Liverpool mockers after Newcastle loss are missing the real truth about Anfield era

Gauging the temperature from social media is rarely advisable, but the fallout from a difficult week at Liverpool has been disproportionate. Supporters of rival clubs, as you might expect, have been triumphant in their gloating, with even those in as dire straits as Manchester United keen to take a cheap shot or two on the back of successive defeats for the Reds.

Followers of Arsenal have got in on the act, too, despite their team behind 12 points behind in the title race and the fact it was Newcastle United who beat them handsomely over two legs to set up a Carabao Cup final with Arne Slot's side in the first place.

That sort of reductive banality, however, is to be expected in the tribal world of online fandom. It's par for the course and best left ignored.

Perhaps where Liverpool might not have expected to find the boot being stuck in, though, was in certain sections of the wider media, who posted of an apparent quadruple falling by the wayside.

The 'quadruple' of course is the quartet of the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup. If these are the standards, then quadruples have also gone unclaimed in every other season of professional football and only once this century, in fact, has an English team won three of those in the same season, which was Manchester City two years ago.

The mirage of a quadruple, which officially came to end this term with defeat to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup last month, was a very real ambition for Liverpool three years ago.

Back then, they went all the way to the final seconds of the Premier League season in late May before seeing Manchester City beat Aston Villa to deny Jurgen Klopp's side a domestic treble, having already lifted both cups. Six days later they were beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League final, meaning they 'only' ended the term with both the FA Cup and League Cup.

One needs to only look at the way Newcastle rightly - and deservedly - celebrated their own success on Sunday to see what it can mean to lift silverware, particularly when a domestic drought has extended seven decades.

It's why Liverpool winning the League Cup 13 months ago, or the domestic cup double of 2022, should never be sneered at as somehow less-than. That's not how it works, regardless of a club's size and there is no divine right for trophies.

The manner of the defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle last week in the Champions League last-16 and Carabao Cup final were contrasting but equally frustrating for Slot, who was experiencing his first real meaningful losses of the campaign in March.

It leaves the Reds chasing 'only' the Premier League title in the final two months of the season but with a handsome advantage over Arsenal, and with a maximum of 16 points needed from an available 27, few are of the belief that the title is heading anywhere other than Anfield right now.

Thoughts of a league and cup double had understandably formed part of the chatter in the build up to Sunday's showpiece at Wembley but fans simply had not countenanced any sort of quadruple or even treble given how much had still to be played before exits at the hands of Plymouth and PSG.

So the search to apparently devalue Liverpool's potential achievement is curious, even in a world where uninformed rage baiting has the desired effect and the volume of the discourse is set to loud belligerence.

“The thing is you can't control what anyone says," Virgil van Dijk wisely reflected last week. "I think someone told me as well that people are saying that we're 'only going just for the league' or something, that's what I've heard.

"These things, you can't stop it. It's part of being a football player, having so many platforms nowadays that people can say whatever they want. You just have to shut down a little bit, focus on the task ahead as a team and try to win."

For those whose status within the squad is long-serving, then the opportunity for a second championship is nothing less than what is deserved. Players like Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah; or Alisson Becker, Andy Robertson and Joe Gomez, those who, had it not been for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City juggernaut, would have seen their 97 and 92-point campaigns rewarded with the biggest prize in English football.

In another world, Klopp could easily have left Anfield as a three-time Premier League winner but believing those aforementioned players have somehow underachieved on the honours list does them all a disservice.

Sixteen more points before May 25 will see Liverpool have secured two Premier Leagues, two League Cups, the Champions League, FA Cup and a first-ever Club World Cup in six years. Throw in a Community Shield to boot for another great day out for those travelled. After all, as Newcastle fans will attest, that is what it is all about.

League title No.20 gives those players the additional sheen their efforts are fully worthy of and, as eras go, it would undoubtedly make it a golden one for modern times, whatever gets said online.

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