Klopp at Liverpool, Season 6: Defence with a difference, silent Anfield and the holy goalie’s head

Alas, that feast of goals soon turned into a famine, as Liverpool’s next five top-flight matches saw them score only once, and that was in a 1-1 draw at home to lowly West Brom.

The Reds’ cause certainly wasn’t helped by a defensive injury crisis which saw Joe Gomez’s season ended early by a long-term knee problem and Joel Matip suffer several absences throughout the campaign.

The situation was so dire that Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were redeployed to form a makeshift centre-back partnership, while Ben Davies was signed from Preston and Ozan Kabak arrived on loan from Schalke 04.

Ultimately, Klopp trusted in two youngsters in Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams, with that duo teaming up effectively and holding the fort for much of the second half of the season.

When Burnley came to Anfield on 21 January, Liverpool had gone 68 home games unbeaten in the Premier League. Despite a post-Christmas slump, it was still a shock to see Ashley Barnes score the goal which ended that imperious streak, which had endured for nearly four years.

As if that wasn’t freakish enough, the Reds then went and lost their next five home matches in the top flight as Brighton, Manchester City, Everton, Chelsea and Fulham all took advantage of an eerily empty Anfield to pile on the misery for LFC, who’d also exited the FA Cup to Manchester United.

After that defeat to the Cottagers on 7 March, Liverpool sat eighth in the table, with their mission going from retaining their title to simply trying to salvage Champions League qualification.

Aside from the difficulties on the pitch, the squad was also hit by a double tragedy in the opening months of 2021. Klopp’s mother Elisabeth passed away in February, with Jurgen unable to attend the funeral in Germany due to COVID-enforced travel restrictions, and Alisson Becker’s father José Agostinho drowned in Brazil.

For all their troubles domestically, the Reds actually went one step further in Europe than they had the previous season, eliminating RB Leipzig in the Champions League round of 16 before Real Madrid ousted them in the quarter-finals.

By mid-April, three successive league wins showed signs of improvement, but a 1-1 draw at Leeds was overshadowed by Liverpool and five other English clubs signing up to the egregious European Super League, sparking vehement fan protests among supporters of all six Premier League participants, who were eventually shamed into withdrawing from the project.

When Joe Willock scored a stoppage time equaliser for Newcastle at Anfield five days later, hopes of a top-four finish were beginning to slip away for LFC, although wins over Southampton and Man United (the latter was Klopp’s first victory at Old Trafford) preserved the Champions League charge.

That quest appeared to be faltering once more when the Reds were being held 1-1 by already relegated West Brom at The Hawthorns, until the visitors won a corner in the fifth minute of added time. Incredibly, the man on the end of it was Alisson, who got his head to the ball and diverted it into the Baggies’ net before being engulfed by his jubilant teammates.

It was a poignant moment after the goalkeeper’s family tragedy earlier in the year, and it was followed up by wins over Burnley and Crystal Palace (the latter saw 10,000 fans at Anfield as restrictions were lifted once more) to secure a third-place finish which had seemed highly improbable just two months earlier.

The 2020/21 season had a happy ending, but it was by some distance the toughest of Klopp’s six years at Liverpool up to that point. Injuries, the absence of fans, personal tragedies and the occasional controversy all represented major hurdles to overcome, but the Reds had done enough to ensure that they were back in the Champions League for the following campaign.

In case you’ve missed them, you can check out previous episodes of the series:

2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20