Jürgen Klopp Hails “Sensational Group” Following Third-Place Finish

With the 2020-21 Premier League season officially in the books, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp took a moment to reflect on a difficult year—and his resilient players who dug deep and dragged themselves back into the top four.

“This is a sensational group and that’s the good thing,” Klopp told the club’s official website. “In all the tough times, there was [no] pointing fingers at others and saying, ‘It’s because of that or because of that.’ We just went through it.

“Yes, it was tough, but we went through it and here we are. If you don’t give up you have a proper chance. This was never the year to become champion for us, we had too many problems. But who cares? There must be other targets.”

At the start of the season, if you’d told Liverpool fans and players—and Klopp, too, one imagines—it would be a 69 point season and third-place finish with no silverware, none would have imagined that being worth celebrating.

The reality, though, is that it is worth celebrating. With everything this side has been through, the injuries and the setbacks and the compressed schedule and no fans in the stands for most of the season, it’s worth celebrating.

It may not have been the season anyone hoped for, but just as much as the past two years when this Liverpool side won the Premier League and Champions League, 2020-21 proved this group of players are mentality monsters.

“We are third in this incredibly strong league,” Klopp added. “We had so many problems, and here we are, finished in third. I have no words for that. It’s absolutely incredible. I would have never bet a penny on that but here we are.”