Liverpool’s victory over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday afternoon was a display of legacy, with one player almost moved to tears. Despite being hit by injuries and losing Ryan Gravenberch in the first half due to a clumsy challenge from Moisés Caicedo, Liverpool managed to triumph.
A goal was controversially ruled out when Wataru Endō was deemed to have interfered with play in Virgil van Dijk’s headed goal. However, Van Dijk scored another header to win the game in extra time. With several key players missing and Academy stars on the pitch, this was a significant achievement for Jürgen Klopp’s team. Here’s how the UK’s media summed up the Reds’ victory at Wembley.
“It was the illusion of a fight, the way Chelsea are an illusion of a team. They are a long, long way behind Liverpool, and not just in terms of ability. They trail, hugely, what Klopp has constructed. The spirit, the unit, the connection. Not that a mindset bristling for a fight is necessarily positive. There have been bands of thugs masquerading as football teams in the past that have brought little bar shame. Self-control is an admirable quality and too much emotion can be harmful. Yet Klopp won’t have minded his players racing to help a young colleague, just as Sir Alex Ferguson was never too harsh on Roy Keane for behaviour that the game’s guardians found disgraceful. It was when Keane turned that anger on his team-mates that Ferguson sacked him from the club. He actively encouraged his players to believe in a falsehood of them against the world.
“Chelsea have bought some talented individuals but nobody can buy a team. Teams are made. They are forged, smelted in white-hot temperatures. Everything Klopp does, his interactions with the crowd, with the players, is designed to make those bonds stronger. Chelsea’s management have dumped a group of individuals on Mauricio Pochettino and left him to get on with it. He isn’t doing the worst job; yet on days like this, when Liverpool are throwing on teenagers and Chelsea have a distinctly unexpected advantage, that difference shows.
“Chelsea should have won this, given Liverpool’s list of injuries. They should have won this, given the chances that went begging. They didn’t because they lack a vital quality that Liverpool possess in spades: character. They didn’t show character in front of goal, they didn’t show the character required to seize the moment. This should have been their moment. This should have been the launch of the Todd Boehly era. It was also a match that exposed the weakness of that era — the youth, the haste of the assembly. Klopp always sends out 11 musketeers. Chelsea’s players are too often on their ones.”
“Van Dijk began to descend the steps, and the cup was passed forward to him. Klopp was now amidst his players, hugging Bradley, emerging on to the pitch, Klopp waving, Klopp smiling. Elliott wandered around with a selfie stick, recording the scenes. Klopp and Van Dijk gathered all the players and staff in a line in front of the fans, and all present broke into You’ll Never Walk Alone. Emotion ran riot.
“The Kop on tour turned into one powerful, deafening choir. “One kiss is all it takes,” they sang as one. One header, anyway. These are moments that fans will never forget, the tension gone, the trophy won, the joy unconfined. For the players too. Klopp’s Kids, Danns and friends, wandered around, passing the trophy around, their first. Klopp was bold late on during normal time, sensing his players tiring, sending on the youthful likes of Danns, Bobby Clark, James McConnell and Jarell Quansah. McConnell’s arrival meant that Klopp has now used 97 players in the EFL Cup since he joined Liverpool in 2015.
“The players, the young ones, a credit to their families and to the academy, strolled across the field. They will return to Anfield South for sure. They have the character. Still only 20, Elliott is established now, and shone again. On the way from the field at the end, Elliott rather politely paused and helped staff tidy up the streamers, before being embraced by a beaming Sir Kenny Dalglish as he entered the tunnel.”
“When Jürgen Klopp spoke about leaving the foundations of a great team, he knew the pillar this season, next season and beyond is his captain, Virgil van Dijk. Whatever stage the negotiations for the Dutchman’s next Anfield contract, the foot must be pushed on the accelerator after the greatest performance in a major final by a Liverpool captain since peak Steven Gerrard.
“Here was a legacy display by the Dutchman. Sure, he already has the Premier League and Champions League medal cementing his place in history, but world class footballers set themselves apart when stepping up in the most trying of conditions and bending sporting history to their club’s will.
“This was Van Dijk infused with the spirit of Gerrard during the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ in 2005, refusing to accept the logic that his side would be beaten by greater experience, pedigree, reputation and — in Chelsea’s case — massive salaries and transfer fees. So often the epitome of cool, Van Dijk looked like he was in tears at full-time.
