Digging Deeper Into Liverpool’s Victory Over Chelsea In The FA Cup Final

With a FA Cup Trophy in the books, we take a closer look at what it all means for the Reds.

We have dreams and songs to sing. Liverpool are the 2022 FA Cup Champions after winning a penalty shootout over Chelsea. It’s the second final Liverpool have played in this season and the second final they’ve won against Chelsea. Jurgen Klopp has now won every single trophy possible with Liverpool Football Club. Jordan Henderson has done the patented trophy shuffle for every cup possible. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sadio Mane, Mo Salah, and Virgil van Dijk all complete their set.

I could keep going. But you get it. This is the Liverpool team. set aside what could happen in a few weeks and look at what this team has done for us in the last few years. That’s every single trophy that could possibly be won. It’s a remarkable feat, putting this Liverpool team among those greats in history. This is it. These are the days. We are seeing greatness realized right now. We don’t have to wonder what the glory days were like because we are living them right now.

Now join us as we examine some of the narratives, tactics, reactions, and questions Liverpool will be dealing with and the fans will be talking about in the aftermath.

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Winners and Losers

Winners

The Unsung Heroes

We’ll remember our greats until we are in the grave and maybe beyond. They’ll be immortal. They’ll have statues built upon the shoulders of the rest of this team. Liverpool kicked off the game with an injured Fabinho wearing sweatpants. Alisson Becker nearly needed to come off. Mo Salah would come off in the first half. Virgil van Dijk needed to come off in extra time. Sadio Mane missed his penalty.

And yet. Liverpool are FA Cup champions. The heroes of today are Kostas Tsmikas, Joel Matip, Luis Diaz, James Milner, and Diogo Jota. All of them rose to the occasion and did what needed to be done to lift the cup. If you had the backup leftback scoring the winning penalty in an FA Cup Final on your bingo card, you should play the lottery.

Jurgen Norbert Klopp

Our manager came to Liverpool in 2015 promising us everything and he’s delivered just that. He is the second manager in England to ever win the FA Cup, League Cup, Premier League, and the Champions League with the same club. The other guy is someone named Alex Ferguson. Oh, and Klopp did it in half the time. It took Ferguson 13 years to complete his set.

Jordan Brian Henderson

The captain led us to glory. So much about Henderson’s greatness is reduced to the man he is and not enough appreciate him for the player he is. The thankless and massive task of playing as the #6 for this Liverpool side, to fill in for Fabinho who was injured. Not only has Henderson completed his trophy set tonight but he did so as arguably the best player on the pitch while playing out of position. Not only did he fill in for Fabinho but it was clear that Henderson could be used as the game plan to attack Chelsea with his passing.

Losers

The National Anthem

Mason Mount at Wembley

Mason Mount has played in six finals at Wembley. He’s lost all of them:

• 2019 EFL Play-offs
• 2020 FA Cup
• 2021 FA Cup
• 2021 Euros
• 2022 EFL Cup
• 2022 FA Cup

Tactics Tommy loses to Klopp again

I’m old enough to remember around last November when Chelsea were top of the table and pundits were discussing how Thomas Tuchel was going to surpass Klopp’s legacy at Liverpool with Chelsea. Fast forward to right now, and he’s currently 19 points behind Liverpool in the league and has lost two finals to Klopp in 3 months. The scenes don’t get much tougher than that.

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What Happens Next

We’re two weeks away from glory. There’s two more trophies on the table to win. Of course, Liverpool need help to win the league but there’s a Champions League Final on the horizon. It does not get better than this. We have dreams to see and songs to sing right now. The Kop will sing of this team for eternity but for right now we get experience it. These are the days of our lives. Up the Reds.