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Jurgen Klopp falls short in best chance to win first trophy at Liverpool
Liverpool were into the League Cup semifinals and drew Southampton. Now the Saints are a solid team, but they're hardly dominant. There's a reason Southampton are 11th in the Premier League table, seven places behind the Reds. And trailing 1-0 after the first leg, all they had to do was take care of business at home to book their trip to Wembley.
Instead, they lost 1-0 at Anfield and Jurgen Klopp's best chance of winning his first trophy with Liverpool slipped away.
Amazingly, it was Liverpool's attack that let them down against Southampton. They failed to score a single goal over two legs. This the same Liverpool that has scored more goals than any other team in the Premier League and had scored multiple goals in every League Cup match to reach the semifinals. A team that started Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino, Adam Lallana and Daniel Sturridge. They couldn't score a single goal.
Liverpool weren't just unlucky going forward either. They had chances and undoubtedly could have scored, but it's not like they created amazing opportunities. Many of their chances were from distance -- Coutinho still hasn't found a long range shot he doesn't like -- or coming from poor angles or with several defenders in position to block any attempt. Their attack betrayed them.
The attack's problems bookended a shock 3-2 loss to lowly Swansea in the league, where their suspect defense reared its ugly head. The defense breaking down is to be expected, but the attack completely misfiring is a tough pill for Klopp and Co. to swallow.
Now Liverpool look at the league table only to see they've recently dropped two spots and find themselves 10 points off the pace. Any dreams of winning the title are slipping away, with a top four fight now their priority. Meanwhile, they have a long ways to go in the FA Cup, which is only in the fourth round and no European competition.
So where is Liverpool's trophy going to come from? It should have been the League Cup.
Making things all the more difficult to swallow is Liverpool made two finals a year ago, but came up short in both the League Cup and Europa League. Klopp has been tantalizingly close to adding his first trophy to Liverpool's trophy case, but has yet to do it. And for all the talk about how much better Klopp has made Liverpool -- and he absolutely has -- the degree to which he is successful will be determined by silverware.
The League Cup won't be that silverware. And Liverpool can't really even take their time to lick their wounds either. They have to get back into the FA Cup this weekend, followed by continued fixture congestion across two competitions for the next couple weeks. And they do this as winners of just one of seven in January.
It wasn't so long ago that we were asking just how special this Liverpool team is. January has sure left a mark on them and now they don't have a final to mask it either as Klopp's pursuit continues.
