It was the most withering insult in recent football history. In February 2014, Jose Mourinho called Arsène Wenger a “specialist in failure”, after Wenger had failed to win a trophy at Arsenal for nearly a decade. It was such an infamous put-down because it rang true, even with Arsenal fans, who felt that since Arsenal’s move to the Emirates Wenger had somehow switched from being an all-conquering manager to some kind of CEO, who valued the bottom line far more than what happened between the white lines on the pitch.
Ironically, Mourinho’s attempt to belittle Wenger may well have backfired. Within three months Wenger was again a trophy-winner, having led Arsenal to an FA Cup win, a victory they repeated 12 months later to restore a little of Wenger’s lost lustre. And even in this ultimately unsuccessful season for Arsenal, because his side eventually finished runners-up to Leicester, Wenger can still claim that he is maintaining upward progress on the pitch.
As with so many of Mourinho’s comments, in particular his description of himself as “The Special One”, “specialist in failure” has become part of the footballing lexicon, applied to managers other than Wenger. The danger for Jürgen Klopp after Liverpool’s midweek defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final is that he will inherit Wenger’s old title and become the real specialist in failure.
Jürgen Klopp Failure Becoming Repetitive
As has been pointed out ad infinitum by journalists and supporters of other clubs since the loss to Sevilla, Klopp’s latest loss makes it five losing finals in a row—literally a handful of major defeats. His final three seasons with Borussia Dortmund were marked by a hat-trick of final losses—one in the Champions League to Bayern Munich, and two in the German Cup final to Bayern and Wolfsburg. He has begun his tenure at Liverpool with two more—first against Manchester City in the League Cup final on penalties and then, far more comprehensively, against Sevilla in the Europa League final.
Of course, Klopp can legitimately claim that his team were unlucky against Sevilla after dominating the first half and having not one but two strong penalty claims denied: a point that he himself made to the referee at the end of the match by raising two fingers to him. However, nearly every side who has ever lost a final of any kind has always claimed that they have somehow been “unlucky”, or even “robbed”. Losers need excuses, if only to save face or somehow convince themselves that they have been unfairly treated. Winners don’t.
And it is not only in cup finals that Klopp’s star has been waning of late. His last two league seasons – first with Dortmund, then with Liverpool (albeit that this season he only took charge of Liverpool in October) – have been in stark contrast to his superb title-winning triumphs in 2011 and 2012.
At Dortmund last year, his side endured an almost season-long slump before finally rallying to win a Europa League place, and this season at Liverpool, for all his successes in cup competitions (at least in getting to the finals of them), Liverpool have consistently underwhelmed in the league. For all the early glimpses of brilliance, particularly in impressive away wins at Chelsea and Manchester City, ultimately they finished eighth, having thrown away big leads in recent weeks against Southampton and Newcastle, perhaps because the eyes of Klopp and his players were already focused on the end-of-season Europa League final.
It is now four years since Klopp last won a trophy—the German Cup in 2012, after hammering Bayern 5-2 in the final, which secured Dortmund’s first ever league and cup double—and questions must be asked as to whether his managerial career peaked early.
What is most surprising about his consistent failure in recent years is that it runs counter to the image of the man that he has developed over the last decade. He is almost universally regarded, even by fans of other clubs, as the master motivator, the fan in the dugout who can rally his teams, and his supporters, more than any other current manager.
However, that may be where the difficulty arises, certainly in finals. Klopp’s teams seem to be at their absolute best at home, where his touchline tangos can energise and inspire a home crowd. At Dortmund, his side became almost unbeatable at home, as he forged an extraordinary bond with the “yellow wall” of supporters who constituted the largest average crowd in Europe.
Similarly, at Liverpool this season, since the early away victories at Chelsea and City his team have been most accomplished at home. Of course, this effect was seen at its most devastating in the Europa League quarter-final against his old club Dortmund, when they came from two goals down twice to eventually win through to the semi-final right at the death.
In that instant, it was as if Klopp had transferred the incredible fervour and fury that he had built up at Dortmund over nearly a decade to Anfield, which, of course, has its famous atmosphere, especially on European nights. It is impossible to generate quite the same kind of energy in a final, which is held at a neutral ground and where ordinarily his team’s fans constitute, at best, only half the crowd. Admittedly in Basel on Wednesday, Liverpool fans outnumbered those of Sevilla, but not to the same effect that they would in a home match at Anfield.
His consistent failure in finals and his seeming inability to fire his side up away from their home ground are factors that Klopp is doubtless already considering before the start of next season. However, there is a bigger and even more worrying picture for him to contemplate.
Perhaps because of Manchester United’s own travails this season under the unloved Louis van Gaal, Liverpool’s “beating” of United’s unwanted record of going 26 years without winning the league title has barely been commented on. Like United before them, between 1967 and 1993, Liverpool have now gone 26 years without winning the league title. Unless Klopp somehow miraculously rebuilds his side this summer, which will mean doing far more than simply replacing the hapless Alberto Moreno at left-back, Liverpool will not win the title next year, meaning that next season it will be 27 years and counting since they last won the league title.
When Klopp took over at Liverpool, it was said that it was a perfect fit between club and manager: the hard-working, ultra-positive German finding a natural setting at a traditional football giant in Liverpool. However, there is a far more troubling way in which club and manager may be perfect for each other, in that Liverpool, who used to win everything but have now become largely a losing club, are being led by a manager who also used to win things but has now become, perhaps, the true “specialist in failure”.
