It has been an honour and a privilege to follow Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp every other week at Anfield, here are my 10 favourite games and atmospheres of the great man’s reign…
Privileged would be one word to describe the journey Klopp took us on, a rollercoaster of a lifetime that will see stories echo on through the generations.
I was one of the lucky ones, and here my 10 top Anfield atmospheres over Klopp’s nine-season tenure.
10. Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea, January 2024
It wasn’t the end to the story we were all hoping for, but as always, there have been plenty of high points along the way.
The manager delivered a couple of his famous bollockings to the Main Stand earlier in the campaign and went as far as criticising his own supporters following the 5-1 victory over West Ham in the League Cup back in December.
Thankfully, Anfield responded in the right manner and the 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea just days after Klopp confirmed his imminent departure was one of a number of displays of defiance on the Kop that followed.
9. Liverpool 3-3 Leicester (5-4 pens), December 2021
What started out as a seemingly innocuous domestic cup tie reached derby levels of fever pitch during the glorious 2021/22 League Cup run.
Leicester‘s travelling support brought with them a depressingly predictable lack of taste, but their decision to poke fun at poverty was ultimately their own downfall as Anfield and Diogo Jota rose to the occasion.
8. Liverpool 1-0 Everton, January 2020
We played the kids on a Sunday night and they hardly touched the ball!
Just when you thought we were running out of amusing ways to beat our blue neighbours, Klopp struck fear into all of our hearts by putting out a team of teenagers for the Merseyside Derby in the FA Cup third round back in January 2020.
It was Everton‘s big chance to finally break their Anfield duck in the 21st century (the covid win still doesn’t count), and they kicked off as the bookies’ favourites following the team announcements.
Curtis Jones had other ideas though, and Anfield rejoiced at emerging victorious over Everton in the unusual role as underdogs.
7. Liverpool 5-2 Roma, April 2018
We weren’t supposed to be in the last four of the Champions League at such an early stage in the journey of Klopp’s Liverpool, let alone finding ourselves 5-0 up on such an occasion.
It was a real throwback to the good old days under Rafa Benitez in Europe, but with a team that were 10 times more fun to watch and a real sense that this was only the beginning.
European Cup semi-finals went on to become customary in the years that followed, but the bus welcome will live long in the memory, as will that frankly ludicrous opening 70 minutes.
6. Liverpool 2-0 Man United, January 2019
The night we finally won the league.
We were cruelly robbed of the opportunity to celebrate our elusive 19th league title in the manner we all pictured it.
That is what makes me all the more grateful that we allowed ourselves to get so carried away when Mohamed Salah sealed the points against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s inferior bunch.
It had been five-and-a-half years since Anfield had dared to sing the words: “We’re gonna win the league.”
An unwritten, self-imposed ban inflicted by falling heartbreakingly short in 2013/14 prevented that in the interim.
We’ll always have that moment at the Kop end, a moment that went on to mean even more to us than it felt at the time.
5. Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea, April 2019
There are certain things that can help Anfield catch fire over the course of 90 minutes.
Crunching tackles, refereeing decisions and opposition managers (naming no names) have all contributed at various points, but you’d struggle to beat two quickfire goals in the middle of a title run as a tonic.
Sadio Mane opened the scoring against Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea shortly after the break, but it is Salah’s scorcher that this game is rightly remembered for.
The goal elicited, to this day, the loudest version of ‘Allez Allez Allez’ I’ve ever heard in a league match, and it might even have shaken the ground enough to rival what we’ve conjured up under the lights on Champions League nights.
4. Liverpool 2-0 Man United, March 2016
One of Klopp’s greatest achievements as Liverpool manager is reaching three Champions League finals in the space of just five years, but the side’s run in Europe’s second-tier competition during his first season was arguably the catalyst for all of that.
The Reds’ only-ever European encounter with Man United promised to be an unbearable watch, but the first leg certainly wasn’t for the faint-hearted if you were sporting the white away kit.
It was the night the visitors were caught glancing over at the Kop during the pre-match formalities, the moment the realisation of what they were about to get themselves into set in.
I personally hope I never have to endure the prospect of that fixture in Europe again any time soon, but I’m simultaneously overjoyed that we got the chance to see the Reds do a number on our old rivals on a proper Anfield night.
3. Liverpool 3-0 Man City, April 2018
This was the night I knew we’d arrived, meant business and were ready to go toe-to-toe with the fellas everybody else told us were out of reach.
Nothing stirs the soul quite like facing a fellow English side on a European stage. Being underdogs and having to play the second leg away from home amplified the feelings of anxiety.
Luckily, though, the Reds played their Anfield trump card to perfect effect and blew Pep Guardiola’s team of superstars away within half an hour on the night he realised that the Reds were his biggest threat to an era of uncomplicated domination.
The Spaniard has been preoccupied with us ever since. It was a night that reminded me of being on the Kop against Chelsea when we simply weren’t prepared to allow a Premier League rival to show us up in the competition we know best as far as British clubs are concerned.
2. Liverpool 4-3 Borussia Dortmund, April 2016
A night that saw both clubs pick up a FIFA award for their unified rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, and possibly the one that set the tone for the miracles that followed in subsequent years.
Twice the Reds looked to be dead and buried after two early away goals were consolidated by a curled finish from Marco Reus just before the hour mark.
Yet, the air of inevitability that Klopp’s Liverpool have become famous for reared its head for the first time when Philippe Coutinho kicked off the fightback less than 10 minutes later.
The Kop has often been credited with sucking the ball into the net in times of desperation, but there is no greater example than that preposterous night eight years ago. There were some in the crowd with tears in their eyes.
1. Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona, May 2019
If we’re honest, every other Anfield day or night in this list has been playing for second.
Klopp’s time at Liverpool has been littered with tales of his side making the impossible possible, but this one was absurd even by his lofty standards.
There would be no sixth European Cup had it not been for perhaps the greatest night Anfield has ever witnessed. No one gave us a sniff, but the manager told his players before the game: “Because it’s you, I think we have a chance.”
You sense he meant that as much about the supporters as he did his players, a side that didn’t include Salah or Roberto Firmino.
Rival fans will take great delight in telling you all about the myth of a Liverpool home crowd, but let’s have it right, there’s only one place on the planet where that turnaround would have been remotely possible.
Fan Comments