To endure, Klopp deconstructed the midfield, putting Fabinho first and then Jordan Henderson at the bottom line. The team lost pace. A swarm of other injuries – Thiago Alcantara and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain missing the first third of the season, Diogo Jota and Naby Keita in the middle third, the usual wear and tear of a long and tough campaign – left him with no choice but to play against the members of your team that stood up.
Under these circumstances, trying to instill a new style of play is hardly realistic. Liverpool needs to evolve; with his resources, he should not be in a position where he worries whether he can defend West Ham, Everton and possibly the most pertinent, an emerging Chelsea to finish in the top four. But in terms of retaining the title, it was not so much a setback, but an obstacle.
There is a useful contrast here with its most recent conqueror and his apparent heir. The fortunes of Liverpool and Manchester City have been so intertwined for the past three years that there is now a temptation to see them as something inextricably linked, the success of one considered a direct accusation of the failure of the other.
This season just seems to reinforce the parallel. Liverpool’s struggles this year do not quite match those that City faced last: where City were volatile, scoring many goals just to freeze completely every few weeks, Liverpool’s fading was a slow death, started even before the title was conquered, the team stagnated during the fall and only stopped completely at Christmas.
But, at first glance, the cause and effect are the same: the lack of defensive coverage, the oxygen debt to be paid after two seasons in the rarest heights, the feeling of a wall being hit, all of this agglutinating like Manchester City he ran wildly at Anfield on Sunday, the pendulum swinging irrevocably back to Pep Guardiola’s team.
There is also an easy explanation for this. Last summer, Guardiola and his employers knew that his team needed more steel. City had lost nine games the previous season, and their efforts to win their third consecutive title were undone not only by Liverpool’s relentlessness, but by their own glass jaw.