“Ones That Standout For Me…” – Neil Jones On Favourite Liverpool Moments Under Jürgen Klopp | OneFootball

After eight-and-a-half years and almost 500 games in charge, the Jürgen Klopp era is about to come to an end. Liverpool take on Wolves at Anfield on Sunday in Jürgen’s swansong knowing they will be finishing third in the Premier League.

After a poor campaign in 2022/23, the Reds re-established themselves as title contenders this season, falling short in the closing stages. The manager departs knowing his successor has both a talented set of players and superb club facilities to work with. The club has undergone a transformation under Klopp, rising from 8th in 2015/16 to winning the Premier League and the Champions League. LFC have also increased Anfield’s capacity to over 60,000 and built a state-of-the-art training centre on Jürgen’s watch.

Most importantly, the boss ‘did just what he said’, turning the fans from doubters to believers and reestablishing our great club amongst Europe’s elite once again.

On the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we spoke to experienced LFC journalist Neil Jones about his memories of Jürgen Klopp.

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Neil said:

“When he came in, I think you saw straight away that you had someone that if Liverpool are going to fail in the next few weeks or few years, it’s not going to be because of the guy on the sideline.

“I think you saw genuine communication skills from Jürgen. How many opening press conferences, or how many press conferences full stop, where you’ve got probably five lines, more, you can put on a t-shirt or a mug?

“You’ve got: ‘the normal one’, you’ve got: ‘It doesn’t matter what they say about you when you come in, it matters what they say when you leave’, ‘in three years’ time we’ll have a title’. Obviously the ‘doubters to believers’. He wasn’t wrong, was he?! In most of the stuff, he said. It was a very impressive day.

“I think of the two games against City in the Champions League. I think in particular, the second leg. I remember that first half being hell. The way Liverpool reacted in the second half, made you feel like, ‘God, no, that’s a special energy,’ because of how they withstood that, then came out and were confident enough to go beat City, the great City side – the Centurions. That was the first one where I thought, ‘I don’t fear anyone with this Liverpool side.’

“The ones that obviously stand out really for me – Madrid is undeniable, 2019. I remember the last five minutes of that in particular.

[On Barcelona]

“When it went to 3-0, I was sat next to [LFC Press Officer] Andy Kelly. I remember saying to him, ‘It doesn’t matter if they score now. If Liverpool need to score six to win this, they’ll do it.’

“Even Manchester City I don’t think ever did that – 25 points [clear at the top of the table]. I don’t think Manchester City did 28 wins and a draw in the first 29.

“I do remember thinking for that probably around 12 to 15 months, thinking, ‘You might not ever experience something like this again, so enjoy it.’

“They were just in that zone of brilliance – 2018, 2019, in particular, were the times for me where you can’t see better than what you were seeing.

“You were going to watch Liverpool play great football, home and away and more often than not win. You were believing that they were one of the two best teams in the world and for a time the best team in the world.”

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Redmen Reacts

Come Sunday evening, one of Liverpool’s greatest-ever managers will be waving goodbye to Anfield for the last time. It has been an incredible ride under Jürgen Klopp, one that those who have lived through it will remember for the rest of their lives. With the bar almost impossibly high by Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, Klopp succeeded in creating a side capable of overcoming City, one which delivered an incredible 110 points out of a possible 114 over 38 games in 2019 and 2020. A transitional side lost two finals in 2016, before going on to take part in the biggest game in world football three times in five years. Such has been the level of competition domestically that the club have suffered final-day heartbreak against Wolves twice, both times achieving over 90 points. The Reds showed unbelievable character to dust themselves down after coming second with 97 points in 2018/19 to land their first league title in 30 years the following season. There will be no such heartbreak against Wolves this time around. Tears of pride will be shed and songs will be sung. Danke für alles, Jürgen. You’ll Never Walk Alone.

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