Jurgen Klopp was supposed to take Liverpool Football Club into a new era and break new boundaries, but not in this fashion. Losing on penalties in a cup final for the first time -- this was the sixth time a Liverpool team had gone to a shootout -- was an unwelcome new emotion for their supporters.
Klopp described his own feelings after losing as "s---" before downgrading them later to "rubbish". He had been unable to break a personal sequence of sinking spirits, with Wembley making it four final losses in a row; last May he signed off from Borussia Dortmund by losing the German Cup decider to Wolsburg.