Revealed: How Jurgen Klopp lifted Liverpool players' spirits as club eye seven new stars
IT WAS the early hours of the morning after the night before when Jurgen Klopp took a microphone in hand at Liverpool's Novotel team hotel and sought to pierce the gloom.
Jurgen Klopp will overhaul Liverpool's squad this summer
Defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League Final was still raw, the manner of his team's second-half unravelling intensifying the pain, and the Liverpool manager was anxious to improve the mood.
“I felt really, really **** three hours ago,” said Klopp. “It was really **** two hours ago, but now we’re back together it’s better.”
He promised there would be more finals in the future, outlined how the club was still at the start of a new adventure and then led everyone present in a rousing rendition of "We Are Liverpool".
For a short time at least, 45-minutes of utter chaos in St Jakob-Park were banished to the back of tired minds.
The trouble is that when Klopp re-emerged later on Thursday, having first stayed up to sunrise, the memories will have come flooding back.
There was Sevilla's equaliser just 18-seconds after the restart, Liverpool's inability to regroup and rediscover their composure and then the tame acceptance of their fate and the 3-1 reverse that brought the Spaniards a third consecutive success in the competition.
Klopp disappears on holiday today after eight intense months into which he has crammed 52 matches, but much of what he thought he had discovered about his squad was to be challenged in that inexplicable collapse when silverware slipped from their grasp.
When he returns he will know the honeymoon is over.
Pre-season will allow him to implement more of his methods and integrate the signings he has chosen.
The aftermath of the final had prompted a re-airing of familiar debates as Liverpool's supporters headed back to Merseyside.
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Left-back Alberto Moreno's frailties dominated one topic of conversation, the importance of Anfield to this team another, and then the question of whether Liverpool, having lost two finals now this season to go with the near misses of recent campaign, possess enough leaders in their ranks to actually cross the winning line anytime soon.
When trailing 3-1 (and 4-2 on aggregate) to Borussia Dortmund in the quarters-finals, they were there. Yet from the moment Kevin Gameiro equalised, no one was able to summon the mental fortitude to counter and reclaim a foothold in a contest they had assumed control of through Daniel Sturridge's brilliance.
Liverpool will not react to defeat, even one as demoralising as this, in isolation.
Klopp's plans to introduce fresh blood were already in motion before they travelled to Switzerland.
Mario Gotze is the top target, and the absence of European football next season now should not be overly off-putting given he has hardly been Bayern Munich's go-to man in the Champions League.
A £4.7m deal for Mainz goalkeeper Loris Karius is close, Liverpool want Leicester's teenage left-back Ben Chilwell and there is interest in Udinese's Piotr Zielinski and Borussia Monchengladbach's Mahmoud Dahoud. The transfers of Marko Grujic and Joel Matip have already been completed.
There will be an expectation in some quarters that without the complication of continental competition Liverpool can be contenders next term as they were under Brendan Rodgers in 2014.
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Back then, however, there was the force-of-nature that was Luis Suarez to inspire more from his team-mates and drag them forward.
Genuine star quality remains lacking and it will be interesting to see whether Gotze can provide it should he sign.
At the moment Klopp is Liverpool's rock star, but if Wednesday was a bad night for his players, then it was uncomfortable evening for the German as he seemed shell-shocked by what he was witnessing.
There was a point as Sevilla wreaked havoc that Klopp turned towards the travelling support, gesturing frantically in an attempt to mobilise them before dismissively waving his hand when a wall of noise did not emanate.
As emotional as Klopp is, he should be mindful not to make a habit of that.
He has no right to be disappointed with the fans, but if he was then imagine how Liverpool supporters felt at the failure to plug the gaps in midfield and tweak the formation when his best players disappeared.
At 2-1, Divock Origi replaced Roberto Firmino (Philippe Coutinho's best moment was avoiding being hooked) and the heavy metal approach continued with Liverpool effectively playing 4-2-4. Some 60 seconds later, it was Sevilla calling the tune with their third goal.
Liverpool would have remained a work in progress even had Jordan Henderson and James Milner hoisted the trophy to the heavens. Wednesday showed just how far they still have to go.
