Klopp Talk: Champions League Qualification Would Be One of My “Biggest Achievements Ever”

This season started well for the Reds, but then quickly swerved downhill as, one by one, integral members of the team started falling like dominoes. In the dregs of winter, it looked like there was a very good chance that the Reds would end up mid-table at best.

However, somehow the team has clawed their way back up the table, despite playing with fifth-, sixth-, seventh-, eighth-choice defenders for the majority of the season. Now with two matches left to play, the Reds could possibly even make it into the top four, something that felt impossible five months ago.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp agrees, because in an interview following the win against West Brom, Klopp affirmed that ending up fourth would be, “Massive, absolutely massive. One of the biggest achievements ever. I know how that sounds, but it’s the truth. Everybody here sees it like that, everybody.

“If you want to write a book about a (Liverpool) season and you want to be depressed afterwards, then you’d probably take this season. You’d read it and think ‘wow really, that happened? Then that happened?’

“Most of the things they don’t ever get in public. It’s just really we had a lot of things to deal with. But here we are. This season has been really hard work for us, without always getting a reward. Whatever happened this year, it has given us the chance to hold our destiny in our own hands with two games (to go).”

While it’s exciting to think about the possibility that Alisson’s wild goal could end up saving the season, the players still have two more games to get through. It will be interesting to see how the game will be affected when they head to Burnley and play in front of a crowd at Turf Moor for the first time in months.