I remember a time, not so long ago, when I would be afraid as I saw a goal against us go in. We could have been playing anyone. Leicester, Stoke, United, anyone. As the ball took flight toward the Liverpool goal, past a shaky Simon Mignolet, I became afraid.
The reason I would be afraid, not so long ago, was because once I saw Liverpool concede a goal, be it the first in the game or otherwise, I always had the feeling that the game was lost. As soon as we conceded we had lost any momentum and lost the match. I never saw Liverpool coming back from that. Unfortunately, this was the reality under Brendan Rodgers. This season and last.
The change that happened was probably Luis Suarez. When he left and took his sack full of goals with him, the players left behind didn’t back themselves enough. This was clear to see. They, like everyone else, had bought into this idea that Liverpool were a one man team. There was no Sterling, Coutinho, Sturridge or Gerrard in the nearly-men team of 2013-14, just Luis Suarez. And once he left, they doubted they could put together their own title challenge. Their own top four challenge.
As it went, this was so clearly the problem that during October of this year, Brendan Rodgers lost his job off the back of a derby draw. The Liverpool board went quickly and decisively to replace him, and the man that was taken on was Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool’s very own Renaissance Man.
The job that Klopp had taken on was massive. Pundits and the Premier League had noted that the team Rodgers had put together wasn’t good enough. This pool of talent, paid for with a pool of money, wasn’t good enough to bring glory back to Anfield. Some fans believed it. Some fans didn’t. But no one, it seemed, was behind Rodgers 100%. This was something else Klopp needed to change.
The challenge for Klopp was indeed two-fold. Change the hearts and minds of the players, change the hearts and minds of the fans. Ignore the league, ignore the commentators and concentrate on the club. The rest will sort themselves out.
No one is privy to what goes on behind closed doors, but the noises coming out of Melwood and Anfield since suggest that at the point of no return, even some of the players had begun to doubt Brendan Rodgers. Alberto Moreno and Jordon Ibe have been two players to come out and comment on how Klopp had given them hope, given them confidence, and the performances on the pitch since then also suggest that almost every player has accepted the boost and the challenge that the German has thrown in front of them.
Going a goal down still gives me the jitters, but it seems now that a Liverpool side under Jurgen Klopp no longer banks on the winner of the game being the team to score first. Against both Chelsea and Southampton it was Liverpool who conceded the first goal, but against both teams we ended up running rampant. If Chelsea was a solid win then Southampton was an emphatic, electric performance. It was a showing to make the hairs on your neck stand up and the rest of the Premier League follow suit too. We may not be in a title challenge (I will be fully onside if we beat Newcastle United) but we are certainly in a moment of change.
The change has come tactically, emotionally and literally. Our performances are starting to become cocky. There’s no problem with this if there is effort there too. If you work harder, play longer and become more direct and purposeful then you have a better chance to win the game. If you do all of the above, then you can be cocky. But only when, and only if you do the above.
The Liverpool side of last season lacked a certain ballsy steel. A va-va-voom all over the pitch. Luis Suarez was cocky because he knew he was good. He played like he knew he was the best player on the pitch every time he took to the field. In a title challenge, you need that.
Liverpool still are a way behind that, but with the return – the comeback – of Daniel Sturridge, we have a player who thinks like that too. His finishing is the best around, his movement is just that too, and his attitude is huge. This is what Liverpool need right now. This is what we have missed.
In Sturridge and Klopp we have a couple of men who know their own ability. They act humble off the field, but on it they’re the bee’s knees. We need this. Coutinho needs to begin to play like this. His performances and attitude have changed since he first arrived. He’s become angrier, biting back more and using his tricks more, to good effect. No, to great effect. His pressing suggests he buys into the method of working, and it suggests too that he’s good enough to adapt his play, even slightly, to work for the team. We soon need him to make his comeback, too.
The final comeback to complete is the one that leaves Liverpool towards the top of the league. Liverpool being there would be yet another great comeback story in the club’s fine history. We’ve come back from so much in the time I’ve been a fan. On the field problems and off the field issues. But Liverpool always come back. It may take longer than it should, but it always happens. With Jurgen Klopp at the helm, the Comeback Kids are back on the scene.
