Classic responses to letting the league slip

In the immediate aftermath of Selhurst Park, Liverpool didn’t look like a team ready to roar into a defiant response. They were, in the words of Brendan Rodgers, "devastated".

The tearful reactions of Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard reflected the scale of the setback.

This reminded of some of football’s most traumatic reverses: Samuel Kuffour in the 1999 Champions League final, Liverpool after the amazing climax to the 1988-89 season. It also raises a question about their reaction that goes beyond today. What kind of affect will such an emotional defeat have in the short and long term? Is there a danger it could dampen the psychology of this team? There are a few examples with history and potential parallels.

The good

As the Manchester United squad travelled home from Sunderland on the final day of the 2011-12 season, champions a matter of seconds, Alex Ferguson went to all the young players. Many badly needed something, after Sergio Aguero’s late goal against QPR had sent the title to Man City.

“Never forget this,” Ferguson said. “This will win you titles, make some of you into men and be the best you can be.”

It is, really, the only way you can deal with setbacks like that; to turn it into a positive. It also worked. Within a year, those players won a title. It is something Rodgers could ruminate on should Liverpool expectedly fail to win the league tomorrow. But there are also examples from his club’s own history. After the only other title climax similar to 2012, Anfield in 1989, the Liverpool squad beaten by Arsenal bounced back in superb fashion. Just like United in 2012-13, they went on to win the league by a huge margin.

Bayern have also displayed such resilience twice. Just two years after the trauma of the Champions League at the Nou Camp in 1999, they triumphed in the same competition, beating Valencia in the 2001 final. Perhaps most relevantly of all, Milan recovered from that momentous 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul to achieve the ultimate revenge against Liverpool just two years later. They beat Rafa Benitez’s team 2-1 in the 2007 final, removing much of the pain from that 3-3 comeback.

The bad

While all of those instances should be encouraging for Liverpool, it should not escape attention they were all dominant teams with the most resources. The cases of clubs defying expectations are arguably more relevant, but less positive. There are a series of examples of surprise team pushing the rest to the limit, only to then fall short themselves in the most remarkable circumstances, and then fail to reach the same heights. Deportivo La Coruna endured one of the worst in Spanish history, as a last-minute final-day missed penalty from Miroslav Djukic cost them the title. It took them six years, and a different team, to go so close again and actually win it. Similarly, Schalke needed four years to get over Bayern snatching the 2001 Bundesliga off them, and Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town began to fall apart after imploding in the climax of the 1980-81 season.