Liverpool knows without a shadow of a doubt that it has had the privilege of being coached by one of the all-time great managers over the last eight-and-a-half years. But when Jürgen Klopp calls it a day at the end of the season, his trophy cabinet will only partially reflect that.

There's no denying that there have been some major successes. Indeed, Klopp led Liverpool to become 'champions of everything' over a glittering period that delivered the Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup and Premier League, before later going on to collect the two domestic cups as well.

In raw 'trophies won' terms, though, the Liverpool boss loses out by a fairly significant margin to José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Arsène Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson. Klopp has also been unable to capture the kind of silverware won by Bill Shankly (three top-flight titles) and especially Bob Paisley.

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But anyone remotely interested in the context would not dare to use that to downplay Klopp's legacy. Despite competing against sides with vastly superior resources, he was four different results away from signing off with three Champions League trophies and three Premier League titles to his name.

In particular, Manchester City has been a deeply infuriating presence. Most egregiously, it denied Liverpool the title in 2018/19 despite the Reds amassing 97 points. But it's the 2021/22 season that Klopp has now reflected on in detail.

“You pick yourself up and go again after not winning the league from a goal from Vinnie Kompany or a not-given handball from Rodri. It was a crazy situation that handball,” Klopp told The Anfield Wrap.

“I don’t know where we played, but we were on the bus already and the game was on the telly. We watched it and the whole bus shouted ‘Handball! Wait, he’s not getting it?'"

"You can’t change it. But not getting there and then having three weeks to prepare for a Champions League final, these few years were mad."

Everton had drawn 1-1 at the Etihad earlier in the season, and an 86th-minute penalty would have presented a golden opportunity to repeat that scoreline at home, which in retrospect would have handed Liverpool the title. Having lost to Tottenham the previous week, Guardiola's side would not suffer defeat again all season, drawing just three times (once against Klopp's men).

Liverpool.com says: Don't worry, Jürgen, that decision still haunts us too. VAR was introduced at least in part because clubs felt the stakes were too high to be decided by on-field mistakes, and yet the technology's failure to make a simple intervention cost Liverpool the title and almost sent Everton down.

And while Liverpool's challenge eventually faltered this season, you could throw in the Luis Díaz VAR shambles for good measure as an error that at least denied Klopp another shot at the trophy. He has been there or thereabouts so many times, which in an era of unprecedented dominance of the Premier League is an absolutely huge achievement.

In the pantheon of all-time greats, Klopp is right up there. It's devastating when you actually stop and think about some of the fine margins, especially the refereeing mistakes, but they don't change the Liverpool legacy the German leaves behind.