JAMES MCCLEAN WAS not impressed by Jurgen Klopp’s behaviour and had no problem explaining why.
“I’ve got respect for the man because he’s done a great job at [Borussia] Dortmund, but I think he’s a bit of an idiot if I’m being honest. You can’t act that way. Win, lose or draw, you’ve got to be respectful.”
The Ireland international was speaking after Liverpool secured a draw against West Bromwich Albion at Anfield with a 95th-minute equaliser in December 2015.
The game is probably best remembered for what happened after the final whistle.
Klopp raced onto the pitch at full-time, ignored counterpart Tony Pulis for a handshake following a fractured contest, and corralled his players in front of The Kop.
He got them in a line, made them link arms, and saluted the fans as they lapped up the applause with a bow.
McClean had been angered by Klopp’s behaviour on the touchline rather than this infamous show of unity.
Plenty lined up to mock Klopp but, almost eight years on, the success that he has overseen at Anfield in the intervening period has been forged by that mixture of drawing on emotion and delivering the kind of vibrant, overwhelming football that entrenches even greater feelings of devotion from players and fans.
Perhaps that fed into his reaction to Sunday’s 2-1 win over Newcastle United. What looked more like a salvage mission when captain Virgil van Dijk was sent off three minutes after Anthony Gordon fired Newcastle into a 25th-minute lead turned into a thrilling comeback courtesy of two goals from substitute Darwin Nunez.
Klopp spoke of the striker, signed for €80 million last summer, needing to be “angry” to deliver off the bench. More importantly, he also had to be introduced at the right time, and Klopp played a blinder with his introduction just minutes after a triple change from Eddie Howe failed to spark the neccessary reaction.
“In my more than 1,000 games as a coach, I never had a game like this, that is the truth,” Klopp beamed.
“There have been other games, but with 10 men in an atmosphere like this against an opponent like this… it’s not that I can’t remember, I’m pretty sure it never happened because these moments are rare and super-special.”
This felt like the kind of performance that the Liverpool side of last season – who lost away to Manchester United, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Arsenal, Brighton, Wolves and Bournemouth – would not have produced.
Liverpool did win at St James’ Park in February, but the manner of the weekend’s display was of far more significance and importance, illustrating the kind of resilience that has also been a benchmark of Klopp’s most successful teams.
That frailty which was so evident last season did begin to fade as they made a late, albeit unsuccessful surge for the Champions League places with an unbeaten run of seven wins and four draws from their final 11 games.
It’s why the timing of this win over Newcastle feels even more important, coming so soon in a season for a team that has lost some of its most influential characters – on and off the pitch – and has growing doubts about the importance of others that remain.
It may well prove transformative, although a new midfield of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo (the latter pair had been subbed before the comeback) is most definitely a work in progress and doesn’t have the same dynamism of before.
It would be easy to mock the triumphalist nature of how this victory has been spoken about when there is still a round of fixtures to go before September’s international break, but Trent Alexander Arnold described it as “something for the ages… something very, very special”.
Just how much so will only be determined by the way in which Liverpool back it up and build on the momentum they’ve created by rediscovering some old magic.
