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Here, read Adam Crafton's piece on how the language used on the Anfield forecourt before the Sunday afternoon FA Cup fixture against Norwich City was a blur of shock, eulogy, bereavement and pride all meshed into one.

And here, check out Caoimhe O'Neill's article on a city coming to terms with life after Klopp and a shock no one was expecting.

It was last November when Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon received the call he had long since dreaded.

The voice on the other end of the phone was Jurgen Klopp. On the field, “Liverpool 2.0” as the manager had coined it, were flying after the summer rebuild, but this wasn’t an upbeat progress report being passed on to the club’s American owners.

Klopp explained that after much soul-searching, he had come to the conclusion this would be the final season of his Anfield reign. His mind was made up — he would step down in May. He felt he simply didn’t have the energy to carry on. He was jaded and didn’t want to do the job on “three wheels”.

The German coach’s decision in April 2022 to extend his contract until 2026 had been the most pleasant of surprises for FSG given his earlier indication that he was going to take a sabbatical. This was the exact opposite.

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Why Jurgen Klopp decided he had to quit Liverpool – and what FSG does now

As the Question of Sport round nearly goes.

Let's look closer at why Klopp is leaving, how Liverpool responded and what the hierarchy do next.

Plus, if your appetite to see the club play at Anfield before he leaves, check out how you can buy a ticket for one of Klopp's final matches here.

Only a frazzled mind would claim Jurgen Klopp is not in the same league as some of the greatest managers to have worked in English football, including those brilliant historical figures who have led the club he will depart at the end of May.

Klopp has surpassed what anyone really thought was achievable upon his appointment. One of his last games could be at the Europa League final in Dublin. If he wins that, he will have lifted every trophy he has competed in since arriving at the club nine years ago.

In terms of the transformation he has overseen, the comparisons with the legendary Bill Shankly are fair. Liverpool were hunched and wandering when he came along: a sad, disjointed squad, with a fatalistic fanbase. Nothing made sense.

The challenge of competing with a Manchester City team organised by its own genius should never be underestimated either.

Dive deeper below...

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Klopp’s brilliant influence runs so deep that Liverpool will have to start again in many places

Without a meeting on the quiet outskirts of Frankfurt, maybe there is no marriage with Liverpool a decade later. Jurgen Klopp was a 38-year-old football manager from the Black Forest nobody really thought too much of and Marc Kosicke was a Bremen-born rep for Nike, based in the company’s old German headquarters.

They met at a pub in the countryside and one round of wheat beers turned into another, and another.

Klopp emerged from the toilets and Kosicke passed him as he went in. “I don’t care about the money,” Klopp told him. “Let’s do the deal and (my lawyer friend) can have his boat,” Klopp suggested.

Kosicke laughed and agreed it was a good idea. He could see himself working with Klopp. He thought he was different to the rest of the clients he had dealt with at Nike.

Read more on how this meeting sparked Klopp's eventual move to Liverpool below...

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Jurgen Klopp: The fist-pumping genius who turned Liverpool’s dreams into reality

As football news bombshells go, Jurgen Klopp’s announcement on Friday morning was right up there.

It is one of those stories that initially left you wondering whether someone was having you on. Your eyes narrowed and you took a closer look to check whether that really was Liverpool’s official social media handle and whether that really was an interview with Klopp, rather than some kind of AI creation.

But no, that really was Klopp furrowing his brow, exhaling, taking a moment to compose himself, looking straight into the camera and saying: “I will leave the club at the end of the season.”

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Jurgen Klopp turned doubters into believers – but now the day Liverpool dreaded has come

Frankly, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're well across the news that Klopp is leaving.

BUT in case you're not, and assuming you want to read some of our amazing pieces on it, that's what I'm going to give you over the next couple of hours.

So Liverpool fans: sit back and prepare for the tears. Literally anyone else: it's all still enjoyable, honest.

There’s an episode of the TV show I’m Alan Partridge, where the titular hero is trying to pitch a project to a commissioning editor. He lists a large number of detective dramas to which the commissioner, Tony Hayers, reacts by saying the length of that list means there are too many of them.

“That’s one way of looking at it,” says Partridge, undeterred. “Another way of looking at it is: people like them, let’s make some more of them.”

It’s in that spirit that we present to you a sequel to an article we published in November, which people seemed to enjoy, about the things that have disappeared from modern football. It’s an illustration of how much the game is changing that we have been able to come up with another set of these.

In many respects, it’s a completely different sport to the one many of us grew up watching, and incredibly different even to the one that existed at the start of the Premier League, some 32 years ago. So here is another set of things that footballers simply don’t do — or at least do an awful lot less — in 2024…

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Four tactics/things teams don’t do any more – and why they went out of fashion: Part Two

Christopher Nkunku and Malo Gusto are available to face Liverpool at Anfield today, Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed. A hip injury has sidelined Nkunku for the last month while Gusto picked up a minor issue in Chelsea’s last Premier League outing: a 1-0 home win over Fulham on January 13.

Both returned to full training this week, and Pochettino said: “It’s good news that Malo Gusto and Christoph (Nkunku) can be in the squad. We’re are waiting to see if there are some surprises, but it’s good to recover two players.”

Chelsea are still without eight first-team players due to injury — a list now including Levi Colwill, who sustained what Pochettino described as a “minor injury in his tendon” during the warm-up before a 0-0 draw with Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday.

But Pochettino added that Trevoh Chalobah is 'really close' to returning to full training after a hamstring injury in August, and striker Nicolas Jackson could feature after returning from AFCON duty with Senegal, knocked out by hosts Ivory Coast on Monday.

Liverpool midfielder Thiago has finally returned to team training after nine months out due to a hip injury.

It has been a torrid spell for the experienced Spain international, who hasn’t played since last April and is out of contract this summer, but he was given the green light to rejoin Jurgen Klopp’s squad for Monday’s session at Kirkby.

“Thiago trained for the first time which was an incredible moment after all the months,” Klopp said. “He needs time but it was a wonderful sign.”

Thiago will not feature in today's Premier League clash with Chelsea at Anfield as he builds up his fitness, but Alexis Mac Allister is set to start after sitting out Sunday’s FA Cup win over Norwich City with a minor muscle issue.

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Thiago returns to Liverpool training; Alexis Mac Allister fit for Chelsea clash

Obviously, the biggest news not just in Liverpool, not just in football, but potentially in all of sport over the last week or so was the shock announcement that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is stepping down at the end of the season.

Of course, we'll bring you all the reaction, analysis and emotion from across The Athletic's superb (even if I do say so myself) coverage.

But first: team news and, interestingly, four tactics that have gone out of fashion from two of my favourite writers here, Duncan Alexander and Nick Miller.

In modern football, nothing is immune to change — not even the ways teams make changes.

At the start of the 2022-23 season, Premier League clubs voted to increase the number of permissible substitutions from three to five, a decision taken with player welfare in mind. Pedri’s 75-game season for club and country two years ago, along with the seven muscular injuries the 21-year-old has suffered since, serves as a case for carefully managing a player’s minutes.

Originally met with scepticism, the decision stoked fears that only the biggest clubs with the deepest squads would benefit, but that has not necessarily been the case.

Dive deeper with this insightful piece from the superb Thom Harris and Ahmed Walid.

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Premier League substitutions: Brighton go early, Liverpool are productive, Guardiola abstains

Chelsea have rejected an approach from Wolverhampton Wanderers for forward Armando Broja.

Wolves formally requested for the 22-year-old on loan, however, Chelsea do not intend to proceed with the existing offer. Broja is Chelsea’s only recognised centre forward who is fully fit right now but as The Athletic reported last week, the west London club are prepared to sell him this month.

While speaking to reporters last week, Mauricio Pochettino did not confirm that is the situation, but maintained the Albania international can be a success at Stamford Bridge even though he has scored just two goals in 18 appearances this season.

The Chelsea head coach said he believes Broja “has the potential to be an amazing striker”.

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Chelsea reject approach from Wolves for Armando Broja

Liverpool defender Nat Phillips is set to join Cardiff City on loan for the rest of the season. The 26-year-old centre-back returned to Merseyside at the start of January after a short spell at Celtic, where he made eight appearances in all competitions.

Jurgen Klopp was keen to keep Phillips around until the end of the window to provide defensive cover, but he’s now been given the green light to go back out on loan.

There was interest from a number of Championship clubs, including Blackburn Rovers, but Cardiff have managed to secure his services.

Bolton-born Phillips has made 29 senior appearances for Liverpool since being handed his debut in January 2020. He has previously enjoyed loan spells at Stuttgart and Bournemouth.