'I will not and I cannot go' - Jurgen Klopp's words one year on are incredible as Liverpool eye cup final

Just over a year ago, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was defiant after a difficult spell at the start of 2023 and spoke about how he would not walk away from the club and that he wanted to bring them back to the top.

Considering they are top of the table, progressing in Europe and the FA Cup and on the cusp of reaching Wembley, it's safe to say fans will be glad he didn't walk away. It was a hugely difficult spell that saw them lose four times, draw twice and win once as they sat 10th in the league table, as the media and opposing fans began to push the 'crisis' narrative hard. It came off the back of a quadruple attempt the previous season, in which they triumphed in both domestic cups but fell short in the Premier League on the final day and narrowly in the Champions League final, and the wheels had looked to have come off.

Plus, it was in Klopp's seventh full season in charge which over the course of his career had been the season where, historically, it would all go wrong. He was relegated at Mainz in his seventh campaign and he finished seventh at Borussia Dortmund before exiting in the same year - and there was a real storm brewing on Merseyside. Fans were not pushing an exit but it was the first time across his tenure that fans were beginning to consider the possibility of a managerial change - and in the fact of that adversity, he sat in front of the media and defied us following his sixth defeat of the league campaign.

“I don’t think people forget it. If I was to look at it, the difficult spells always came at the end of the time. At Mainz, we had difficult times the whole time, if you like. At Dortmund, it was at the beginning and end.

“I will not and I cannot go. I have too much responsibility and I want that. These are the difficult times and I don’t enjoy it, but if you can show in this time that especially this club is so special because we believe in anything. If people believe in me, then we can go through this together because when we come out, we will have great times again.

“Maybe the difficult times are a bit too long already for me as well, so that makes it really difficult, but I don’t think about these kinds of things. I’m here, 100 per cent committed. I’ve said before, if we win, I feel like I’m a part of it, but if we lose, I feel 100 per cent responsible. I’ve always been like this so you can imagine how big the responsibility is I feel at the moment. We will do absolutely everything to get through this and prepare for a positive future again.”

The Reds face Fulham in the second-leg tie against Fulham in the EFL Cup, two years on from winning the competition against Chelsea, who are in to the final once again after beating Middlesbrough. Now, the narrative has changed completely and 'Liverpool 2.0' is in full swing, almost a year on from a time where it looked like it may never happen.