Ten games from greatness to torture: How Houllier’s Liverpool lost the plot

When Gerard Houllier returned to the Anfield hot seat in March 2002, five months after emergency heart surgery, the Kop roared their approval as Liverpool lapped up their first year of Champions League nights.

It was the last game of the second group stage and Roma were the visitors enslaved by an atmosphere that would have trumped the 60,000 in the Colosseum. The Reds prevailed by the two goals needed to qualify for the last eight.

Gaunt-looking but game for this critical period, the Frenchman became unfettered with his public statements.

By the time squeaky bum April came around, Liverpool were still in contention for Old Big Ears and the Premier League: Houllier declared: “Hopefully we are ten games from greatness. We’re still in contention to win the title and the Champions League. The vision is to win both.”

They didn’t win either, succumbing to a Michael Ballack inspired Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals of UEFA’s premier competition. However, they took 40 points from the last 45 in the league, finishing just a couple of wins behind Arsenal. Things were progressing after the giddy heights of their 2001 cup treble.

After the campaign of consolidation in 2001-02, the 2002-03 season was one of huge expectations. Liverpool came flying out of the blocks statistically with nine wins and no defeats from the first 12, although some wobbly 2-2 draws would be an indicator that something wasn’t quite ticking.

They approached Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough with an unlucky-13th kind of trepidation, deploying Emile Heskey on the left and putting an isolated Michael Owen up front. Gareth Southgate claimed the winner late on as the visitors paid for their lack of adventure.

It was the start of a horrific slump that showed up