ONE HAND ON THE TROPHY
Klopp is staying calm, but avoid defeat at Leicester tonight and Liverpool will have...
AT LIVERPOOL’s training ground, they have been quick off the mark. Tacked on the end of a wallmounted rollcall of trophies won by the club over the years is the Club World Cup lifted by captain Jordan Henderson last Saturday.
Tonight at Leicester, attention turns once again to a trophy that matters a little bit more. If Liverpool avoid defeat at the King Power Stadium they will maybe have one hand on that one, too.
Those who are paid to market the Premier League will perhaps root for Leicester City this evening.
If they can inflict a first League defeat of the season on Liverpool, the Merseyside club’s lead at the top of the table — one that comes with a game in hand — will be seven points and we will just about be able to convince ourselves that the title race remains alive.
Conversely, victory for Jurgen Klopp’s team may just about seal the deal at the halfway stage.
Despite their excitement at winning in Doha on Saturday, the most significant result of that particular day was undoubtedly Leicester’s 3-1 defeat at Manchester City.
Coming on the back of a home draw with Norwich a week earlier, it was hard to escape the feeling that opportunity has knocked for the Midlands club only to find they were not listening. ‘We will not get carried away,’ insisted Klopp (below) on Christmas Eve. ‘It is exactly like in normal life. If you have a little bit of success and you get carried away by it you will quickly realise it is your last one. We don’t get carried away for nothing, absolutely not. We’re completely focused on the next step. ‘I was always like this. I never in my life wanted to have a party before there was a reason. When there is a party for a reason I am in it 100 per cent, but I do not have 20 per cent parties. ‘So I can wait for it. There is no chance to get us in a mood where we could forget the things we have to do. The next time to prove that is Leicester on Boxing Day.’ The debate about the particular relevance or value of Liverpool’s success in Qatar has been lively. There appears to be a peculiar sensitivity about it when all that really matters is what Klopp and his players think. From that point of view, the indications are positive. Liverpool arrived back from the Middle East on Sunday looking and sounding energised by the experience. If they take this into tonight’s game then it may well be that they do not feel the physical effects of the trip as some feared and predicted they would. Leicester’s approach under their former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers will not surprise many. Despite losing at City on Saturday, they were dangerous on the counter with Jamie Vardy scoring yet again.
‘We will try to stop him,’ said Klopp. ‘He is one of the top three strikers in England since I have been here.
‘He is always difficult to defend. We just try to avoid the passes to him. That is what we will try. Brendan has done an excellent job. Top-class team. Exceptional quality.’
Having won 97 points in the Premier League last season and still only finished second, Liverpool will perhaps proceed cautiously from here. Despite Leicester sitting in second, Klopp will expect the more sustained threat in the new year to come from champions City, who play at Wolves tomorrow night.
For all that Leicester have been so impressive this season, they do lack a little in genuine squad depth. Injury to Vardy — who has 17 goals and has scored in all but one of his past nine League games — could derail them, for example.
Klopp said: ‘I think City moved the bar massively last season. The kind of consistency they showed in the last three years is incredible and difficult, very difficult to do. So they became champions two years ago and last year we helped a lot and they helped us a lot as we tried to catch up with them. They did it in an incredible way.
‘It has changed, you are not allowed to lose games anymore. It is difficult, obviously, but winning the Premier League should be difficult, it is such a strong league with all the teams you see now.’
News that Alex OxladeChamberlain damaged right ankle ligaments against Flamengo will be of concern to Klopp.
The former Arsenal player has shown excellent form recently. Equally, everybody at Liverpool will be relieved the injury is limited to the lower leg and not related to the knee that caused Oxlade-Chamberlain to miss a year of football last season.
Liverpool have home games against Wolves and Sheffield United after tonight’s fixture so it feels as though something must happen at the King Power if they are to be stopped.
Klopp’s men are world champions and proud of it, and it already feels as though they will be the next Premier League champions too. Nobody would doubt the significance of that achievement.