It’s their year (again). It may not end up being their year but with the team firing on all cylinders and excelling in all departments, it certainly feels like this Premier League season may be Liverpool’s to throw away.
The League is Liverpool’s to Throw Away
Champions League Experience
For the first team since Chelsea’s triumph in 2012, an English team reached the Champions League final last term. It takes a special team and a special season to reach the Champions League final and there is no doubt that Liverpool’s squad last season was a special one (sorry, Jose).
After eight games this season, the club is joint top of the league, trailing Manchester City and Chelsea only on goal difference. They also have the joint best defensive record so far, conceding only thrice, the same as the champions, City.
There is no doubt that this Liverpool side is better off after its Champions League exploits last season. The club managed to attract Brazil international keeper Alisson this summer from Champions League semi-finalists, Roma. In their opening Champions League game this season, the club handed Paris-Saint Germain only their third defeat in 11 games against English opposition in the past six years.
The Klopp Effect
Since his arrival at Merseyside three years ago, Jurgen Klopp has been trying to build Liverpool Football Club from the ground up. Famed for his man-management and tactical ingenuity, Klopp always seems like he has an ace up his sleeve.
While it is true that there are no prizes for coming in second, the transformation that the first-team squad has gone through since his arrival at the club has been nothing short of remarkable and something the German deserves all the credit in the world for. From having Kolo Toure playing in defence to the ill-suited Christian Benteke leading the line, the increase in the quality of personnel at Anfield has been incredible.
While Liverpool were always an exciting team to watch even in the pre-Klopp era, they would always leak goals incessantly. The signings of Joel Matip and Andrew Robertson were astute and the record-breaking arrival of Virgil van Dijk was a necessity. Klopp has made the club better as a whole with their signings as well as the inspired captures of Georginio Wijnaldum and Xherdan Shaqiri from relegated Newcastle and Stoke teams.
There is always a lot of talk about Jurgen Klopp’s record of losing major finals. However, people conveniently forget the role he plays in transforming a football club for the better. Klopp spent seven years at Borussia Dortmund before moving to Liverpool in 2015, transforming the club into a much better and stable footballing team than where he had found them.
Consistency
At the end of the day, what makes a title-winning team is their consistency. Liverpool only lost two Premier League games all season during the 2008/09 campaign while also doing the double over eventual-champions, Manchester United. However, United’s superior consistency throughout the season and title-winning experience saw them crowned champions.
Klopp has seemingly taken all the necessary steps to establish a hard-working, high-octane squad at Anfield. The current Liverpool team is nothing short of a machine. It is scary to think that this is despite having Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain out for the season and Naby Keita and Fabinho not yet settled into English football.
In Trent-Alexander Arnold, Joe Gomez and Andrew Robertson, they have three of the brightest young British defenders in the entire league. Robertson has even been handed the Scottish captaincy for his improved stature and performances at Liverpool. And with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino making up one of the most fearsome strike forces in all of world football, the sky may be the limit for this Liverpool side if manager Jurgen Klopp has indeed managed to accumulate all the pieces of his Anfield jigsaw.
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