Liverpool // Five weeks ago, Jurgen Klopp saw Anfield empty as Liverpool chased for an equaliser.
He complained. No, he insisted, about the departing supporters, but that his team had not given the doubters reason to stay.
Such was the bond between Borussia Dortmund and their supporters that the Westfalenstadion remained packed until the end in his reign.
This was what Klopp had come to expect.
On Sunday, Liverpool rewarded those who remained and ended up celebrating, Dortmund-style with hands held to make a chain, in front of the Kop.
This was about more than a deflected 95th-minute equaliser against a West Bromwich Albion side they ought to expect to beat. “It was only one point but it felt like three,” Klopp said.
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Much of his management is about a shared sense of belief. It was all the greater after Divock Origi’s late effort nestled in the West Brom net.
Klopp went berserk on the touchline.
Liverpool had exerted relentless pressure, threatening a winner after Origi’s effort took its telling touch off Gareth McAuley.
Liverpool believed.
This ended up as the antithesis of that defeat to Crystal Palace, the day Klopp was demoralised by the sight of empty seats.
Yet, for large periods, it seemed similar.
Klopp’s lone Anfield loss came when Scott Dann scored after a corner.
A new manager has encountered the same old problems at a club with noted frailties.
Combine Tony Pulis, a coach with a longstanding focus on set-pieces, with Chris Brunt, a dead-ball specialist, and West Brom possess a threat.
Factor in Simon Mignolet’s enduring troubles against the aerial ball and Liverpool’s lack of a commanding centre-back and there was a gruesome inevitability about West Brom’s two goals.
While Jordan Henderson, who scored on his first home start in almost four months, seems a cornerstone of his Klopp’s embryonic side, Mignolet appears another.
Strangely, the Belgian is being offered a new contract.
Yet his errors have been recurring themes.
While Klopp shouldered responsibility, claiming Mignolet was only following orders to leave his line, he not only failed in his attempt to catch Brunt’s corner, but prevented Liverpool’s best header, Christian Benteke, from clearing it.
After a bout of pinball between the goalkeeper and Salomon Rondon, Craig Dawson swept in an equaliser.
West Brom celebrated Craig Dawson and cursed Craig Pawson who, reaching the right decision by the wrong methods, then chalked off a Jonas Olsson goal.
The Swede nevertheless struck, escaping Martin Skrtel – whose lax marking is another reason for Liverpool’s set-piece troubles – to glance in Brunt’s corner.
Relations soured, in the technical areas and on the pitch. Klopp celebrated the late leveller enthusiastically in front of Pulis.
The atmosphere had turned febrile after Craig Gardner ploughed into Dejan Lovren, studs planted into the Croatian’s shin.
The West Brom midfielder could have been sent off. Instead, he was not even booked.
The Liverpool centre-back was stretchered off, illustrating why Klopp requires defensive and goalkeeping reinforcements.
At least his midfield has been bolstered. Henderson’s energy, enthusiasm and willingness to buy into a manager’s ethos seemed to render him a fine fit for a Klopp team.
The double act of captain and manager was delayed by heel and metatarsal injuries.
The captain swept in the opener after Philippe Coutinho’s diagonal ball was headed down by Adam Lallana.
He has seemed transformed by Klopp and his greater physicality was apparent when he leapt to win a header.
Yet so, more importantly, has been Liverpool’s mentality. The new sense of optimism, of urgency, of conviction, was evident at the end.
After the shift in attitude comes a harder task: making Liverpool defend set-pieces better.
After spirit, they need solidity.
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