“Darren Burgess was an Australian fitness and conditioning specialist whose appointment at Liverpool in 2010, during a period of unprecedented upheaval across all levels of the club, was attached to that of their head of sports medicine and science Peter Brukner. Roy Hodgson was drowning as manager and, two weeks before Fenway Sports Group’s takeover, striker Fernando Torres was left out of a Europa League game because of concerns from the new staff about his physical state. …”
The Athletic

“A crestfallen Jurgen Klopp walked across to the travelling Kop inside Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after the final whistle and held his hands up apologetically. … Liverpool have given their supporters so many memories to cherish with their European exploits during Klopp’s reign. Last season, they became the first club in Champions League history to win all six away matches en route to the final in Paris. Yet the contrast between the team that dug deep to fight for glory on all fronts and the one that was humiliated by the rampant Serie A side on Wednesday could hardly be greater. Rarely has a team fallen so far, so quickly. …”
The Athletic

“When Olivia Pratt-Korbel’s mum heard a commotion outside her home last week, she went to investigate. Suddenly, a man was running for his life towards her. In pursuit was another man who was wearing a balaclava and carrying two guns. As she tried to close the door, the gunman shot four times. One of the bullets went through Cheryl’s hand before entering Olivia’s chest. Police believe the intended target escaped by leaving the nine-year-old to die, just in front of the stairs. …”
The Athletic

“… It came just a couple of months on from last season’s exploits, when they came agonisingly close to football immortality, winning the Carabao Cup and FA Cup but then finishing runners-up in the Premier League by a point and losing the Champions League final against Real Madrid. Manager Jurgen Klopp has set high standards during his time at Anfield and his side failed to meet them so far this term, but promoted Bournemouth’s arrival on Merseyside gave the Reds a chance to remind their rivals of their credentials. …”
BBC (Video)

“When it was all getting a little too much for Jürgen Klopp at Mainz, when the defeats began to accumulate and the negative thoughts began to spiral, he would clear the schedule, jump in the car and take his squad on an adventure holiday. Long walks in the Hunsrück. Mountain biking in the Black Forest. Two or three days spent knocking back beers, sleeping in tiny huts, having the sort of honest conversations you couldn’t really have in an office. This was Klopp’s terrain, the land where he grew up, and in times of crisis it also became his sanctuary. …”
Guardian

“… Greatness, despite what you may have heard, is not the same thing as being very good. In a way, they’re almost opposites. To be good is to be safe, smart, successful, all the usual stuff we admire. But to be sloppy or reckless and get the job done because you didn’t do it the usual way? That’s true greatness. The distinction is important here because Mohamed Salah appears on our list of the greatest performances in Premier League history for a game in which, by his standards at least, he wasn’t very good. …”
The Athletic

“… Close your eyes and think of Steven Gerrard at his irrepressible, indomitable best. It’s a European night, isn’t it? If it’s not Anfield under the floodlights, it’s probably May 2005 in the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul. Or it’s the FA Cup final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium a year later, lashing home two equalisers, one of them in stoppage time from 30 yards out. …”
The Athletic

Liverpool striker Ian Rush celebrates as full back Phil Neal (3rd left) scores the Liverpool goal during the 1984 European Cup Final between AS Roma and Liverpool, Liverpool winning on penalties after a 1-1 draw aet, at the Olympic Stadium, on May 30, 1984 in Rome, Italy.
“Jürgen Klopp’s team are chasing a quadruple and may yet surpass the efforts of the Liverpool side of the 1983-84 season, but they are unlikely to have as much fun along the way. It was a season of 67 matches, shocks, thrashings, broken bones, beer, brawls, spaghetti legs, Scully and Chris Rea. Unusually for Liverpool at the time, it was also a season with a few doubts along the way, starting with the retirement of Bob Paisley in the summer of 1983. Joe Fagan, a member of the famous Boot Room who had been at the club since 1958, was hesitant about stepping up to replace Paisley but decided he was the right man for the job. …”
Guardian

“Saturday afternoon, Anfield: at 2.23 pm there is a ripple of applause and a mini exodus. This is the Liverpool FC megastore where, amid shopping for anything that can be branded with club insignia, many have stopped and taken one of the red wooden seats transferred from the old main stand. On a screen the size of Alisson Becker’s six-yard box, they watched Liverpool maintain their Premier League title challenge with a 2-0 victory at sunny Brighton. The quadruple is still on. …”
The Athletic (Video)