Jurgen Klopp Can Validate Liverpool Progress with Europa League Success

Reaching a European final is enough to distinguish the career of any football manager. 

For Jurgen Klopp, Wednesday’s UEFA Europa League final will be the second such occasion he will have experienced. He will savour the moment just as he did with Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, and yet with Liverpool this time around a different tone has been set.

While Klopp’s surge to the UEFA Champions League final with his former club in 2013 was the pinnacle of Dortmund’s development under his control, Liverpool’s clash with Sevilla in Basel, Switzerland, feels like a precursor to what might follow.

The German has his sights set on more than just the Europa League.

That’s not to disregard the competition. There is a certain charm to the Europa League, with the competition particularly stiff this season. But Klopp was appointed to deliver more than just success in a second-tier competition. He is the man anointed to take the Reds back to the top of the domestic and continental game.

Victory over Sevilla in the Europa League final can validate the progress he is making at the club, though. It wouldn’t be enough to define his stewardship of Liverpool, but it would show that for the first time in a while the Reds are on an upward trajectory. If that peak can be scaled, even loftier heights will be next.

It’s in the Europa League where the Merseyside club have made their biggest statement of intent under Klopp so far.

The semi-final win over Villarreal at Anfield was the closest the Reds have come to the perfect performance since the appointment of the German. Gegenpressing the Yellow Submarine below the water line from start to finish, Liverpool were irrepressible as they overturned a 1-0 deficit to clinch a comprehensive 3-1 aggregate victory.

A similar display will be needed against Sevilla, who have become the Europa League’s predominant force in recent times. If Unai Emery’s side lift the trophy for a third successive year on Wednesday, UEFA might as well allow them to melt it down …

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