Jurgen Klopp learned a new English phrase after Liverpool’s incredible Carabao Cup win over Chelsea.
“‘You don’t win trophies with kids’, I didn’t know that! Yeah?!,” he laughed. “[This is] easily the most special trophy I have won, pride is the overwhelming feeling.”
Kelleher, Gomez, Quansah, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Endo, McConnell, Clark, Diaz, Danns, Elliott. It’s a Liverpool line-up that even the staunchest Liverpool supporter could be forgiven for thinking was a pre-season XI in 10 years’ time.
Instead, it was the line-up which finished the Carabao Cup final as Liverpool, missing 11 first-team players at kick-off, lifted their 10th League Cup in the most adverse conditions, showing the resilience and belief that Jurgen Klopp has fostered deep into Liverpool Football Club’s psyche.
Five of Liverpool’s substitutes bench had never started a league match, one of them - 18-year-old striker Jayden Danns - had never played a minute of professional football until five days earlier.
Indeed, Danns’ first training session with the first team took place less than a month ago, at the end of January. A player who started the season in the club’s under-18s and by February was playing up front in a League Cup final at Wembley.
“Jayden only joined us in first-team training recently. I loved him from the first second,” said Klopp post-match.
It is just one of many extraordinary stories to emerge from this latest trophy success for Klopp’s side. “Can you create in football stories which definitely, nobody will ever forget?,” questioned the Reds manager, who thanked the staff, including those at the academy, for creating an atmosphere where this story can happen. "It’s so difficult because [it’s happened before]. If you find the same story, with academy players coming on against a top, top, top side, and winning it!”
Liverpool won this same trophy two years ago, but due to a combination of departures last summer and a shocking injury list, only four players started from the final in 2022.
It meant that this was the first trophy of their Liverpool career for five of the starting XI, six of the substitutes, plus the injured duo of Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai.
‘A culture of victory’
Speaking in 2019, Klopp’s assistant, Pepijn Lijnders, spoke of Liverpool’s approach to domestic Cup domestic competitions as “a ‘culture of victory’ because each prize we can win is important, so we try to attack each competition we play.”
Earlier this season, the Dutchman explained why the Carabao Cup is “so important - because you play already in January a semi final.”
Lijnders underlined how the coaching staff, and Liverpool’s senior players who have won every trophy possible themselves already, now in 2024 had an “ambition” to kick start Liverpool 2.0 with silverware.
“I feel that this team want it even more,” he went as far as saying - and that was evidenced the hard-fought nature of this success.
Is it possible to begin a new era, with so many youngsters, in a better manner than this? Some of these players still haven’t started a professional game of football, yet they’ve played a key role in Liverpool Football Club winning a trophy.
The winning culture has been instilled already - and that must be very exciting for whoever takes over the reigns of this squad in the summer.
“For this group and this club, a super special night,” summed up Klopp.
The future is certainly bright, even without the inspirational, transformational German in charge.
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