IN the past three years, he experienced an epic Cup defeat, a thumping victory and a full-blown riot at Old Trafford.
Jurgen Klopp declared that he had run out of energy when he announced his impending departure from Anfield.
And those visits to Manchester United alone must have drained the German.
Klopp said he will not miss grudge matches with United, at least no more than any other game, while stating he has no idea whether he will miss football at all when he takes indefinite leave next month.
Tomorrow brings Klopp’s final trip to United’s crumbling old dream theatre, just three weeks after his most recent visit.
On that occasion, Old Trafford was a seething bear pit as Erik ten Hag’s men pulled off a stunning 4-3 FA Cup quarter-final victory, with an Amad Diallo winner in the final minute of extra-time.
This is English football’s Clasico, a day of fear and loathing, a royal blood feud between our two most historically successful clubs.
Popular wisdom has it that Liverpool have lorded it over United in Klopp’s eight years.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe stole a classic Fergusonism when he spoke about wanting to knock Manchester City and Liverpool ‘off their perch’.
With City, that loftiness is undoubted. But has Klopp truly elevated Liverpool above United throughout his Anfield reign?
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It may surprise you to read, given the widespread narrative which even Ratcliffe swallowed, but in Klopp’s eight seasons United have finished above Liverpool four times.
On Klopp’s ten Old Trafford visits, he has won only twice. In all, the German boasts seven victories, drawing eight and losing five.
Since Ten Hag joined, United have won twice, Liverpool once — yet that was a historic 7-0 humiliation at Anfield a year ago.
Only Klopp’s two wins over Ten Hag’s Ajax team in 2020 give the Liverpool boss any reason to be positive when looking at the head-to-head stats with the Dutchman.
But the treacle-coated storytelling of Klopp’s long goodbye skews all this.
Everton fans will point out he has won fewer English league titles than Howard Kendall or Harry Catterick.
Klopp could yet equal those two, given Liverpool lead the table by two points from Arsenal, with City a point further back. First, they must conquer Old Trafford, where recent trips often bordered on the absurd.
At the end of the 2020-21 pandemic season, United fans — revolting against owners the Glazers — stormed Old Trafford and forced the fixture to be postponed.
The next year, Liverpool eviscerated Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side — leading 4-0 at half-time on their way to a 5-0 win which hastened the end of his United reign.
Three weeks ago, one of the greatest-ever United-Liverpool clashes, and an all-time classic FA Cup tie, ended Klopp’s hopes of a farewell ‘quadruple’.
Tomorrow, United can inflict another significant wound in Klopp’s farewell tour.
And this bats**t-mental United team truly are capable of anything.
Ten Hag presides over possibly the least predictable team of the Premier League era.
Against Liverpool in the Cup, they trailed after 112 minutes and won.
At Chelsea on Thursday, they led after 100 minutes and lost. Without extra-time. Do not bet against another 4-3 win. Or a 7-0 defeat.
Either way, Klopp will not park the bus. He doesn’t need to.
As he said, Liverpool simply have to play as they did from the 15th minute to 75th minute of last month’s Cup tie, when they were by far the superior team.
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Perhaps Klopp will leave Old Trafford for the final time on Sunday, with Liverpool’s fans crowing and their team on the verge of equalling United’s record of 20 English titles.
But if they do it, they must rewrite recent history. Whatever most people, including Ratcliffe, will have you believe.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
