Klopp at Liverpool, Season 3: The Egyptian King, rollercoaster ride to Kyiv and £75m game-changer

It was a telltale sign of how game-changing Van Dijk’s arrival would be that, in Liverpool’s first 23 Premier League games of the season before his top-flight debut for the club, they shipped 28 goals. In the subsequent 15 matches, they conceded just 10 times.

The Reds showed how far they’d already progressed under Klopp when they welcomed Man City to Anfield in January, ripping apart the hitherto unbeaten champions-elect in a 4-3 thriller which flattered Pep Guardiola’s side, who scored the final two goals of a pulasting clash.

There was a brief stutter at the end of the month but LFC were back in the groove by the time their Champions League campaign resumed in February. Porto away looked an intimidating round of 16 clash, but the orange-clad Reds made a mockery of that billing by destroying the home side 5-0 in Portugal. The second leg on Merseyside was, to put it mildly, a formality.

Salah’s finest individual performance of the season saw him score four times in a 5-0 demolition of Watford in mid-March, and Liverpool as a whole were irresistible as they took Man City apart in the Champions League quarter-finals at Anfield, racing into a 3-0 lead inside half an hour. A 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium secured a passage to the last four.

With so much attention trained on the European adventure, Klopp’s team took their eye off the ball domestically, as dropped points against West Brom, Stoke and Chelsea gave the latter an edge in the chase for fourth.

Thankfully, the Blues blew it at home to Huddersfield in the final week of the season, and LFC hammered Brighton 4-0 on the final day to cement a repeat of the previous campaign’s finishing position with ease.

After 80 minutes of the Champions League semi-final first leg, Liverpool led Roma 5-0 and were as good as in the final, only for two late goals to give the Giallorossi a lifeline for the return in Italy.

The Reds were 2-1 up in the first half and appeared to be cruising once more, but ended up 4-2 behind and clinging on to avoid being taken into extra time. It was harder than it should’ve been, but Klopp’s side made it to a second European final in three years, this time in the biggest tournament of the lot.

Just as in 2016, a team from Spain stood in the way of LFC in a continental decider. Real Madrid were going for a third successive Champions League triumph, but Liverpool had no reason to fear anyone with the swashbuckling trio of Salah, Firmino and Mane scoring 91 goals between them throughout the season.

The Reds travelled to Kyiv in confidence of winning a sixth European Cup, but Lady Luck deserted them on the night. The Egyptian King was subjected to a brutal hatchet job by Sergio Ramos – who somehow got away without punishment – and had to be substituted in tears after half an hour.

It remained goalless at half-time, but then came the worst 45 minutes of Loris Karius’ life. It still boggles the mind how he conceded the opener to Karim Benzema when trying to roll the ball out, and once he fumbled a Gareth Bale strike from distance into his own net to make it 3-1 in the 83rd minute, the game was up.

It was a night when nothing went right for Liverpool, but although the manner of the defeat was incredibly hard to take, their mere presence in the Champions League final reflected how far they’d progressed under Klopp in less than three years.

From 10th in England at the time of his arrival to 90 minutes short of becoming champions of Europe, the improvement under the German was staggering. The wait for silverware went on, but considering the trajectory of this team, it surely wouldn’t be much longer before they finally got over the line…