Why Liverpool's season has ultimately been nothing more than a heroic failure

Dancing in the street 

As thousands of Liverpool fans took to the streets of the Merseyside city on Sunday to celebrate their team’s achievements over the previous season, it was hard to imagine that just 24 hours beforehand they had watched their team lose the Champions League final.

As red smoke bombs went off and flares were lit, the scene under the Liver Building was one befitting the type of unreserved triumph that the Reds had spent weeks dreaming of.

Only, the outcome was not of such glory. Manchester City’s remarkable rally against Aston Villa on the final day of the Premier League season had denied them the league title – although they were never actually in first place at any point of that dramatic Sunday – while Vinicius Junior’s goal was the difference when they went down 1-0 to Real Madrid in Paris.

Unwanted prizes 

In many ways, their campaign mirrored the disappointment of many supporters who travelled to Stade de France only to discover – at the gate – that they had been sold a counterfeit ticket. They came so far, got so close but the prizes they won were ultimately not what they wanted. 

“We missed out on two trophies at the very end, but at the end of the day we still have two trophies. More than any other English team,” Trent Alexander-Arnold argued.

Ultimately, though, would Liverpool have traded both the EFL Cup and the FA Cup for one Premier League or Champions League? They surely would. What they won in the end were two runners-up prizes in the guise of competitions in which it was overwhelmingly their squad players that were used. 

Even these competitions were not won in glorious manner. The nerve-shredding nature of the EFL Cup shootout against Chelsea will live in the memory for the pure longevity of drama, while the FA Cup showpiece against the same opponents was won in the same manner. Neither game produced a goal or any of the ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ football that manager Jurgen Klopp wants his side to play.

Liverpool won two trophies last season, but they would almost certainly have swapped them for either the Premier League or Champions League

Mentality monsters? 

Similarly, the ‘mentality monsters’ came up short when it came to breaking down Real Madrid’s resistance. Klopp grumped after the game that Thibaut Courtois’ man of the match award proved that his side were the better team, yet the scoreboard suggested differently. 

Madrid’s concentration throughout the encounter was faultless, Liverpool’s was punished when it momentarily lapsed as Dani Carvajal crossed for Vini Jr to convert from close range. Indeed, they were fortunate for a loophole in the offside law to disallow a potential opener for the Spaniards in the first half – one that was befitting of a ‘You Are The Ref’ book. 

BT Sport pundit Michael Owen tried to argue after the game that Liverpool are “the best team in Europe”. They might be more aesthetically pleasing than Manchester City, but the Premier League table shows up the harsh reality that they are not even the best team in the north west of England. 

Fine lines

Part of the beauty of sport is the fine lines that define the winners and losers. Just 10 days ago, Liverpool were still dreaming of a historic quadruple, which would have made them the first English team to achieve the feat. Instead, they are left with just the two most dispensable trophies of the four.    

This has been a season of heroic failure and narrow success for Liverpool, whose failure to achieve immortality should be treated as a disappointment given how close they came to winning all four.

It should also, though, be treated as a source of motivation to go two better next season, when they can again challenge the domestic dominance of City and the European mastery of Madrid. We go again, as they say.