Jurgen Klopp’s last working day in Liverpool ends with a victory but it still feels like nobody really wants to let go, writes IAN LADYMAN

He sat on the bench in the shade of the main stand and chewed on his bottom lip as the music played. Under the black cap his eyes were full. Not quite a tear, but close enough. Jürgen Klopp’s last day at Liverpool had arrived.

On the other side – where people had been holding programs to their foreheads to protect themselves from the sun – supporters held up squares of white cardboard to form one simple word. Jurgen. It was one of the few things on this day that was underappreciated.

Once the tension of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” had subsided, a football match would break out. That never really happened, but would it ever really happen?

Wolves were down one man when Nelson Semedo was sent off midway through the first half and by the time we reached the break they were also two goals down, Alexis MacAllister and Jarell Quansah being the scorers.

Klopp, for his part, sat quietly under the brim of that cap and let it all wash over him. Usually so full of energy that he cannot help but stand agitated at the outer limits of his technical area, here he spent the entire afternoon sitting.

When Liverpool’s goals came in, he just smiled. Every now and then he put his fist on his chest. One day he can make that a trademark. He looked for all the world like a man who was watching the last nine years of his working life pass him by at a rapid pace.

And if it felt that way, it would be completely understandable. For there on the green acres of Anfield was so much of what we have come to expect from its teams.

Football was played on the front foot and was dictated as much by instinct as something out of a coaching manual. The central figures of the recent glorious past were here. Van Dijk, Sala, Alisson and Robertson. The promise of a bright future also in Mac Allister, Quansah and Elliott.

And then the other things. A right back – Trent Alexander-Arnold – spent most of his afternoon in the center of midfield. A striker – Cody Gakpo – with a license to play across the entire width of the field.

“This doesn’t feel like the end,” Klopp said later as he addressed the crowd.

‘It feels like the beginning of a team full of youth and creativity.’

Of all the things we’ve loved about Klopp’s football over the years, it’s perhaps its ruthless freedom that has captivated us most.

Liverpool didn’t have to reach fever pitch here. For those moments of peak Klopp we will have to close our eyes and think back to the dismantling of teams like Barcelona, ​​​​Borussia Dortmund and even Manchester City. It’s not difficult. Those of us who were here on those nights of searing sporting intensity will never forget what it felt like.

In reality, this one didn’t feel like a Premier League football match at all. The sun shone from a blue sky of impossible wealth, while Wolves offered modest resistance.

There was a time not so long ago when Liverpool would have hoped to send Klopp off with a second Premier League title. A dreadful fortnight in April saw to that, leaving the 2020 Premier League champions with what turned out to be the fondest and, in its own way, softest farewell they could think of.

Liverpool played well enough. A win was fitting. They were dominant from the very start, even when Wolves were in the match, until they were canceled out by VAR in the 28th minute.

It is the Black Country club who have asked their fellow Premier League residents to vote on a motion to abolish the ratings system. Here, however, they could have few complaints. Referee Chris Kavanagh showed Semedo a yellow card for his challenge on MacAllister, but changed it to red when the VAR footage showed the challenge was terribly high and late.

Six minutes later Liverpool took the lead. The home side worked the ball from left to right across the pitch and when Elliott checked back to make the left-footed cross, MacAllister rose in front of Santiago Bueno and headed powerfully and accurately into the corner.

The goal briefly freed Liverpool and six minutes after the opening goal the match was sealed. Salah applied decent contact to a falling ball on the volley and when the shot was only half-blocked, young centre-back Quansah was on hand to force the ball home.

Liverpool threatened sporadically during the second half and Salah in particular seemed desperate to score. Will this also prove to be the Egyptian’s last game in a Liverpool shirt? The word from Liverpool is that this won’t be the case, but Salah only has a year left on his contract so we’ll see.

He played well, Salah. He was persistently dangerous on the right and got one curled shot into the Kop from Jose Sa. Luis Diaz, meanwhile, hit the underside of the crossbar from close range.

However, this was not a day that had much to do with the outcome. The music before kick-off had referred to Klopp. ‘There Goes My Hero’ by the Foo Fighters. ‘Heroes’ by David Bowie.

And as the second half progressed and Klopp used his full complement of substitutes, what was particularly striking was the embrace with young Elliott as he left the pitch.

Klopp is a tall man and Elliott had to reach out to hug him. As he did so, the 21-year-old looked all around the world as if he didn’t really want to let go. And that, in short, is how half of this football city feels. No one really wants to let go.

The mural on the side of the store, just along the back of the Kop, perhaps says it best. ‘Jurgen reminded us who we have always been’. From a purely sporting point of view, they will mourn Klopp’s death here for a while. Once that fades, they will simply never forget him.