Doubters to Believers: How Liverpool FC Became a Trophy Winning Team

Article by Anish Dogra @Anish_Dogra As I orchestrate my tenth article for The Redmen TV, I look back to my first piece where I raised the question as to how Liverpool could become a trophy winning team.26^th May 2018. Liverpool had reached their first Champions League final under Jurgen Klopp and the club’s first final since losing 2-1 to AC Milan in Athens in 2007. Not many if at all had tipped Klopp’s red men to reach the Champions League final having just scrapped into the competition by finishing fourth in the previous season.Despite not being favourites to reach the final in Kiev Liverpool had somehow made it, twelve points from six group stage games saw the Reds top their group, a 5-0 demolition of Porto followed by a counter attacking masterclass against Manchester City then saw them pitted against Mo Salah’s former club AS Roma in the Semi-Final.Liverpool had stormed into a 5-0 lead after 70 minutes with the former Roma forward, Mohammed Salah producing a virtuoso performance scoring twice and assisting as many times. Despite leading 5-0 after 70 minutes, Liverpool, as we have seen many times, gave away sloppy goals to change what should have been a formality into a slightly nervous second leg in the Stadio Olimpico.A crazy second leg saw Liverpool 2-1 up at half time only to lose the game 4-2, nevertheless the Reds had won the tie by a crazy aggregate score line of 7-6. Liverpool had suffered their first defeat in the Champions League but everyone associated with the club did not care one bit, the club were about to play in the UEFA Champions League Final.Before Liverpool could think about the Final in Kiev, the club still had the small matter of securing Champions League football for the following season. A 1-0 defeat to Chelsea a few days following on from the Roma match had meant that Liverpool needed to beat Brighton on the final day of the season to secure their place in Europe’s premier competition.Liverpool swept the south coast side away with an emphatic 4-0 as Mo Salah capped off a sensational season by scoring his 32^nd Premier League goal and breaking the record for the most goals in a 38 League game season. With all things done and dusted in the League, Liverpool could now look forward to a momentous occasion by facing the then holders and twelve times winners of Europe’s coveted prize, Real Madrid.

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Liverpool had prepared well for the final, apart from James Milner who had picked up an injury which ruled him out of the club’s last league game against Brighton, every player available to Jurgen Klopp were able to train and have perfect recovery sessions after an arduous season.Despite all of the training and practise’s Liverpool fell short in the final succumbing to a 3-1 defeat against Los Blancos handing them their 13^th European Cup as well as their 3^rd success in as many seasons.One month on from the final I composed my first piece for The Redmen TV asking the question, how could Liverpool become a trophy winning team? 15 months on from those words, the club went on to win their sixth European Cup/Champions League as well as obtaining 97 points in the Premier League and eventually compounding their recent success with their 4^th UEFA Super Cup.Whilst many may think Alisson Becker the £67 million Brazilian goalkeeper had the biggest impact on the club by producing several crucial saves in their memorable campaign, his signing alone was not the reason behind Liverpool’s success.Since Klopp’s appointment in October 2015, the German embarked on a journey to restore Liverpool to their former glories. In the summer of 2016 it was all about bolstering the attack as the addition of Sadio Mane helped Liverpool secure Champions League football for the first time.In 2017 Mo Salah added further dynamism to Liverpool’s attack, Oxlade-Chamberlain likewise into Liverpool’s midfield and Andy Robertson into their defence. The last few pieces of Jürgen’s jigsaw saw Liverpool smash the world transfer record for Netherlands centre-back Virgil Van Dijk in January 2018 and six months on from his signing Liverpool completed their redevelopment with the signing of Fabinho to add strength and stability in the base of the Red’s midfield, Xherdan Shaqiri to add creativity and more options from the bench, Naby Keita to add guile and flair as well as crucially, potentially filling the void Phillipe Coutinho left, and last but certainly not least Alisson Becker in goal to replace the error prone goalkeepers Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet.Signings are a crucial part of football, without them no club can ever hope to be successful, Liverpool are no different from any club, they signed new players to restore them to the top of world football and without them and crucially Jurgen Klopp to bring them all together, I would not be writing this piece today as to how Liverpool became a trophy winning side once again.A new season has been bestowed upon us once again as Liverpool look to end their thirty year wait for a league title. One thing that is for certain is that Jurgen Klopp and his players will be competing for the top prizes and the way the club has started has given all Liverpool fans immense hope that this could be the year to end that drought in addition hopefully in one year I will be writing another article as to how Liverpool won their first Premier League title.Article by Anish Dogra @Anish_Dogra