Liverpool have set plenty of enviable records throughout Jurgen Klopp’s seven-and-a-half years at the club, but tonight they could add an unwanted one to the list.
Since beating Manchester United 7-0 in early March, the Reds have failed to win any of their five subsequent games, losing three of those.
As highlighted by Keifer MacDonald in the Liverpool Echo this morning, the Merseysiders have never gone more than five matches without winning during the German’s reign, a feat which is at risk of ending if they don’t claim all three points against Leeds at Elland Road later.
READ MORE: Fabrizio Romano: Liverpool target ‘will 100% leave’ current club; ticks big Klopp box
READ MORE: Liverpool-linked speedster has annoyed current club over recent remarks – report
Klopp has endured lengthy winless sequences before, once going 16 games without victory during his time in charge of Mainz and having a couple of seven-match famines as Dortmund manager (Daily Mail).
He’s had lean spells with Liverpool also, including a five-game bracket in the 2020/21 Premier League which yielded three draws, two defeats and only one goal. Coincidentally, that also came straight after a 7-0 victory (away to Crystal Palace).
The end of that run overlapped with the start of a curious sequence of six consecutive top-flight defeats at Anfield, where the Reds hadn’t lost a league match in nearly four years until Ashley Barnes’ decisive goal for Burnley.
Since that freakish spell, we’ve only been beaten once at home in the top flight, although that was against tonight’s opponents earlier this season.
Klopp did go five games without a win in all competitions for Liverpool before, when a fallow period in early 2017 saw us crash out of two cups in four days and lose to Swansea and Hull in the Premier League.
However, if you’re looking for a good omen, the run ended with victory over a team in white (Tottenham), after which we won eight of our subsequent 13 games to clinch fourth place on the final day of the season and return to the Champions League.
We only have nine matches remaining to salvage a top-four berth this time around, but hopefully we can pull off a repeat of our previous trip to Elland Road (a 3-0 win in September 2021) and avoid one unwanted first under our current manager.