Neil Jones has spoken of how Liverpool could’ve enjoyed ‘an era of dominance’ under Jurgen Klopp had only a handful of results transpired differently.
The Europa League remains the only trophy for which the 56-year-old has contested but not yet won at Anfield, and he has an opportunity to sign off by ticking that box in May in what could be his final game as Reds manager.
However, as we know all too well, LFC have often fallen agonisingly short of adding further silverware under the German, as highlighted by a comment which was made to the journalist following the 2022 Champions League final defeat at the Stade de France.
Speaking to EOTK Insider on Klopp’s Liverpool reign, Jones outlined: “I remember someone saying to me after the Paris final that Liverpool were five games away from being three times Premier League champions, three times Champions League winners and having a 100-point season and an unbeaten season. That’s if five games go slightly different!
“You think of the City game at the Etihad with the Leroy Sane moment, obviously the two Champions League finals, either or any game from the 2022 season – you look at that and think that’s how close Liverpool have been to an era of dominance. They haven’t had that but they’ve still enjoyed plenty of success.”
Liverpool have indeed been profoundly unlucky not to have won even more trophies under Klopp than what he’s already lifted.
The 2018 Champions League final swung on two nightmarish errors from Loris Karius, while Real Madrid also got the better of us at that stage four years later on a night when Thibaut Courtois gave the performance of his career.
In the Premier League, we collected 97 points in 2018/19 (losing just once, to Manchester City) and 92 in 2021/22, only to finish one point behind Pep Guardiola’s side on both occasions.
Had we even drawn at the Etihad midway through the first of those seasons, or won one of the matches against the Cityzens in the latter campaign rather than drawing both, that would’ve been enough to get us over the line, all other things being equal.
Klopp and Liverpool’s bitter detractors will try to dine out on us having won those two major trophies just once in his reign, but any observer not resorting to a bitter agenda will readily acknowledge what a magnificent job he’s done at Anfield and how unlucky we’ve been not to have won even more under him.
Let’s not have any regrets from his final season with us – there’s plenty of silverware still to be won to send him out on a high!