Two Years Ago Today: Klopp And His Players Thank The Kop

For more Redmen TV content including podcasts, subscriber exclusives and three new shows every week subscribe now and get your first month for FREE bit.ly/RMTVjoin Jurgen Klopp made a steady start to his Liverpool managerial career, in his first three games he drew with Southampton and Spurs and took three points away to Chelsea as Coutinho stole the show. The Germans first defeat came at home to Crystal Palace as Scott Dann gave Pardew’s team a winner in the 82^nd minute of the game, with Liverpool struggling to find an equaliser there was the typical stream of fans who left early to beat the traffic and after the game Klopp said he felt ???alone’ as his team looked for that all important goal. Fast forward to 13^th December 2015 and Liverpool found themselves in the exact same situation as they did a month before, at home to West Brom the Baggies had turned the game round after Jordan Henderson’s goal and led 2-1 going into the dying minutes. Unlike the Palace game a month earlier Liverpool managed to find the equaliser after Origi’s shot from distance took a heavy deflection and beat the keeper; the game finished 2-2 and whilst overall it was still points dropped, there were signs of progress from Jurgen Klopp’s team. After the final whistle, the manager rounded up all his players and together they all raised their arms and thanked the Kop for the part they played during the game. The act was ridiculed by everyone on social media, why were Liverpool celebrating a nothing draw at home to West Brom like they’d just won the league? Had Liverpool’s stature fallen that far that getting a last gasp result like this was noteworthy? It didn’t seem so at the time, but this was all a part of Jurgen Klopp’s long-term plan to turn Liverpool back into contenders again. There were issues on the pitch that needed to be addressed but it wasn’t just the players that needed some coaching, Klopp was turning doubters into believers. The manager clearly believed that the attitude of the fans can portray itself onto the players on the pitch, if fans are giving up and leaving five minutes before the end then the players will similarly give up and won’t find the goal they need. Klopp’s small act at the full-time whistle was a message to the fans saying “look what we can do with your support.” This was realised later on in the season when Liverpool welcomed Borussia Dortmund Jurgen Klopp’s old team to Anfield for the second leg of the Europa League quarter final. With the first leg ending 1-1 the tie was in Liverpool’s favour before kick off until Dortmund went into half-time 2-0 up. With 25 minutes left to play the team in yellow were 3-1 up and still had that two-goal advantage until Coutinho and Sakho tied the game up with just over ten minutes left. Liverpool had been here before, those two games against Crystal Palace and West Brom were warm ups for the task that faced them that night against Borussia Dortmund. This time no fans left early and instead the twelfth man was in full effect as Liverpool pushed for the winner that would send them through. As we all know it was Dejan Lovren who would get the goal and send Anfield into hysteria, Liverpool had pulled off the greatest comeback since Istanbul and Klopp’s message to the fans on 13^th December 2015 was finally realised. Article by Louis Connor Twitter: @Loui_Connor For more Redmen TV content including podcasts, subscriber exclusives and three new shows every week subscribe now and get your first month for FREE bit.ly/RMTVjoin