Do you love the English Premier League? Are you a fan of one of the clubs that made history so many times that everyone knows how legendary they are? Does the nickname “the Reds” sound familiar to you? Or, maybe, you’ve heard of the song called “You’ll Never Walk Alone”?
That’s right. I’m here to tell you about Liverpool FC, the club that won the Champions League numerous times. The team that lifted the Super Cup trophy as many as three times. One of the football clubs with players who became the best individuals in the history of this sport, many of which went on to become great coaches, too.
Where It All Began
Liverpool came into existence in the late 19th century, i. e. in 1892. The Reds pushed its town rivals, Everton, to Goodison Park, after which Anfield became their official stadium.
In its earliest days, Liverpool’s squad featured players from Scotland picked by their manager, John McKenna. Not long after the foundation, the Reds won their first league trophy in 1901 and did it again in 1906, with Tom Watson as a manager.
Under his management, Liverpool also reached the FA Cup finals in 1914 but lost to Burnley by 1:0. Several years later, the Reds took the Championship League trophy two times in a row (1922 and 1923).
It was more than twenty years before Liverpool won another league title. In 1947, George Kay led the Reds to another domestic league trophy. During the following decade, the team from Merseyside played one Cup final but was defeated by Arsenal.
It got even worse for this club as they got relegated to the Second Division in 1954. Keeping their heads up, the Liverpudlians did a great job getting back on the right track at the end of the 1950s.
Returning to the First Division and Achieving Success
The good results came soon after. In other words, Liverpool returned to the First Division in 1962. Two years later, the Reds put another trophy on their shelf as they won this domestic competition.
The age of success continued for the Liverpudlians, as they won their first FA Cup trophy in 1965. The Reds went on to lift another First Division trophy in 1966. They also played in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final but were beaten by Borussia Dortmund.
In the 1970s, Bill Shankly’s great guidance yielded even more success. The club won the domestic league and the UEFA Cup in 1973. The Reds also added one more FA Cup trophy to their title collection in 1974.
Shankly was succeeded by Paisley as the official Liverpool manager a year after. During his management, Liverpool won as many as 20 different trophies.
It won another domestic League title and the Cup double in 1976 and continued its streak in 1977 by winning the League title and the European Cup for the first time. Even more, the Reds won yet another European Cup title in 1978 as well as an additional League title in 1979.
The Period Before, During, and After the Two Disasters
With the new manager, Joe Fagan, Liverpool won three titles in one season in 1983. The year 1985 was when the Reds got to the European Cup finals and faced Juventus. Before the beginning of the event, Liverpool’s fans crossed the fence separating them from Juventus’ fans and started running towards them.
The retaining wall fell down due to enormous pressure, and 39 fans were killed. This incident was later recorded as the Heysel Stadium disaster. This whole thing resulted in Liverpool’s ten-year ban from playing in European competitions, which was later reduced to six years.
All the other English clubs were also banned from playing in these contests for five years. Aside from this disaster, the Liverpudlians gained much success in those years. Kenny Dalglish was in charge of managing the Reds when they won two FA Cups and three titles in the domestic league.
In 1989, Liverpool had the same number of points as Arsenal at the end of the League season. The whole story behind Liverpool’s success in those years seemed shady due to another huge disaster.
I’m talking about one of the biggest sports incidents in the history of Great Britain. It happened during the semi-final FA Cup match between Liverpool and Sheffield. The official police officer commander allowed large crowds to enter the stadium using exit gate C.
This ended in the pens’ collapse and many fatal injuries and immediate deaths. Dalglish resigned from his manager position soon after the incident. The club appointed Graeme Souness instead. He led the Reds to the FA Cup title in 1992.
In 1995, Liverpool won the Football League Cup under Roy Evans’ coaching. Another remarkable success that the Reds achieved was in 2001. Liverpool won three major titles, which are UEFA Cup, League Cup, and the FA Cup.
The Rafael Benitez Era
Benitez arrived in Liverpool in 2004. Not many months later, Liverpool had an outstanding performance that resulted in winning one of the greatest trophies in the history of this club, that is, the Champions League trophy.
The whole CL 2004/2005 was amazing, with the unbelievable final game where the Reds beat AC Milan after the penalties. Afterwards, Liverpool contested CSKA Moscow in the Super Cup and won by 3:1.
The following season, the Liverpudlians once again showed their true potential and reached the Champions League finals once again. It was a rematch that they played with Milan.
Only this time, they didn’t beat their old rivals but gave in and lost by 2:1. In the years that followed, Liverpool’s biggest success was reaching the Champions League semi-finals in 2008 and 2010.
In the meantime, the Reds also had a CL quarter-final match in the CL they couldn’t win in 2009. As much as they were successful in the Champions League at that time, their Premier League performance wasn’t very good.
The Period of Lower Form
After Rafael Benitez left, Liverpool brought in Roy Hodgson, whom the Reds’ ex-manager, Kenny Dalglish, quickly replaced. The Liverpudlians were part of the Europa League competition in 2011. But they only got to the round of 16.
The Reds were the trophy-holders in the League Cup in 2012 and partakers in the Europa League in 2013, where they couldn’t go further than the round of 32.
They ranked second at the end of the Premier League season in 2014 and played in the group stage of the Champions League. Unfortunately, the club from Merseyside didn’t make it past the early stage and went to the Europa League competition. Not going too far, the Reds lost the round of 32 match.
Jurgen Klopp and Great Results
After Klopp showed up, things began to look up for Liverpool. First, the Reds had a few massive wins on the way to the Europa League finals in 2016. They didn’t win the trophy, but they surely won the sympathy of their fans after so much time.
The Liverpudlians also took fourth place in the 2016/2017 Premier League season. This meant that they also played in the Champions League in season 2017/2018.
During that CL season, Liverpool knocked out clubs like Manchester City and had a spectacular comeback against Barcelona, which they eliminated after compensating for the three-goal deficit. Still, the Reds lost to Real Madrid in the finals.
Just one season later, Liverpool took another trophy in one of the most prestigious football club tournaments in the world, the Champions League. The Reds beat Tottenham by 2:0. The same year, the Liverpudlians won the Super Cup after getting better of Chelsea on penalties.
In late December 2019, Liverpool won the Club World Cup after triumphing over Monterrey and Flamengo. One of the most successful moments during this era for the Reds was also winning the Premier League title in 2021.
In addition, the Merseyside club took part in the 2021/2022 Champions League season and played in the finals. Real Madrid was just slightly better than them (1:0). The same team won over the Reds in the Champions League round of 16 in 2023.
What’s to Come?
Currently, Liverpool is preparing for the 2023/24 season. As far as the transfers go, the Reds have two new players, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai. There are, of course, some rumours regarding the newcomers to this club, too.
One of them is that Barcelona’s talent, Malcolm, could join the Liverpudlians. Another speculation is that Marcos Llorente may also come to Anfield. Many news agencies also report that Liverpool supposedly made bids for Levi Colwill, who currently plays for Chelsea.
With Klopp still being the manager, the Reds aim to bring back the old glory to Anfield. The German coach said himself a couple of times before in several interviews that his main goal was to forget about the past, fit the new players in the squad, and focus on new events.
