Chin up, arne. Jurgen Klopp turned out not to be too bad.
Arne Slot has lost his first major final as Liverpool Manager-Hun 2-1 defeat against Newcastle United at Wembley, a disappointing problems in something else was an excellent debut season for the successor to Jurgen Klopp.
Nevertheless, Liverpool has a comfortable 12-point lead on pursuers Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table when approaching the last run-in. They have a huge opportunity to ensure that the final loss of their League Cup is quickly forgotten.
Slot would not be the first manager to jump back from the disappointment of losing their first cup final in England. We have identified four managers who have achieved every success after an early setback.
Rafael Benitez
The first piece of silverware by Jose Mourinho in football was the League Cup in 2005, an important early springboard for everything else he would reach with Chelsea.
Mourinho's Chelsea won the trophy at the expense of Liverpool, who also had a new face in their dugout that season – Rafael Benitez.
While the competition results were decided to be mixed Benitez's Reds, four places and 37 points ended behind the blues of Mourinho-der the bitter taste of the 3-2 extra-time defeat in the Millennium Stadium quickly washed away.
Three months later they were the champions of Europe after another exciting final that went the distance.
Mauricio Pochettino
“What success?” We hear the more of you. And that is a fair question.
Pochettino was fired by Tottenham after five trophy -free years in November 2019. But that explanation would be a huge bad service for the transforming effect he had at the club.
Seven years after the Spurs of Juande Ramos made up the chances of beating Chelsea in the final of the League Cup 2008, Pochettino could not repeat the trick with a fairly gentle 2-0 defeat against Jose Mourinho's Blues Die also won the Premier League title in a Canter that year.
Nevertheless, the Pochettino debut season showed a lot of promise and in the following years they became a serious outfit to take into account; In 2016-17 they finished 2nd in the Premier League with a huge 86-point count and a few years later they made the Champions League final.
In the end, Spurs never got all over the line to lift silverware under the Argentinian, destined to be remembered as one of the big 'almost' teams of English football – undoubtedly the best side they have had in the modern Premier League era.
Who knows how long it will take before they build a team so well again?
Jurgen Klopp
“Nothing so far because we all have to feel it now,” Klopp responded in his Sky Sports interview after the game when he was asked what he had told his players after the last defeat of Liverpool 2016 City to Man City on penalties.
“Of course it is, you can fall and you have to get up, that's how it is.
“We can't change this game now, but we have to continue, we will of course continue.”
That season, the Reds were further disappointing about the defeat in the Europa League final.
But continue with them.
The following year they finished in the top four. Then they reached a Champions League final. Then they won the thing. Then they won the first Premier League title of the club in 30 years before completing the set with a FA Cup and two competition cups.
Eddie Howe
The first English manager to win a large piece of silverware since Harry Redknapp all the way back in 2008, has written Howe in Newcastle United Folklore by supplying the first large piece of Domestic Silver Work of the Magpies since 1955.
Two years after losing the 2023 League Cup final at Manchester United, Howe's men then went better, made the chances of the region and defeated Premier League champions-elected Liverpool in Wembley.
What did Newcastle do differently this time? Not much, apparently – but there was small, surprisingly logistical change.
“The biggest change [from 2023] Has been our hotel, “said the Newcastle manager Sky Sports prior to the kick-off.
“Our hotel has been outside of London, that's … Two years ago we were right next to Wembley, so we absorbed everything … supporters, felt, perhaps too early in our structure.
“Being out of the way, maybe that will make a very small percentage difference.”
Time will learn whether this trophy will lead a big new era for the Tyneside Club, but whatever happens, has made Howe a Newcastle United legend.
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