Liverpool have not ‘bottled it’. They’re still toe-to-toe with one of the greatest teams in Prem history
ALL this talk of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool bottling it meant it was inevitable that the Kevin Keegan analogy would soon surface.
And there, on social media, following the German’s emotional reaction to the goalless Merseyside derby which kept his side off top spot, were the gleeful observations that he was panicking like it was 1996. They weren’t alone.
A newspaper mocked him up as Keegan with headphones on, in full “I’d love it if we beat them,” mode, next to a headline proclaiming him “a very fraught messiah”.
BBC’s Five Live experts spent half- an- hour arguing whether Liverpool are bottling it and on Sky’s The Debate, Paul Merson observed: “Panic is setting in, as shown by the substitutions, bringing on Adam Lallana for Sadio Mane, you’ve got to win that game.” That’s the same Lallana who Merson has previously said should be a shoo-in for England when fit because he “can unpick tight defences”.
In hindsight, maybe complaining about the wind, having a face-off with a mickey-taking ball-boy and getting snarky with a reporter wasn’t Klopp’s best look, even if wasted chances had left him hugely frustrated after the intense, high-stakes Goodison derby.
But is that proof that the twiceBundesliga winner is on the cusp of that famous Keeganesque meltdown (below) due to choking in the title race? Not quite.
It was April 29, 1996 when the Newcastle boss unravelled publicly with two games of the season left, after Alex Ferguson had turned the psychological screw. They had already lost eight times.
Sunday was March 3 and Klopp’s Liverpool are a point behind a team widely-regarded as the greatest in
Premier League history, with nine games to go.
They’ve lost only once all season, and taken 70 points.
That’s only eight fewer than Newcastle’s final 1996 tally with 27 still to play for.
As much as many would love it, there’s little evidence that Klopp’s bum has squeaked.
Even the widely-touted 10point gap he’s supposed to have blown is stretching the truth.
The last weekend of 2018 ended with Liverpool seven points ahead of Manchester City. It’s just that Liverpool played 20 hours before Pep Guardiola’s men, hence briefly stretching that lead.
A few days later they went to the Etihad for the toughest fixture of the season and narrowly lost to the champions, reducing the gap to four points.
Since then four points have been dropped at the homes of their two most bitter rivals, a pumped-up Everton and the league’s form side, Manchester United. Their lead may have been lost but a large part of that is down to an incredibly strong City winning nine out of their last 10 matches to haul them in. A City who looked to be so far ahead of the pack in early December some experts were arguing they should be handed the title there and then. Did Pep Guardiola bottle it when he allowed Klopp to get in front?
This Liverpool side finished 25 points behind City last season. Right now it’s only one.
And their current points total after 29 games beats 23 of the last 26 title-winning sides including Arsenal’s Invincibles.
Figures that suggest rather than cracking up, Klopp is managing to close the gap on the most expensive team ever assembled led by the most garlanded manager of his generation.
The German has an inferior squad to Guardiola’s, especially in creative areas. And his men rode their luck late in games in the first half of the season: The freak Divock Origi derby goal ( left), Riyad Mahrez squandering a last- minute penalty at Anfield etc.
That luck has deserted him of late but if it returns we should have a thrilling title race that lasts for another two months.
Which has to be good for English football.
Instead of dissing Klopp as a choker we should be praising him for being the only manager with the bottle to stay on City’s coat-tails.