The higher you get, the harder the fall.
Just ask Liverpool. Their Champions League dream is over, their reign as European champions ended at the hands of Atletico Madrid at Anfield on Wednesday night.
It’s been some ride. “Exceptional,” said Klopp. “We had party after party.”
He’s right, of course. Great parties too. Memorable ones, epic ones.
But now, finally, the time has come to tidy away the beer bottles and the paper plates, to empty the ashtrays and send the stragglers home.
Party over – for now, anyway.
Make no mistake, this defeat hurt Liverpool. Premier League joy – Coronavirus concerns aside – will help numb the pain, but try telling Klopp and his players that the Champions League was just a bonus anyway. This team believes it is the best, and the best teams do not expect to exit at the round of 16.
Klopp certainly could not hide his disappointment. “It doesn’t feel right,” he said. He had earlier taken a swipe at Atletico Madrid’s tactics, wondering why Diego Simeone’s men do not play “proper football” with the talent they have at their disposal.
Such comments will earn him few supporters – “I’m a below-average loser” the German admitted – but Klopp was right to praise his side after their second-leg loss on Wednesday.
“We tried everything,” he said. Liverpool forced their way into a position of strength, but the game turned, sadly, on a mistake from Adrian, the Reds’ back-up goalkeeper.
And so they depart. “Diddled,” as one fan put it last night. “Burgled,” in the words of another. The European champions are the latest, high-profile victims of an Atletico side which specialises in a certain type of party-crashing.
There is a certain irony that Liverpool’s best Champions League performance of the season should come in the game which saw them eliminated. Football really can be a fickle mistress sometimes.
This was not, truth be told, a vintage defence from the Reds. Just as in 2005-06, when they were last European champions, they failed to make it past the first knockout stage, at a time when much more was expected.
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This year, they made heavy weather of a modest group, needing a last-day win at Salzburg to secure their passage to the last 16. They’ve lost once in 28 league matches this season, but were beaten in three of their eight European games.
Napoli, like Atletico (in the first leg at least), found a way to stifle them and wobble them, while at Anfield in October, Salzburg showed the world that even a defence marshalled by Virgil van Dijk could be exposed by a team prepared to take risks.
The Austrians certainly asked a few questions in the winner-takes-all return in December too, though it is to Liverpool’s credit that they were able to weather that storm and emerge with the win they needed.
That’s been a theme actually, Liverpool getting what they needed on a big European night. It was in this competition that the “mentality giants” were born, Klopp and his players repeatedly ‘finding a way’ when the odds looked stacked.
Need a win in your final group game? No problem. Bayern Munich away, Manchester City? We’ve got this. Three goals down and up against the world’s greatest footballer, needing a clean sheet? Don’t doubt us. Liverpool, time and again, have walked to the edge of the cliff, looked down and thought ‘nah, not this time, thanks.’
This, remarkably, was Klopp’s first defeat in a two-legged European tie as Reds boss, and so naturally it will prompt introspection at Melwood. What could Liverpool have done better? And what can they do to ensure they are ready to ‘go again’ next season?
Big European defeats for big clubs tend to be seen as the end of some kind of cycle. We have seen it with Barcelona, with Bayern Munich and with Real Madrid in recent years. They lose, questions are asked, heads roll and the team evolves, usually with a change of coach and/or a raft of new players.
That won’t happen at Liverpool. One loss, however painful, will not alter the club’s strategy or thinking. There will be no panic, no hasty re-drawing of plans behind the scenes. This disappointment will be framed correctly, and the response will be measured and mature.
The last time Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League, against Real Madrid in the 2018 final in Kiev, they reacted perfectly. Two days later, they signed Fabinho to add steel to their midfield, and within six weeks they’d spent a world-record fee on a new goalkeeper, Alisson Becker. Problem areas targeted and strengthened.
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It is hard to find such obvious weaknesses in the current side, though clearly the addition of high-quality players should always be welcomed. And certainly, Liverpool’s supporting cast can and should be improved this summer.
They still lack true full-back cover, for example, while their midfield options will surely need refreshing.
Adam Lallana is on his way out of the club, while Gini Wijnaldum is about to enter the final year of his contract. Naby Keita, meanwhile, remains a work in progress, almost two years after his arrival at the club. Finding a way to keep the £53 million ($68m) man fit would be most welcome.
Beyond that, it is vital that Liverpool add some high-quality depth to their attacking options. Both Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri have struggled, for various reasons, to make their mark this season, and it would be no surprise if both were to leave in the summer. Origi will be 25 next month, while Shaqiri has started four games in 12 months.
The time has come for Liverpool, with their backing and their status and their trophies, to have some stars on their bench, to be able to leave out a Mo Salah or a Sadio Mane and not feel the pinch.
Timo Werner, the RB Leipzig and Germany striker, looks an ideal fit for starters, but there are others out there. And given their recent track record, sporting director Michael Edwards and his team should be trusted to find them.
As for Klopp, it’s back to business. Two wins will guarantee the title, and the next game should swiftly refocus minds. Everton away on Monday night.
“From now on we will watch the Champions League instead of being part of it,” he said ruefully on Wednesday night, but the killer line was to follow.
“But everybody knows,” he added, “that we will come again and go again.”
Europe, be warned. A wounded Liverpool is a dangerous Liverpool.