Liverpool's title party delayed for a 30th year as final-day drama fails to match quality of league race
Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool side couldn't have done much more this season
All hail the greatest runners-up in English football history. Stand to acknowledge the most unwanted, hollow prize on the Anfield honours board.
The Kop will remember this team. They will celebrate their achievement and ask what more could they have done.
But they will be unable to avoid adding their contribution to the expanding series of near misses. For all the acclaim, all the pride and all the anticipation that this is just the start – all justified – we cannot escape the reality that Liverpool’s finest league season had the misfortune to be executed in the wrong year.
One defeat and 97 points to come second. What perverted destiny is this? And to think some called them lucky earlier in this campaign.
This vintage of almost, but not quite, is different to 2009 and 2014. Of course it is. But try telling that to the players, their dejection tempered only by the prospect of the ultimate consolation in Madrid next month.
Jurgen Klopp’s head was bowed, his energy sapped as he made his way onto the pitch to console his players before they returned for a lap of appreciation.
Those lung-busting sprints to the halfway line after late winners, those aggressive fist pumps, those rallying cries when collecting 97 points are now snapshots of someone else’s victorious campaign.
The Kop will remember this team. They will celebrate their achievement and ask what more could they have done.
But they will be unable to avoid adding their contribution to the expanding series of near misses. For all the acclaim, all the pride and all the anticipation that this is just the start – all justified – we cannot escape the reality that Liverpool’s finest league season had the misfortune to be executed in the wrong year.
One defeat and 97 points to come second. What perverted destiny is this? And to think some called them lucky earlier in this campaign.
This vintage of almost, but not quite, is different to 2009 and 2014. Of course it is. But try telling that to the players, their dejection tempered only by the prospect of the ultimate consolation in Madrid next month.
Jurgen Klopp’s head was bowed, his energy sapped as he made his way onto the pitch to console his players before they returned for a lap of appreciation.
Those lung-busting sprints to the halfway line after late winners, those aggressive fist pumps, those rallying cries when collecting 97 points are now snapshots of someone else’s victorious campaign.
Liverpool fans dejected after the final whistle
Klopp, like everyone else in Anfield, knew it could end this way even if Tuesday night showcased football’s restorative powers.
His programme notes were not dissimilar in tone to those prior to Barcelona – pre-empting disappointment with enough splattering of belief to cover all eventualities.
Perhaps too many prayers were answered against Lionel Messi for the higher powers to grant a second miracle. Don’t Stop Believin’ was even played ahead of kick-off.
His programme notes were not dissimilar in tone to those prior to Barcelona – pre-empting disappointment with enough splattering of belief to cover all eventualities.
Perhaps too many prayers were answered against Lionel Messi for the higher powers to grant a second miracle. Don’t Stop Believin’ was even played ahead of kick-off.
In truth, there was only ever a murmur of hope for Liverpool coming into this final day.
It was a murmur that grew in volume in the far left-hand corner of Anfield’s Main Stand midway through the first half of what proved an anticlimactic finale, a professional 2-0 win over Wolves.
For a while, claim and counterclaim spread. Brighton had scored. Only they had not, the misinformation contaminating the stadium before the truth could get its boots on.
Liverpool were one up yet, to the dismay of Klopp, what was happening in front of 53,000 spectators seemed superfluous.
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