Liverpool are having the season of their wildest dreams. For some, it could even be described as a season beyond their wildest dreams. Right from the very beginning of the season, they have had a Midas touch on everything in England.
Their story mirrors that of Manchester United’s rise in the 90s. It took Jurgen Klopp lesser time than Sir Alex Ferguson at United to make Liverpool successful though football was different in the 80s and 90s. Managers were not under massive pressure to deliver results in the immediate to short term future so Sir Alex had the luxury of time afforded to him to put things right before he started an era of success for United.
Like Sir Alex, Klopp needed a few transfer windows to bring in players he wanted and remove players he didn’t want. He shrewdly bought players that were lesser known that he could develop, brought through a couple of players from the youth academy that he could develop and spent big to sign players that were crucial to his team as final pieces of the jigsaw. All of this mirror the process Sir Alex took to build his successful teams with some slight differences of course.
When I was assessing the options available to replace Sir Alex after the disastrous spell under David Moyes, Klopp was an option that was high on my list because of the way he built his successful Borussia Dortmund teams and their style of football. Unfortunately, I am not the one that calls the shots at United on who to hire and luckily for Liverpool, Klopp was available at the right time and he was hired.
Liverpool this season are winning by hook or crook. They have won by playing well, they have won ugly and they have been lucky in some of their victories too. In my time as a fan, I have seen Liverpool come close to winning the league on a few times but always slipped up at the wrong moments for them. That is very unlikely to happen this season. The season is not over yet but if they do slip up now, it will be the mother of all slip ups and it will surely affect the club psychologically.
The rise of Liverpool under Klopp has been steady. He brough them to 3 Cup finals, League Cup, Europa League and Champions League. They lost all 3 and the haters had a good time laughing at them and him. He was labelled a choker because he didn’t have a very good track record in Cup finals from his time at Dortmund. In the league, he has brought them from 8th to 2nd last season.
It all changed when they won the Champions League last season. They finished the previous Premier League season in 2nd place but with a points tally that would have seen them finish as champions in most other seasons. They have added the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup this season and are on course to finally end their 30 year wait for the Premier League. God knows how far they will go in the FA Cup and Champions League this season. They will certainly be one of the favourites to win them both.
However, despite all the rave reviews and high praises Liverpool are getting or have been getting since last season, they are only at the start of their journey. How long can they sustain this? No-one knows. We might think at this point that Liverpool are on the cusp of another era of dominance like they did in the 1970s and 80s but will that be the case? We truly don’t know.
Last season, everyone was raving about Manchester City after they became the first team since United between 2006-2009 to win consecutive Premier League titles. They were the undoubted dominant team in England last season by winning the Domestic Treble too. People were talking about a City era of dominance but this season they find themselves 16 points behind Liverpool after 23 matches. Liverpool could make the gap wider because they have a game in hand over City.
Opinions change quickly in football and the same could happen with Liverpool. This season, they have won all before them, dropping points only to United in a draw at Old Trafford earlier this season. However, they have also been aided by the failings of the teams behind them. City has struggled this season to match the heights of the last 2 seasons. I have always felt their defence was a weak link but they have managed to protect it from getting exposed due to their superb ball retention and high press from their forwards, keeping the ball away from their defence for as long as possible.
This season, City has been exposed time and again and have dropped points as a result. Teams like Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are stumbling along for one reason or another. None of these teams have been at their best. Teams like Leicester, Wolverhampton Wanderers and even newly promoted, Sheffield United have found themselves in European positions as a result. However, none of the chasing pack has managed to put a dent or place Liverpool under much pressure this season. They have failed to do so during the season and in one-off matches.
A team can only win what is in front of them and deserve credit for managing to do it the way Liverpool has done it so far. However, without any real pressure and challenge from the chasing pack, I don’t feel it is quite a fair assessment of Liverpool’s actual strength yet.
Don’t get me wrong Liverpool fans. They are doing very well and deserve all the credit they are getting. They deserve to be top of the table and the table never lies. However, they are where they are not only on their own merit but due to the demerits of others behind them too. I am interested to see how Liverpool will respond when a few results go against them, when the form and intensity goes down and when key players get injured.
By Rasvinder Singh
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