Liverpool and the Champions league is comparable to a romance, winning the competition five times already. The Reds entered the fray last season for the first time in three years. The world stood up and took notice of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who marauded past their opposition to the final of the competition. They eased past Porto, thrashed Manchester City and squeezed through against Roma; the Reds defied the odds to reach the most prestigious game in club football: The Champions League final. Despite their loss, there is certainly a foundation to be built upon and this piece will analyse whether they have the ability to do just that and perhaps even go one step further; becoming European champions once again.
Can Liverpool Sustain Their Champions League Success?
Amazing Attack
The trigger-happy reds notched an incredible 47 goals in last season’s European campaign, a record-breaking total. It goes without saying that goals win games and this ability to score with seeming ease has been a defining feature of Klopp’s team.
The tremendous trio up front for the Reds tore defences to shreds both domestically and abroad last season and, unless there has been a sudden realisation of how to counter their threat, then it is likely that the goals will continue to flow.
Additionally, with the introduction of Naby Keita in the midfield (who has shone in pre-season) it is not crazy to think that the Merseysiders may be even more ruthless when going forward in the coming season. The fact that the attacking makeup of Liverpool has stayed the same means that we can expect them to pick up where they left off last season.
Dodgy Defence?
Whilst Liverpool’s attack shone last season, there were some questionable defensive displays throughout the campaign. Many critics dubbed this the reason for the Reds’ lack of silverware.
This has been the case for several years now. However, with the purchase of Virgil Van Dijk from Southampton in January and the drastic improvement seen in his World Cup finalist counterpart Dejan Lovren, Liverpool no longer seem to be the shambolic defensive mess that has prevented the addition of trophies in the past.
The key to Liverpool’s aspirations of European glory, however, has been shown with the purchase of Roma goalkeeper Alisson Becker. The Brazilian shot-stopper will inspire confidence in the defence which was not present last season. This was most noticeable in the final where Loris Karius had an absolute howler.
Strength in Numbers
Also joining the aforementioned Naby Keita and Alisson Becker are the highly skilful Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho Tavares, both of whom have vast amounts of European experience – Fabinho being a part of the Monaco semi-finalist squad in 2016/17 and Shaqiri being a former Bayern Munich player. These arrivals, whilst definitely improving the squad’s depth, will also improve the overall quality of the group, allowing for the better use of impact substitutions in the tournament (something that Liverpool struggled to do last season).
There looks to be no major outgoings looking likely, as well as there being a vast amount of quality coming into the Liverpool squad this summer. When taking this into account, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to compete with the elite European clubs in the Champions League this year.
Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield project is into its fourth year. He will now be starting to feel the pressure upon him. He needs to combine his fascinating brand of football with actual trophies. Only then will his prestige as a world-class manager be proven.
Many will see them as dark horses for the trophy considering how well they performed last season. No club will relish the prospect of facing Liverpool next season. Liverpool and the Champions League have history, next year expect them to make more. Who knows, it might be their year.
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