Liverpool continued their push for the Premier League title with a controversial late winner at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, another in a long line of late goals that have been key this season.
The first question to Virgil van Dijk was the most telling.
“When the clock ticked over to 99 minutes, did you ever give up hope?” The big Dutchman smiled and said: ‘No, never.’
If this season’s title race is going to the wire, perhaps Liverpool need a new phrase to displace that so beloved by Manchester United when Alex Ferguson was in his pomp. You know the one: Fergie-time.
That uncanny knack of scoring late, decisive – often winning – goals when it mattered. How about, ‘Klopp O’Clock’?
No?
Ah well, the one unmistakable influence over this campaign has been that ability to find the net late on. Think about victories over Newcastle United, Wolves, Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Nottingham Forest were added to that list as Darwin Nunez supplied a glorious glancing decider in the dying seconds of stoppage time.
It came on the back of Van Dijk’s dramatic winner against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final. Building that kind of reputation only helps any club.
It drains rivals. And it puts the kind of apprehension into opponents that means they can never switch off, even if legs and brains are low on energy. Klopp himself came out afterwards saluting the commitment of his players, saying that he didn’t expect four victories in 11 days.
Van Dijk added: “We’ve definitely been tested, yeah. Physically, mentally. It has been a very good six days.
“It couldn’t have gone much better. We did everything we could and we got everything we could. Now it’s time to rest a little bit and then focus on the European game.”
It will almost feel like a holiday for Klopp & Co. Liverpool aren’t in action against until Thursday against Sparta Prague. By that time the sense of injustice that swept around the City Ground at the final whistle may have died down.
And it might be wise by those in officialdom who assign referees to matches to leave Paul Tierney’s name away from any game involving Nottingham Forest for the rest of this season.
The howls of protest were long and loud afterwards after the man-in-black dropped a clanger over a dropped ball. It may seem like nothing, giving possession to the wrong side. But Forest were on the attack with little more than 90 seconds left.
Tierney’s mistake gave Liverpool the chance to profit when they might not have otherwise have done so. Forest were wronged. It doesn’t matter if Liverpool – in different circumstances – were given the same treatment in the first half.
Tierney doesn’t get to set the laws. He’s supposed to apply them. He didn’t – in either case.
Ex-Premier League ref Mark Clattenburg – appointed as a go-between by Forest to smooth a path to the powers-that-be – must have been longing for the easy money made on ‘Gladiators’ dealing with the likes of Fire, Nitro, Legend and Giant.
He could add ‘explosion’ to that list as he was wheeled out to point out where his erstwhile colleague had erred.
By that stage, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis had already confronted Tierney in the corridor outside the referees’ room. Steven Reid, Nuno Espirito Santo’s assistant, couldn’t help but air his views. And was dismissed.
Van Dijk summed it up pretty well, too. And should, in keeping with this piece, have the final word. He said: “I think it was about the timing of it. There was a moment in the first half when exactly the same happened to us….I mean, I don’t know.
“If you lose in the last minute it’s never nice and I can understand it. We came here to win. To get the three points and we got that.”
