Brendan Rodgers needs to finally land a jab on Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool for Leicester to shed this particular inferiority complex.
After finishing the (almost) glorious campaign of 2013/14 in second place, Liverpool were back in Europe’s biggest competition for the first time in five long years. This decent consolation prize should have been something to get the juices flowing as the Kop readmitted themselves into those cinematic Champions League midweek blockbusters. Unfortunately, the opening night performance was a B movie that ludicrously relied on a last-minute Steven Gerrard penalty against Ludogrets.
The tone had been set. Liverpool, for all their European royalty, were in the cheap seats.
After losing miserably to Basel on the second match day, the big boys of Real Madrid, fresh from achieving La Decima, came swinging into L4. Brendan Rodgers greeted Carlo Ancelotti in the tunnel before the match as if possessed by an entity, his eyes bulging out of their sockets like Jim Carrey in The Mask. It seemed the Northern Irishman was riddled with impostor syndrome. If Jurgen Klopp had been the recipient of that handshake and stare, he would not have needed to look at the pre-match warm-up to work out the state of the opposition…
As a special Bank Holiday Monday treat, let’s remind you all how happy Brendan Rodgers was to meet Carlo Ancelotti that time. pic.twitter.com/tAZNPusstl
— MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) April 22, 2019
There was no Luis Suarez fighting Liverpool’s corner that night, just the sight of Mario Balotelli swapping shirts with Pepe when 3-0 down at half-time.
It was the beginning of the end in many ways for Rodgers as he lost his way in the league and rested Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling in the return match at the Bernabeu. This wasn’t what Being Liverpool was supposed to be about.
His follow-up work at Celtic certainly showed what a fine manager he is when given the same spirit of YNWA with fewer claimants to the prizes. However, the 48-year-old continually failed to live up to any European pretensions – a demanded prerequisite of both Celtic and Liverpool clans – with only one thrilling night at Parkhead to remember when the Hoops drew 3-3 with Pep’s early version of Manchester City.
It is not as if Rodgers cannot forge and find a way to beat the elite. Look at the way his charges blitzed a scruffy City 5-2 earlier in the season, which brought some ridiculously first-class sore loser syndrome from Rodri. Leicester also bullied Chelsea in January and stopped Manchester United cashing in on all their away day returns.
When it comes to Liverpool, though, the Foxes have suffered from a kind of personality deficit on the pitch under Rodgers. Is this just that Liverpool have better players? Or could it be that BR is overwhelmed by the gargantuan personality of JK, just as he was deferential to Carlo on that fateful night six years ago?
Now, for the second time in a few months, is a “good time” to play a “depleted” Liverpool. In theory. Can Rodgers finally find a formula that will at least land a blow on Klopp’s weary ground troops?
When Rodgers’ team visited Anfield in November, Liverpool’s walking wounded included Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson, Thiago and Mohamed Salah. There was a general feeling that this was the time to seize the day and stop Liverpool’s 63-match home unbeaten run just as Leicester had done 40 years previously.
In the end, they were totally outplayed and made to feel ultimately irrelevant, beaten 3-0 on the night. It should and could have been six. It was a non-performance that we had seen before, lacking “the character” that Rodgers so often extols.
In three games against Klopp, his aggregate scoreline is Liverpool 9 Leicester 1. There have been mitigating circumstances. The Foxes were battered 4-0 at the King Power on Boxing Day of 2019 when the Reds were literally on top of the world after their Club World Cup success against Flamengo. They were simply untouchable that day and, again, could have won by six or seven.
Even so, against the mighty Reds or the mangled Reds, Leicester have looked neutered and unsure.
When taking the job in October 2015, Klopp came loud and clear with the mantra to make doubters into believers, as if his predecessor had left a dressing room full of nervous, anxious interlopers. Maybe, just maybe, Rodgers has something to prove to his former employers about the real work he did that preceded the fall.
He will be remembered as the nearly man, and it would only be human if he looked wistfully at what Klopp has achieved since.
Saturday lunchtime could be the time when all things fall in Leicester’s favour but Rodgers needs to implement his football speak on the pitch and make the first bold moves. Otherwise, Liverpool might roll over their prey again.
“I was never bitter about leaving Liverpool. I let Jurgen Klopp live in my house.” If Brendan can exert control over his former tenant on the pitch where it really counts, then he can prove to himself that he has a team worthy of the Champions League. There is some unfinished business there for sure.
Tim Ellis is on Twitter
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