Klopp: This is easily the most special trophy of my career

A reflective Jurgen Klopp has described Liverpool’s thrilling 1-0 win over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final as the most special trophy in his career.

Liverpool arrived at Wembley Stadlum with a patched-up squad already missing quite a few first team regulars and with  the confirmation that Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez would take no part in the showcase final it was an added blow.

But if we know anything about this Liverpool team under the German, it is that they thrive on adversity, if someone is missing, another player steps up to the mark and play their role with aplomb.

This was taken to extreme levels in the closing 20 minutes of regular time when youth players Bobby Clark, Jayden Danns and James McConnell were all brought on with their senior teammates literally running themselves into the ground.

The trio made they boyhood dreams a reality as they stepped out onto the hallowed turf in front of close to 90,000 people watching their every move and many millions more watching on from home, let alone coming up against players with much more experience and reputation.  However to their great credit, they did not take a backward step and the experience would be worth its weight in gold for their development.

Klopp has seen many things in his decades long tenure in the game, but even he was at a loss to explain what he had just witnessed as the Echo reported.

“Come on, what we see here today is so exceptional.

“We might never see it again. Not because I’m on the sidelines but because these things don’t happen in football. I got told there’s an English phrase you don’t win trophies with kids. I didn’t know that. Yeah…

“In more than 20 years it is easily the most special trophy I have ever won. It is absolutely exceptional. Sometimes people ask me if I’m proud of things and it’s really tricky, I wish I could feel pride more often. But tonight is an overwhelming feeling... Oh my god, what’s going on?

"I was proud of everyone involved in everything here, I was proud of our people for the way they pushed us, I was proud of the staff for creating this kind of atmosphere surrounding where these boys can just do what they are best at. I was proud of our Academy, I was proud of my coaches, I was proud of so many things. It was completely overwhelming.”

The unique factor of the academy kids playing their role in the Cup final really struck a chord with the German.

“Seeing the faces after the game of the kids, Jayden Danns... Can you create in football stories which definitely nobody will ever forget? It’s so difficult because this happened before, this happened before... this tonight, if you find the same story with Academy players coming on against a top, top side and still winning it, I’ve never heard of it.”

Mauricio Pochettino created headlines and raised plenty of eyebrows with his pre-match comments imploring officials not to fall for the narrative of Jurgen Klopp leaving Liverpool.

Anyone that watched this game would have said that the Argentinian had nothing to worry about on that front, and Klopp did not mince his words about what he thought about Chris Kavanagh’s performance.

“We had a ref who was not up to the level of the game, that didn’t help one team or the other, it was just ‘what did he see? What is that?’. There was no common sense again, for refs it’s something I’m not sure they teach or ask for it, it’s just not there.”

After such an emotional high, there is not much time to celebrate this phenomenal triumph with a home midweek FA Cup tie against Southampton, and Klopp says he has some thinking to do regarding who exactly plays.

“You see tired players. I have no clue who can play on Wednesday (at home to Southampton in the FA Cup fifth round) because we have players on the pitch until the end of the game who had problems. We asked Harvey and Lucho to stay up front and not go back any more.

“I have no idea who can play on Wednesday but for tonight it is a night I will never forget. If nobody else sees it like that no problem apart from me. It’s a really nice memory forever.”