Jurgen Klopp admitted that, with one message to his Liverpool players on Wednesday night, he went back on a promise that he’d previously made.
The Reds recovered from the adversity of a 1-0 half-time deficit against Luton, amid an injury crisis which deprived us of several stalwarts, to run out 4-1 winners at Anfield.
It wasn’t quite at the level of the monumental four-goal comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-finals five years ago, but the manager couldn’t help himself from drawing comparisons between that night and the midweek game.
Speaking to the media after the win over the Hatters, Klopp said (via liverpoolfc.com): “I will mention this game from now on quite a few times, to be honest. I promised my team a few months ago probably I will never mention or use the Barcelona game again as an example – and I used it today again, so I broke my promise.
“Just because before the game it was kind of similar: many players missing, stuff like this. If the team that played that night against Barcelona would have stuck to the knowledge of who was missing…”
The manager added: “When you know how you can deal with it, how you can sort it for this game now, it feels really good. That’s what I wanted the boys to show and this is an example tonight. This is now their Barcelona.
“[It] was against Luton – a difficult situation, plenty of reasons to give up in moments, ‘Yeah, not tonight.’ I saw only a super group fighting. If you don’t limit yourself with bad thoughts, you can fly, and that’s what the boys did.”
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It might seem peculiar to draw comparisons between a Champions League semi-final against the Barcelona of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, and a Premier League home game in February against relegation-threatened Luton, but there are some parallels to justify Klopp’s connection of those two wins.
On both occasions, the Reds were shorn of key players and found themselves in a rather precarious situation, but those who were available to him triumphed over adversity, feeding off the backing of a raucous Anfield crowd under the floodlights.
Now that the 56-year-old knows he’s leaving at the end of this season, perhaps that’s why he’s more inclined to reference that iconic night in May 2019, an occasion which unquestionably represents one of the highlights of his eight-and-a-half years in charge on Merseyside.
We all hope that, over the final three months of Klopp’s reign, there’ll be a final few additions to the list of epic matches on his watch, games which’ll endure in the memory long after the German has taken leave of Liverpool.
When the situation looked bleak at half-time last night, it seems that the manager knew exactly the right reference point to inspire the desired reaction from his players, who duly heeded his word and produced the goods to keep our Premier League title charge firmly on course.
#Ep102 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️