Jurgen Klopp facing brutal truth if he loses SEVENTH straight final

Liverpool are back in the Champions League Final after losing it to Real Madrid a year ago [Courtesy]

Amidst the understandable love-in for Jurgen Klopp, his wonderful team, his vibrant brand of play, his captivating charisma, his alarmingly sensible views on Brexit, his hugs, his passion, his swearing, his teeth, there is a fundamental footballing truth.

Lose in Madrid and another season in charge of Liverpool will have come to nought.

Lose in Madrid and it will be seven defeats in his last seven finals.

To lose one is careless, two is unfortunate, but seven?

Getting his teams to those winner-takes-all contests is a serious achievement, of course. But the brutal fact is that Klopp keeps finding a way to lose them.

And that is why, as we savour the prospect of Saturday’s Champions League showpiece in Madrid, the pressure is loaded onto only one manager.

Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino, similarly loved even though he has won nothing as a manager, has not spent a dime on new signings in the last two transfer windows.

His squad is plainly inferior to Klopp’s.

Try one of those Combined XI selection games and it is hard to make a case for too many Spurs players. Christian Eriksen, probably. One of the centre-halves, perhaps. Harry Kane, surely? But it would be hard to break up Liverpool’s front three.

His four seasons have brought a string of memorable nights but no silverware yet [Courtesy]

Bookmakers have Liverpool as just a shade of odds-on for the final. That seems unusually generous after they finished 26 points ahead of Spurs in the Premier League.

But maybe the bookies realise the pressure Klopp is under.

He has had the thick end of the 2015-16 season and three subsequent campaigns with Liverpool and has won nothing. In that time, Chelsea have now lifted three major trophies, Manchester United also have three and Manchester City six.

The total of 97 points accrued by Liverpool in this season's epic title battle was remarkable. The comeback against Barcelona was a truly memorable Anfield night. But, harsh as it may seem, we overestimate the place in history for sporting runners-up.

The passage of time normally confirms the adage about first being first and second nowhere.

Ten years down the line, the 2018-19 domestic season will be significant, to most, only for Man City successfully defending their Premier League title and winning a domestic Treble.

The 2018-19 European season will be significant for the English winners of the Champions League. That should be Liverpool, but this is a severe test for Klopp.

Watching his players trudge around the Anfield pitch just over a fortnight ago after confirmation from Brighton of City’s success made you wonder what psychological damage might be sustained by failing to win the Premier League despite losing just one top-flight match all season.

Klopp arrives in Madrid having lost his last six finals with Dortmund and now Liverpool [Courtesy]

And while Klopp might be able to use the experience of losing this same final in Kiev last year, the defeat by Real Madrid is also a painful memory.

Klopp is a fantastic manager for Liverpool Football Club, a beautiful fit who GETS the club, GETS the city, GETS the community, GETS the history, GETS the fans.

And you have to love the way that, while Pochettino does little to dampen speculation that he could be tempted by a move, Klopp describes the idea of him going to Juventus as ‘bull****’.

But, as yet in his three-and-a-half-year Anfield career, he does not GET the trophies.

Winning trophies is not easy and, even if they are turned over by Spurs on Saturday, you would struggle to find a genuine Liverpool supporter who would question Klopp. To a man, woman and child, they want him to create a dynasty.

No wonder.

More than a few times, Klopp — who, we should remember, has two Bundesliga titles to his name — has been mentioned in the same breath as Bill Shankly.

And while Shankly started from a lower base point - Liverpool were in the old Second Division when he took over in 1959 - it was not until 1963-64, that he won the first of his six major trophies. But he did win trophies.

For the thrilling football, he continues to orchestrate and for his character, the Klopp love-in will, quite rightly, continue. But no matter how much he protests, one man will know that trophies - not honourable second-placed pennants - will now, to the wider footballing world, define Klopp’s place in the sport’s history.

And that man is Jurgen Klopp.