Jurgen Klopp knows exactly when Liverpool started to push on all fronts in their Quadruple charge. The Reds came to an important decision.
It’s nearly May and yet Liverpool are yet to fail in pursuit of a trophy this season. They’ve already got the EFL Cup in their cabinet, of course, and are in the FA Cup final next month. Their UEFA Champions League semi-final with Villarreal kicks off tomorrow evening, too, and just one point separates them from the top of the Premier League.
So how has this actually happened? Rewind to January and Liverpool were 14 points back in the title race. They had an incredibly tough Champions League tie with Internazionale coming up and drew their home leg with Arsenal in the EFL Cup semis.
On top of it all, Jurgen Klopp missed the crunch Premier League game against Chelsea to kick off the year. He had Covid, ruling him out for a bit. It just didn’t feel like Liverpool’s year – or at least, their Quadruple chances were incredibly slim.
But Klopp says Liverpool came to a decision at that point. It was on his return from Covid that they ‘decided to try’ in pursuit of it all.
Jurgen Klopp leads Liverpool
“I think the moment was when I came back from my COVID break, to be honest, when I watched the game against Chelsea,” he told a press conference on Tuesday. “Was the next league game Brentford? I think it was Brentford, if I’m right.
“It was obvious. I think we were 14 points behind in that moment, two games in hand and that’s where we decided let’s give it a try.
“Because it is easy in these moments, we have big expectations before a season, big ambitions, and then during the season it’s OK and we played an OK season until then but obviously not an outstanding season.”
And that’s all it took, seemingly. Liverpool changed their mentality in that moment, deciding to treat every game as a final and generate momentum. It’s similar momentum that they carried in 2019 and 2020 – last year’s injuries seriously interrupted it.
Now they have it back and it could well carry them to more glory than ever. It’s not all entirely in their hands, of course, but with a little bit more luck, they’ll have all four trophies come the end of May.