An Ode to Gerard Houllier's Treble-Winning Liverpool Team
By Mitch Wilks
It's difficult to forget about treble-winning campaigns, but Liverpool's feat in the 2000/01 season unfairly slips under the radar.
Call it the 'Mickey Mouse treble' all you want, but it's silverware and it counts.
If Manchester United can celebrate their 2016 Europa League win, and Manchester City can celebrate a domestic treble, then Liverpool have every right to celebrate a truly spectacular season at the beginning of the 21st century.
So the 2000/01 season was Gerard Houllier's was entering his third season in charge at Anfield, but only his second full season as sole leader of the team - having shared those responsibilities with Roy Evans for a period in 1998.
By 2000, the Frenchman was some two years into his planned five-year programme to rebuild the Reds and had guided them to a fourth place league finish at the end of the 1999/00 campaign. It wasn't enough, though, which led to the following season. All or nothing.
The 2000/01 season got off to a positive start. A youthful approach was paying off with Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard quickly becoming fan favourites around Anfield for performances beyond their years, while new captain - and man mountain - Sami Hyypia shored up the defence.
New faces arrived, too; Gary McAllister, Emile Heskey and Dietmar Hamann all gave Liverpool some extra quality in depth to help them compete across multiple fronts.
Manchester United had begun to run away with the Premier League by November, amassing a pretty sizeable 12 point lead atop of the table. It didn't deter Houllier's Reds though, who kept the pressure on, but also kicked off their League Cup campaign with 2-1 win over Chelsea in extra time and enjoyed a routine European trip to the Czech Republic to dispatch of Slovan Liberec over two legs.
While these days top sides are quick to disregard the League Cup as a 'nothing trophy', Houllier arguably attached the most importance to it. Speaking to Liverpool's official website, Phil Thompson - who served as assistant manager that season - explained the gaffer's thought process: "I can remember Gerard Houllier in his team meetings and he kept saying, 'Crack this first trophy and things will be a lot easier.'"
He wasn't wrong.
Inspired by the gaffers words, Liverpool made sure to clinch a trophy at the earliest available opportunity - and they did so in fine fashion.
With renovation work being done at Wembley, the Reds were headed to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff by February 2000 and faced Birmingham in the final. Fowler's early goal looked to be enough until a last minute penalty saw Birmingham take the game to extra time and penalties, making it the first English cup final to go that far. Houllier's side held their nerve and lifted the cup, winning their first trophy of the season, and Houllier's first as Liverpool boss.
Things began to tail off in the league come the turn of the new year, however, and it became obvious that it was a formality for Sir Alex Ferguson's Red Devils to lift yet another Premier League title. So with that in mind, all Anfield eyes were now on domestic and European cup competitions, with Liverpool in good stead to win both the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup as winter came to a close.
By April, the league was decided, thus it was full steam ahead on the treble, powered by a morale-boosting 3-2 away victory against Everton on 16 April, where McAllister secured the win with a stunning last-gasp winner to silence Goodison Park.
Three days later, Liverpool were at it again and Anfield turned into a fortress as another McAllister goal was enough to see them past Barcelona and send them into the final of the UEFA Cup - their first European final of the post-Heysel era.
This was it. Suddenly, Houllier's Reds were on the cusp of a treble of trophies after years without any for both club and manager.
First up was the FA Cup against Arsenal, and who else to complete a comeback than academy starlet Michael Owen.
Owen bagged a brace in the final 10 minutes of the game to turn the final on its head and clinch his club the FA Cup in the most dramatic of fashions.
But if that wasn't dramatic enough, Liverpool would then play out one of the most famous European finals in history just four days later.
Thompson described the end to end affair as 'the most fascinating but nerve-wracking game' from the dugout as Liverpool scuppered a 2-0 lead against Alaves, given to them by Markus Babbel and Steven Gerrard, and again lost an eventual 4-3 lead despite Robbie Fowler's best efforts to win the game from the bench.
They headed into extra time with the game at 4-4, and for all of the Reds' heroes that season, it was opposition defender Delfi Geli who made history for Liverpool, scoring an own goal that won Houllier's side the UEFA Cup in the 116th minute of play - via golden goal.
Liverpool had won a European trophy for the first time since 1984, and Houllier had done the unthinkable by turning the Reds into winners again. That would be the peak of his career at Anfield, and he would ultimately leave in 2004, but his legacy was never to be forgotten.