Klopp’s reign ends with a win however no one desires to let go

He sat on the bench beneath the shadow of the Main Stand and chewed his bottom lip as the music played. Beneath the black cap, his eyes were full. Not quite a tear, but close enough. Jurgen Klopp‘s last day at work at Liverpool had begun.

Across on the other side – where the folk had held programmes to their brows to shield themselves from the sun – supporters held aloft squares of white card to form one simple word. Jurgen. It was one of the few things about this day that was under-stated.

Once the strains of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ had faded, a football match was supposed to break out. It never really did but was it ever really going to?

Wolves were a man down once Nelson Semedo was sent off midway though the first half and by the time we reached the interval they were two goals down also, Alexis MacAllister and Jarell Quansah the scorers.

Klopp, for his part, sat quietly beneath the brim of that cap and allowed it all to wash over him. Usually so full with energy that he can’t help but stand agitated on the outer limits of his technical area, here he spent the whole afternoon sitting down.

When Liverpool’s goals went in, he simply smiled. Occasionally he put his fist to his chest. He may trademark that one day. He looked for all the world like a man watching the last nine years of his working life pass back in front of him at fast-forward speed.

And if that is how it felt that would be quite understandable. For out there on Anfield’s green acres was so much of what we have learned to expect from his teams.

Football played on the front foot and as much dictated by instinct as anything from a coaching manual. The central figures of the recent glorious past were here. Van Dijk, Sala, Alisson and Robertson. The promise of a bright future too in Mac Allister, Quansah and Elliott. 

And then the other stuff. A right-back – Trent Alexander-Arnold – spending most of his afternoon in the centre of midfield. A centre forward – Cody Gakpo – with licence to play across the width of the pitch.

‘This doesn’t feel like the end,’ said Klopp as he addressed the crowd later.

‘It feels like the start for a team full of youth and creativity.’

Of all the things we have loved about Klopp’s football over the years, it has perhaps been its ferocious freedom that has held us most gripped.

Here Liverpool didn’t have to reach those fever pitch levels. For those moments of peak Klopp, we will have to close our eyes and recall the dismantling of teams like Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and even Manchester City. It’s not difficult. Those of us who were here on those nights of searing sporting intensity will never forget how it felt.

In truth this one didn’t feel much like a Premier League football match at all. The sun shone from a blue sky of impossible richness while Wolves presented modest opposition.

There was a time not long ago that Liverpool had hoped to send Klopp off with a second Premier League title. A dreadful fortnight in April saw to that and left the 2020 Premier League champions with what turned out to be the fondest and, in its own way, gentlest of farewells to put their minds to.

Liverpool played well enough. A victory was fitting. They were dominant from the very start even if Wolves were in the game until they were undone by VAR in the 28th minute.

It is the club from the Black Country who have asked their fellow Premier League occupants to vote on a motion to scrap the review system. Here, though, they could have few complaints. Referee Chris Kavanagh showed Semedo a yellow card for his challenge on MacAllister but changed that to red quite once the VAR footage showed the challenge to have been dreadfully high and late.

Six minutes after that Liverpool were ahead. The home team worked the ball left to right across the field and when Elliott checked back to cross left-footed MacAllister rose in front of Santiago Bueno to head powerfully and accurately in to the corner.

The goal freed Liverpool up a little and six minutes after the opening goal they sealed the game. Salah applied decent contact to a dropping ball on the volley and when the shot was only half blocked the young centre-half Quansah was on hand to force it in.

Liverpool threatened sporadically throughout the second half and Salah in particular seemed desperate to score. Will this also turn out to be the Egyptian’s final game in a Liverpool shirt? The word from Liverpool is that it won’t but Salah has just a year left on his contract so we will see.

He played well, Salah. He was persistently dangerous down the right and had one curled shot touched in to the Kop by Jose Sa. Luis Diaz, meanwhile, struck the underside of the bar from close in.

This was not a day that had much to do with the result, however. The music before kick-off had pointed to Klopp. ‘There goes my hero’ by the Foo Fighters. ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie.

And as the second half wore on and Klopp used his full complement of substitutes, an embrace with young Elliott as he left the field particularly stood out.

Klopp is a tall man and Elliott had to reach up to embrace him. As he did so, the 21-year-old looked for all the world as though he didn’t really want to let go. And that, in short, is how half of this football city feels. Nobody really wants to let go.

The mural painted on the side of the shop just along from the back of the Kop perhaps says it best. ‘Jurgen reminded us again of who we have always been’. In a purely sporting sense, they will mourn Klopp’s passing here for some time. Once that fades, they will simply never forget him.