LIVERPOOL WON’T KEEP PACE IN TITLE RACE IF THEY START THIS SLOWLY
LINFORD CHRISTIE, in his pomp, coined a phrase about fast starts: get out the blocks on the ‘ b’ of the bang.
The message was clear. Do not wait — be ready to go immediately. In 100 metre races that could be defined by fine margins, he knew every split second was critical and any hesitancy would be fatal.
Jurgen Klopp would appreciate Christie’s analogy. His teams are well capable of performing blitzkriegs when it matters, the ability to play rat-a-tat-tat football that transforms the complexion of matches in the blink of an eye.
It is not just in matches, though, that under Klopp Liverpool have been adept at hurtling from the gates. He has made it his mission to ensure his team are up with the pace straight away and forcing tactics have paid dividends.
In 2016-17, when it was imperative that they qualified for the Champions League, Liverpool were up and away: a scintillating display at the Emirates led to a 4-3 win and was the precursor to 23 points from the first 10 games. Come May, they reached their objective.
The ambition last season was to throw down a title challenge. The only way to keep pace with Manchester City was to go through the gears immediately. The accumulated 26 points from the first 30. It ensured they were in the race until the final day.
This is the way of modern football. Now, if a team falters in any way before autumn, deficits are almost impossible to peg back. So watching the Community Shield it was impossible not to think about this trend.
Liverpool, rightly, received praise for their dashing secondhalf performance when they zipped the ball around and left City chasing shadows. Yet, to be brutal, they should not have headed home with silver medals. Mohamed Salah had enough opportunities to leave Wembley with two match balls. Had he shown a degree of selflessness when charging through on a couple of occasions, Liverpool would have won.
You know things are not going well for City when Pep Guardiola retreats to the sidelines and ceases his arm-waving frenzy. He knew Liverpool were in total control in the final 30 minutes, but with his players wilting, it was difficult to stem the tide.
Crucially, they had the early buffer, the goal they pilfered when Liverpool were half-asleep. Raheem Sterling pounced, benefiting from unusually lax defending and a goalkeeper error from Alisson.
‘They probably had the better of us in the first half and we knew that,’ Joe Gomez, the Liverpool defender, acknowledged. ‘In the second half, we came out and changed the game I think. We were doing all the right things and we had some good chances, so it’s frustrating.’
If this proves to be a snapshot of the campaign ahead, more frustration is likely. Klopp raised concerns at points during Liverpool’s tour of the United States that they might not be so fluent in the opening weeks.
City were not at their best but you know they are progressive. Liverpool, Champions of Europe, are desperate to become Champions of England, but the task of winning the trophy they covet most has never been so hard.
No longer is the title race a marathon. It is a 38-game sprint and the first gear that gets engaged is full throttle. If you don’t go the early pace, you don’t land the ultimate prize. Linford Christie knew it and Jurgen Klopp knows it too.
We have seen enough in matches between Liverpool and Manchester City over the past two years to appreciate that the differences are minimal: a bounce of the ball here, a goal-line clearance there; a referee’s decision; a moment of magic.
Over the course of a campaign, City have proven the better in hearing the ‘b’ of the bang. They will hear it again. When the starting pistol is raised against Norwich on Friday at Anfield, Liverpool need to hear it too.