A defiant comment made by Jurgen Klopp earlier this year has resurfaced on social media, in the wake of Liverpool finding themselves back at the top of the Premier League with 2023 drawing to a close.
The Reds dropped out of the Champions League spots for the first time in 2022/23, with a series of poor results and inconsistency plaguing the side throughout the campaign.
Many in the football world doubted the manager’s ability to turn the ship around at the speed that was required, but at the halfway stage of this season, Klopp has taken his team back to the summit.
Liverpool’s victory over Burnley on Boxing Day saw them end their 2023 at the top of the Premier League tree, a far cry from the situation they found themselves in not too long ago.
Back in February, the boss was asked by a reporter after a humiliating 3-0 defeat at Wolves: “Do you have confidence in your own ability to turn it around?”
4th February 2023: Jürgen after Liverpool had been beaten by Wolves and sat 10th.
“Do you have confidence in your own ability to turn it around?”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
29th December 2023, Liverpool sit top of the league. pic.twitter.com/sCQub1o42p
— The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) December 29, 2023
Klopp’s response was a resounding and assured one: “Yeah, absolutely.”
Given Liverpool’s history of reacting positively to adversity under the current leadership, it seems absurd to think that there were questions of this nature as recently as this calendar year.
The comments came at a time when Liverpool were at one of their lowest points under his stewardship, sitting 10th in the table after defeat at Molineux.
There have been just three defeats in total since then, with only 35 goals conceded in the 37 games that have followed.
Less than 11 months on from that post-Wolves press conference, the Reds are looking down on the rest having leapfrogged Arsenal into pole position.
I trust this man and no one else. pic.twitter.com/2cSKinxzxs
— Kloppenheimer (@WinnerpoolLFC) February 4, 2023
It has been a remarkable return to form, with Klopp’s side having lost just once in controversial circumstances at Tottenham in the Premier League since the beginning of April.
The Gunners do still have a chance to end the calendar year at the top of the pile, with their next game coming away to Fulham on New Year’s Eve.
Should they win, Liverpool will still have the chance to regain top spot the following day, with Newcastle the visitors as we kick off our 2024 at Anfield.
On his first day at the club, the manager discussed the need to turn “doubters to believers” as he addressed the media for the first time back in 2015.
It appears some still haven’t learned to trust in the process that has delivered six major trophies since, but it is clear that the club still have the very best man possible at the helm.
