How Do We Evaluate Liverpool's Season?

As I write this, Manchester United are losing in stoppage time to Crystal Palace, who have scored four but could probably have had another couple of goals for their trouble. For me, the match was excellent viewing while doing a leisurely treadmill run, but it got me thinking about a recent hypothetical from an online friend.

He, a Manchester United supporter, told me that if Manchester United won the FA Cup — which they might well do! The best team doesn’t always win a final! — then his team would have had the better season (on paper and in terms of how history would look back on things) than Liverpool will have done. If we value the silverware in the generally accepted way (the league is bettered only by the European Cup, and the FA Cup is the more prestigious domestic trophy), then Liverpool’s season would perhaps amount to a lot of bluster and a single cup — the “lesser” one. We don’t “celebrate” league positions that aren’t “first,” so, in his view, it would be a matter of FA Cup v League Cup, with his side on top after a season full of noise.

I didn’t buy this argument then, and I definitely don’t now, as a horrid Manchester United side quietly applaud an away end who can’t be happy with much that went on in front of them.

For me, Manchester United got to where they are this season by over-performing in specific matches in the cup and by scraping through a number of league games they maybe didn’t deserve to win. This delightful match is characteristic, rather than an anomaly: Manchester United in 2023/24 are not a cohesive side, and tactically the attack seems disjointed from the defense. There is no “classic” United goal at present, and while Crystal Palace looked fluid — they could make passes under pressure because they knew where to expect teammates — you’d be floored if United could manage the same; despite their possession percentage, it feels like a lot more graft for them.

This is very different to the frustrations that have come with watching Liverpool this season. The Reds also largely overperformed their metrics (though in the way they often do), until suddenly they didn’t. The Reds were flying high, and then this turned to frustration, and that frustration has led to us having to settle for “just” one trophy to crown the end of the Klopp era.

But I would argue that this is a different kind of frustrating. Being frustrating through profligacy in front of goal during a period — and frustrating in performance levels in a two-to-three week span where you feel the physical and mental toll of the side’s injury levels might finally be making themselves apparent — is not quite the same as being largely poor or annoying to watch throughout a season. The Reds have conceded too much this season, certainly, but they were always going to be an imperfect side in the midst of a rebuild even without a large injury list.

I have seen a Liverpool side slump through to a mid-table finish (though when Liverpool’s domestic form struggled in the late 2000s you could at least see them mounting a European campaign), and for me this does not at all compare to the disappointment coming close and falling short brings — even if the “falling short” feels very avoidable and largely self-inflicted.

Liverpool fans and players alike will be disappointed that the side didn’t manage more silverware in Klopp’s final season, though it’s crucial really that this disappointment comes from some serious good work: it only hurts because we got so close — this is what people mean when they trot out the empty “you’d have taken third and a League Cup before the season kicked off; it’s a rebuilding year” chat. That’s true, sure, but I’m not happy with that now.

Of course, Klopp and Liverpool are larger than one season, and we’ve been rightly spoiled under this great man, who is great enough that his era will be remembered for positive changes in the team’s culture and extreme highs on the pitch.

It’s true that Liverpool’s season is a disappointment, but being three or so results off of something great means something, even if in 40 years all we’ll see is a League Cup on the team’s Wikipedia (or whatever we’re using then). I’ve previously joined a chorus of people talking about how collapsing seasons into their end results (generally “silverware or no?”) belies the point of following a football team, which is much more about the experiences game by game.

The Reds have given us quite a few good experiences on days and nights out around the matches this season; there was a real sense of belief in April, even if that belief turned to dust. It will not always be this way.

It’s hard to evaluate a season that’s both better than expected and suddenly worse than we anticipate, all while we figure out how to cope with saying goodbye to one of the best ever Liverpool managers.

But I know I wouldn’t trade a second of this season for Manchester United’s long series of embarrassments, even if they were to win the FA Cup. We feel saddened and disappointed and angry and frustrated that they fell short when they looked in the driver’s seat to a fairytale ending, but these feelings can’t 100% overwrite the highs that got us here.

Anyway, I wouldn’t worry about United winning the FA Cup; I might put a bet on them conceding seven.