by No one looks overawed. No one looks out of place. No one looks like they have school in the morning or are wearing a shirt two sizes too big. Conor Bradley walks over to the Liverpool fans, arms raised, flanked by Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo, and this doesn’t feel like a dream or a Photoshop job or an artfully shot credit card ad. James McConnell gets his turn with the trophy, and it doesn’t feel awkward or hefty in his hands. This is Liverpool, this is Wembley, and as soon as you slip on the red shirt – no matter how tall the number is on the back – you know exactly what is expected of you, and what will be you expect in return.
And even amidst their injuries, their relative inexperience, the withdrawal of goalkeeper Kevin Kelleher, it felt like the most natural thing in the world that Liverpool should win the final. Chelsea and the more expensive side had better chances together, and yet did we ever doubt the team built from candy floss, Melwood undergrads and Pope John Cup seniors? Perhaps, as Jürgen Klopp begins the long spell home, this is the true measure of his work: a machine in which victory is so intertwined that the parts themselves are largely interchangeable, even when the parts were who have recently been replaced by their children.
Related: Liverpool won the Carabao Cup as Van Dijk’s extra-time header went past Chelsea
Of course, you could argue that Klopp’s choices here were born as much out of convenience as necessity. Liverpool didn’t really need to win this: they didn’t need that much to win the league games against Manchester City and Everton next month, Chelsea certainly don’t need that much to win here. If this was a really important game, other than the fourth major trophy they could win this season, you could be sure that Mohamed Salah and Darwin Núñez would be available, Andrew Robertson and Alexis McAllister could be having gone into excess. time.
But then, putting faith in young players is not a simple binary. There are degrees and colors in this business. Is it braver to give academy products 10 minutes at the end of a league game you’ve already won, or throw them head on in the Wembley final pandemonium? There are plenty of coaches out there who hide their best young talent, take them on cheap, low-intensity minutes, and set them up for failure. In contrast, Klopp doesn’t just take them along for the ride. He throws them the keys.
This is how you end up with Bradley, a 20-year-old right-back with 302 minutes of Premier League football to his name, playing Salah’s role in a cup final. Bradley had started the game in a Trent Alexander-Arnold role, driving forward and drifting into the field in a manner similar to his predecessor and mentor. But a first-half injury to Ryan Gravenberch forced Harvey Elliott to move inside, with Bradley moving into the right wing role he used to play as a Dungannon kid.
Bradley is 5ft 11in but – as you’d expect from someone who hasn’t grown in the past year – he plays like a much shorter man: quick feet, low center of gravity, intelligently setting himself up for contact. Raheem Sterling showed little interest in his efforts to follow up the right and so for most of the game Bradley went one on one against Ben Chilwell, often winning the ball high up the pitch and teasing the England defender to to the point where they were both. reserved for tangling angrily with each other.
Related: Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool: player ratings from the Carabao Cup final
After 71 minutes, having blown himself out a bit, 19-year-old Bobby Clark came to direct things in midfield, winning the corner that Liverpool managed to win in the ultimately. He was then joined by 19-year-old McConnell, a refined but relentless presence in the final third, and 18-year-old striker Jayden Danns, who almost opened the scoring in the 94th minute. with a header. In the second half of extra time came a relative veteran in the center half of 21-year-old Jarell Quansah. Six academy players. Six players born after the release of Destination Calabria in 2003, the song flowing across Wembley and the trophy raised.
And, of course, Klopp was not the only architect of this strategy, in the same way that he was not entirely responsible for the tired and washed-up squad he handed over to Thomas Tuchel when he left Borussia Dortmund in 2015 .a whole village to raise a footballer, from the people who do the spotting, to the people who do the recruiting, to the coaches who put out the cones on freezing Tuesday nights.
But the culture that allows them to play without fear, the strong spirit to give them the big stage and the faith to fill it: this, as much as any winning percentage or precious metal, may be Klopp’s true legacy. Since he announced his departure a month ago, much of the talk has naturally focused on memories and legacy. But here, under the twinkling lights of Wembley, was a reminder that every end is the beginning of something else.
