When discussing Liverpool and their failures, real and imagined, it is easy to ignore how far they have fallen.
There is something in the nature of the club that ensures they forget the mediocrity, even if it means crushing lows are even more prevalent than exhilarating highs.
On Sunday, Liverpool have a chance to finish in the top four for only the second time since 2009. In 2014, driven by Luis Suarez, the club made an unexpected title challenge but the rest of the time they have achieved a certain type of consistency, remaining steady in 7th place, if occasionally touching the giddy heights of 6th before slumping to 8th.
This has become their reality for such a significant period of time that it can no longer be described as an aberration, but the drudgery that has become their life. You are what you do and while Liverpool may believe they deserve more, they are the civil servant with the half-finished novel in their desk drawer who insists he is a writer. There is always a title challenge round the corner, but Peter Cook’s reply when someone would tell them they were working on a novel sums it up. “Neither am I,” he would say.
So Liverpool dream of the title challenge and when it falls apart, it can seem like a brutal and callous destruction of their dreams rather than a simple reacquaintance with the real world.
Sometimes this can be forgotten because of the spectacular way in which they embrace success, or even the possibility of success. The images as Dortmund or Villarreal arrived at Anfield last season or the manner in which the scene was set during those defining games in 2014 offer a reminder of all that has been lost, and how much the club’s supporters think is still possible.
Liverpool can be mocked for this baroque embrace of their past, this determination to find a link between the time of Bill Shankly and the modern era when no link exists. Without it, however, they would have to come to terms with reality in a way which would make the whole thing pointless.
Instead, they have little option but to dream and despite the frustrations of the second half of this season, Jurgen Klopp has taken them in the right direction, even if since January they have returned to drudgery.
After 19 games this season, Liverpool had 43 points, the most they ever had at that stage in the Premier League era. Despite the 13-match winning run of Chelsea, they were beginning to feel that this could be their year, a feeling that should always be understood to actually be a sign of impending doom.
Their failure to beat Sunderland in their 20th game should have been the warning of dangers to come, while the loss of Sadio Mane and the consequences of taking domestic cups more seriously than they should drained them of all energy in January.
If they beat Middlesbrough, they will have taken 33 points in the second half of the season, which shows how tricky things have been. In a season which has been defined by a gap between the top teams and the rest (44 points separate Chelsea from 8th position. Last year that was the distance between first and the relegation zone), Liverpool have done their bit for equality by struggling against the lower ranked teams.
This is a failure in keeping with the traditions of the club since 1990. While there may be reasons that it troubles a Klopp side in particular, for 25 years Liverpool have struggled in this fashion. It is a characteristic of teams who aspire to a stature they can’t sustain. In the 1980s, Manchester United often beat Liverpool before failing in a similar way. “United usually beat Liverpool these days,” a reporter once said to Ronnie Whelan. “United don’t usually win the league these days,” Whelan replied.
Klopp, despite all this, is making progress. With a wage bill that is now the third-highest in the league, Liverpool should expect to finish in the top four, but the weight of expectation and the haphazard nature of their recruitment can count against them.
Klopp has made mistakes, primarily the failure to stop the errors at the back which can make Liverpool defending a corner as hazardous and alarming as Donald Trump reaching for his phone to send out a tweet.
At times, it is also as amusing. Those who complain that Klopp should spend less time cheerleading on the sideline and more organising have a low opinion of his – or anyone’s – ability to multitask.
It can serve a purpose but more is needed. Liverpool are promising to spend again this summer. They may find it possible to attract better players if they are in the Champions League, but it may be that these days the best thing about finishing fourth is that it means a club isn’t finishing fifth.
A season in the Europa League doesn’t help when trying to challenge for the title and avoiding that should be the goal for Liverpool.
English clubs’ failure in the Champions League and their increased domestic TV revenue has turned a top four finish into a lesser prize. There was a time when the top four sides would be competing in Europe, but those times are a memory now, along with Liverpool’s semi-permanent place in the top four.
The promise displayed in the first half of the season is the best indication that Klopp can make Liverpool a side of substance. These signs shouldn’t be forgotten whatever happens at Anfield on Sunday. Given their recent past, Klopp will not be taking Liverpool back to where they belong. His ambitions are much bigger than that. They involve altering the club’s permanent reality, not falling back on dreams hidden away in a drawer.
