Whatever happens in the match between West Ham and Liverpool tonight, Reds supporters will likely be glad of one thing once the final whistle has blown.
Jurgen Klopp’s side will be in their change kit for the visit to the London Stadium, with the Premier League’s official Facebook page confirming the Merseysiders will be in their white-but-not-really-white apparel rather than the pine green third strip.
The kit elicited a largely critical reaction from Kopites online when it was released last summer (Extra.ie), and the team’s results in those colours (whatever colours those soundwave patterns are meant to be) certainly haven’t added any appeal to it.
It debuted in the 4-0 drubbing by Manchester United in pre-season action in July and, in the five Premier League matches in which it has featured so far, Liverpool have picked up just a single point.
That came in a drab goalless draw at Crystal Palace in February, with the strip also being worn in defeats to the Red Devils, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.
Tonight’s trip to West Ham offers it one last chance for a semblance of redemption, but even a win at the London Stadium is unlikely to see it being recalled with any fondness by the majority of Reds supporters.
Thankfully, this game will mark the final time it’ll be adorned by Klopp’s team, with no need for it in the final six matches of this season.
Four of those will be at home, while the two remaining away matches are at Leicester (where we’ll surely stick with our traditional red kit) and Southampton, whose white and red colours will necessitate the use of our green third strip.
Liverpool haven’t kept a shirt for more than one campaign since the most recent Adidas home kit, which was worn in 2010/11 and 2011/12, so we can probably take it as read that tonight will be the last outing for the worst thing Nike has inflicted upon us in their three years so far as our supplier.
Regardless of the result against West Ham, at least we can be thankful that we won’t see this luckless monstrosity of a strip any more once the game is done.