing is ever a certainty for the modern Liverpool.
Condemned to a swift return to The Championship, ‘Boro were never considered likely to upset the odds at a ground where they had not won since 1976 but had reasons to dream differently. Not since a Merseyside derby with Everton at the start of April have Liverpool won on home soil. Lesser teams than the soon-to-be demoted Teessiders have left here with tangible rewards this season. Wolves, who Middlesbrough will face next term, took the spoils from an FA Cup tie in January which coincided with the unravelling of Liverpool’s Premier League title assault.
Both Crystal Palace and Swansea City will point to their victories here as seminal moments in their respective clambers to top-flight survival. Others, including West Ham United, Bournemouth and Southampton, have left with hard-fought points and the hosts’ frustrations ringing in their ears. Until the stroke of half time, Steve Agnew’s side looked set to be joining them. Had fortune not earlier favoured Dejan Lovren as he hauled down Patrick Bamford in the penalty area, they may have silenced the Anfield crowd.
“I thought it was a definite penalty and it’s moments like that [which can change games], when you’re a counter-attacking team and break away. Patrick is the wrong side of the defender. I thought it was a penalty,” Agnew said.
“We were very well organised and did lots of work on the team shape. We frustrated Liverpool and in the Premier League you have to have a mentality as a group to see it through and make sure we come in at 0-0.
“It’s relentless, the Premier League in terms of mentality. To concede a goal is always a disappointment but then you have to stay with it and make sure that second goal doesn’t go in. To concede quickly like we did, it then becomes tough in terms of creating chances and getting anything out of the game.”
A top four finish has far from eased the burden on Klopp, though. Little more than 12 months since the German was hailed as Merseyside’s new messiah after guiding the club to unsuccessful League Cup and Europa League final appearances, the pressure is beginning to crank. If Manchester United win Wednesday’s final in Stockholm, Jose Mourinho will have surpassed his counterpart on both fronts in an almost effortless, if far expensive fashion. It would also have lasting ramifications for Liverpool in the Champions League, should they qualify, with the Old Trafford club potentially demoting them to the competition’s lowest seeding for the group stages – a likely kiss of death – with their prospective victory over Ajax.
Further pressures lie ahead in a summer of on-field uncertainty. Philippe Coutinho’s trademark free kick helped ease any sense of potential disruption to Liverpool’s planned ascent to the continental top table but also further intensified Barcelona’s pursuit. Should the Catalans again successfully test Liverpool’s resolve in luring away a second talisman inside four summers, having previously prised Luis Suarez, Klopp will be forced to return to the drawing board. No Premier League player has enjoyed a greater success rate from outside of the penalty area since Coutinho made his debut over four years ago. As Suarez proved in 2014, Anfield’s seismic loss would be the Nou Camp’s gain.
Doubts over Emre Can’s long-term future, similarly, provide their own sense of unrest with the Germany international deferring negotiations on a new contract until this summer, when he will enter the final 12 months of his existing deal. Lucas Leiva’s fate has also become as pertinent as that of Coutinho although sentiment has held a far greater sway than his compatriot’s natural ability. The Brazilian has steadily become an established figure over the past decade but the club’s longest-serving current player finds himself increasingly marginalised by the flexibility of Klopp’s side. His second-half cameo and end-of-season farewell to The Kop was far more longing than it had proved in previous years.
Whether Daniel Sturridge will also feature in the Liverpool manager’s long-term plans are also set to be the subject of intense debate. He remains one of the most prolific strikers in the club’s modern history but that remains underpinned by an elusive fitness record that has left a fresh spell on the side lines perennially a slight tweak away.
That uncomfortable relationship with injuries has stymied Liverpool’s overall progress this season. Klopp invariably cited a mark-up of four places and 16 points in his first full campaign in charge as signs of progress. Far more, however, could have been taken from a season which had seen them riding high in January with the chance to win three competitions outright.
“I’m not sure if that was a target of all the Liverpool supporters but I think it was pretty much the second-best,” Klopp conceded.
“It feels really outstanding in this moment; everything is good in this club at the moment, but of course we have to deliver results. Feeling in a good way is one [thing]; showing that we are in a good way is the other thing. I think again we showed it today. We deserve this position.
“We have 76 point – that’s an outstanding number. We all know what happened in January. I’m not sure all of us agree why but the explanation is injuries and too many games. But we cannot change this, it happened.
“We learned a lot in this year about ourselves and we can use this.”
A squad of greater mental fortitude and quality in depth would have been able to hold its own throughout the pitfalls. One did – it just wasn’t Liverpool. Hope springs eternal that they will finally get it right this summer, as it has in countless ones before. Whether this will be “the year” remains to be seen.
Richard Buxton is a UK-based writer and special correspondent for Sportsnet. He filed this report from Anfield.
