This was not how anyone including fans of Liverpool envisaged what is essentially Jurgen Klopp’s goodbye tour.
When the German announced he would leave Liverpool at the end of the season, many Liverpool fans hoped that they would send him off in grand style.
The talks of a farewell tour grew so intense that Liverpool even started filming the second half of the season for a documentary.
And when they beat Chelsea 1-0 to win the Carabao Cup, the stars seemed aligned, or so they thought.
There were even talks of a quadruple. But it’s all evaporated since.
In March, with all odds in their favour, they were knocked out by an out-of-form Manchester United from the FA Cup at the quarter-final stage bringing their quadruple hopes to an end.
There was still hope for a treble though, with the Premier League and Europa League in sight.
But when everyone felt they were favourites, Atalanta showed up at Anfield and inflicted a 3-0 defeat and put their Europa League journey win in jeopardy. This was their first defeat throughout the season and for it to come at such a crucial one was extremely disappointing.
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Even at 3-0, there were high hopes from fans who were hoping for another remontanda just like against Barcelona at Anfield. However, Mohammed Salah’s early first-half goal was all Liverpool could muster as Atalanta held on to dump them out of the Europa League.
Klopp’s second defeat in 19 Meyserside derbies on Wednesday night has all but killed off any Premier League hopes for Liverpool who now find themselves three and two points behind Arsenal and Manchester City respectively. In context, winning the league does not depend on them now, they would now have to hope for other results to go their way.
On what could have been a farewell tour for Klopp and his boys, they would now be playing catch up and hope they are able to win the ultimate to at least give Klopp the farewell he deserves.
Klopp’s departure from Liverpool will leave him with eight trophies, having secured victory in six out of 10 major finals, notably clinching the Champions League trophy in 2019. However, he will undoubtedly ponder what might have transpired this season.