Jurgen Klopp has the look of a man walking into a pub looking for a fight. That oversized smile is deployed ironically, signalling not pleasure but a weary dissatisfaction at the line of questioning.
Goodness knows it has been a testing period. His immense, record-breaking machine of a team dealing with a vulnerability few imagined possible when they were lowering the flag at the Etihad to win the title by 18 points from Manchester City and 33 from Manchester United.
Woven into the trying professional circumstances is the profound personal grief associated with the passing of his mother, a distressing episode compounded by travel restrictions that meant he could not attend the funeral in Germany.
Thank goodness Liverpool spanked RB Leipzig in Budapest to sprinkle a smattering of perspective ahead of the Merseyside derby at Anfield.
It was in the reverse fixture against Everton four months ago that Liverpool lost their totemic centre-half and captain Virgil van Dijk to that insane lunge by Jordan Pickford. While Van Dijk’s season-ending knee injury did not disturb Liverpool’s equilibrium immediately it came to symbolise the subsequent downturn in fortunes when further injuries did impact the defensive structures and by increments nibbled away at omnipotence.
“It is good we didn’t play them again soon after, let me say it like this,” Klopp said of the Pickford incident. “We are all human beings and of course it was not nice. But now that is long gone and we don’t think about it anymore. It’s a derby and that is enough to be motivated to the highest level.”
The win at Leipzig followed last week’s 3-1 defeat at Leicester, part of a painful sequence that has seen a team unbeaten at home since 2017 cough up three defeats on the spin at Anfield to Burnley, Brighton and City.
Prima facie the results suggest crisis. Beyond the scorelines the picture is less bleak. Liverpool had enough of the ball to marmalise Burnley, to beat Brighton, and to hold off City.
Burnley stole victory with a late penalty. Brighton were rewarded for their enterprise and ambition despite spending long periods without the ball. And Liverpool contributed to their own downfall against City with two calamitous mistakes from the formerly impregnable Alisson when the scores were level. But here we are, Liverpool 16 points behind City taking on Everton not the for the title but Champions League qualification.
Klopp has reached acceptance over the loss of the championship that he returned to Liverpool for the first time in 30 years. The question is, does he have the strength, resilience and intensity to do it all again, to commit a second time to the frenzied pursuit of the standards required to down City? Given the slightly strained atmosphere of his pre-match media conference, the tone of that set entirely by a coach under personal and professional duress, the question is fair.
You would not blame him were, as the bookmakers suggested last week, Klopp to do a Kenny Dalglish and walk abruptly away. Listening to some of the crazies at the more hysterical end of the Liverpool fanscape there is some appetite for that. Equally, those with longer memories and sincere appreciation for the work Klopp has done might draw comfort from the answer he gave.
“It was never the case that we thought how can we overtake City,” Klopp said. “We never saw it like this. We wanted to be the best version of ourselves. And we have that chance again.
How to watch Liverpool vs Everton
- Date: Saturday 20 February
- Kick-off: 5.30pm
- Venue: Anfield, Liverpool
- TV: Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm
- Live stream: Subscribers can watch Sky Go on laptop, desktop or via the app; day passes available on NOW TV on all devices from £9.99
“And if that is then good enough then it is good enough. If not, and the other team is better, then they are better. That is how sports works. You cannot be more than the best version of yourself. That is what we will try.
“We need a little bit more luck, then of course a few other things, but in the beginning slightly more luck with injuries would help. In a normal season for both teams (City) we would not be 16 points away. But we are. We accept that. This season our concern is not how close we can come to City but how far we can go in the table.”
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