There is a neat symmetry to the fact Jurgen Klopp’s first Premier League game following the announcement he is to leave in the summer should pit him once again against Mauricio Pochettino.
It was against Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur that the German began his reign as Liverpool boss with a goalless draw at White Hart Lane back in October 2015. And it was when overcoming the same manager and opposition that Klopp enjoyed the greatest night of his tenure when the Champions League was claimed in June 2019.
This season has seen their paths cross once more. The new-look Liverpool began their campaign with a 1-1 draw at Pochettino’s Chelsea in August, and will face the Londoners at Wembley in the League Cup final next month.
First, though, is the return Premier League match at Anfield this evening, with only Manchester City having taken more points in the previous five games before this midweek round of matches than the improving Londoners. Nevertheless, they stand down in ninth place, a whopping 17 points behind leaders Liverpool.
It’s the first meeting between the sides since a throwaway comment by Klopp regards the transfer battle between the two clubs in the summer when Chelsea persuaded both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia to resist the lure of Anfield and move to Stamford Bridge instead.
In response, Liverpool, who had seen Jordan Henderson and Fabinho move to Saudi Arabia, signed Wataru Endo from Stuttgart with the Japan international helping the Reds continue to challenge on four fronts while Chelsea struggled during the opening half of the campaign, prompting Klopp, when addressing supporters at a test event for the new Anfield Road stand in December, to suggest Liverpool were fortunate with how the window had ultimately transpired.
“It was this night, I come in the stadium, the kids are playing and crowd is cheering – I forgot for 10 or 15 minutes I am a public person,” says Klopp. “So I did an interview and then thought ‘oh no, that will create a lot of headlines!’.
“We were interested in (Jude) Bellingham, then realised it would not happen as we’d have no money for anything else. Then all of a sudden the whole market for number sixes went up. We had our situation with two sixes left the club. The market heated up.
“Then we thought maybe we could do Caicedo. We’d already done (Alexis) Mac Allister before. So we went in, but he had an emotional agreement already with Chelsea and Pochettino. All fine, so that’s it. Then Lavia had his own reasons, and we were there.
“Then we found our top solution. That’s what I meant (when I said) ‘we are lucky’. We found Wataru. All the time in our mind we had still Stefan (Bajcetic). It was not clear at that moment he was that badly injured that he could not feature at all. We already in our mind that Macca could play the position as well.
“Then we started all the other things. Dom (Szoboszlai) was always on my radar. If one of the £100m (deals) would have worked, there’s no chance to do another (transfer). So that door was open. That’s how it went. That’s what I meant when I said we were so lucky. A few things were decided without us. Everything we wanted to do in the ‘if not’ scenario worked out, and we were really happy.”
While Endo remains on international duty with Japan at the Asia Cup, Mac Allister is expected to start against Chelsea this evening after missing the FA Cup fourth round win over Norwich City on Sunday with a minor injury. Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz and Szoboszlai are all likely to return, while Andy Robertson is pressing for a first start in almost four months after a shoulder operation.
With a trip to Arsenal on Sunday, the next few days could be pivotal in shaping the Premier League title race for Liverpool, who went into the midweek round of games with a five-point advantage over Manchester City, Arsenal and Aston Villa, although City have a game in hand.
And Klopp is braced for more than a two-horse race this campaign. “I have no clue about how many points you will need,” he says. “The only thing is I can’t see it as just City and us. We see Tottenham, Maddison coming back, Son, a really good team. Eight points (behind) with 17 games coming up. How can you say that (they) aren’t in the title race?
“We play in one week Chelsea and Arsenal, we might discuss completely different in a week’s time. We think about ourselves very positively but not in a sense we will challenge City for the title. We want to win football games, nothing else. I am not interested in the amount of competitors, to be honest.
“If we can be a part of it again, it would be outstanding. It would show we are always around in real battles, six of the last nine years, which is a good sign. I have no idea what other clubs can do.”
