‘Winning the title is no longer enough for Liverpool..they need to sweep the lot and be remembered forever like Fergie’s boys of 99’
LIVERPOOL’S challenge now is to become a team for the history books.
Only then will we be able to compare Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool to the modern day benchmark – the Manchester United treble-winning side of 1999.
History will celebrate Liverpool’s dominance in the league. They may well be invincible this season. They could win the league ridiculously early in mid to late March.
But what if they don’t add the European title and/or the FA Cup? What are they then?
Just another team who won the title? Or the double like United, Arsenal and Chelsea have? They would be just another successful side.
But they have the chance to be much more.
Klopp’s squad have to become a team that we talk about in 20 years time, like the way we still talk about that United team. To do that you need to win the treble.
That ’99 team won the Premier League, but had already won it in four of the previous six seasons.
Then they won it the two seasons after ’99 as well. It was an era when United won eight titles in 11 years after the Premier League was formed. That is the difference.
When United won it in ’99 they finished with 79 points in 38 games. Liverpool are already on 73 from 25 games. Does that make this Liverpool side better?
I would argue that United’s performance was relative to the strength of the league at the time, with Arsenal and Chelsea – both very strong teams – within four points of the top.
Speak to players from United who won that treble and you realise how close they came to missing out.
The FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal came down to a Dennis Bergkamp missed penalty. The Champions League final? Two goals right at the end.
Liverpool might walk the league this season, but to be compared to that great United side of 1999 they have to do the treble under the same pressures in key games. That said,
Klopp has a group of players who have hit such a rhythm that they don’t know how to lose.
Their work ethic is beyond anything we have seen. They have complete balance in a team that is untouchable right now. They’ve had injuries, and come through unscathed.
The question is, what happens when they win the league? They have to recalibrate their goals. Going unbeaten will become a target.
But how do you balance that, when you have two other competitions to win?
At the start of the season winning the Premier League would have been good enough for many Liverpool fans. It is the one they wanted after 30 years of hoping.
But there are eras in football which are characterised by certain teams. Liverpool in the late 70s and early 80s. Nottingham Forest under Clough and their two European Cups. The modern United under
PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool need just six wins to lift their first Premier League crown – and that will become even less if Manchester City drop points. If Liverpool win their next five matches, they can be crowned champions on Saturday March 21 by beating Crystal Palace at home in the 5.30pm kick-off. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Jurgen Klopp’s side take the next step in their defence of their crown on Tuesday week at the Estadio Metropolitano – the venue where they won the Champions League – to face Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie. If they progress and have won the Premier
League by March 21, that pressure will be off as the Champions League quarter-finals are not until early April.
Chelsea away now await Liverpool in the fifth round during the first week of March and will Klopp play his young side again? So far so good for those who have stepped in but this match will be the biggest challenge. With the Treble within their reach, they will not want to blow it at this stage.
Fergie. You have a very brief window of doing something defining, so Liverpool now have to ram their dominance down everyone’s throats. One title is not enough.
I would hope Liverpool want three, four, five or six titles. They must not let go of the aura they have.
That United treble-winning team were bang in the middle of a run of eight league titles in 11 years. That is the dominance Liverpool want.
They have worked so hard and spent so much money to create a team that people all over Europe are jealous of.
Jealous of the manager, the fan base, the Anfield atmosphere, the style of football they play. Jealous of everything Liverpool have right now.
When you find that, you don’t let it go. They will keep the group together and add to it, because why would players be looking to leave?
They might not win eight league titles in 11 years, but they need a period of dominance – two or three years of it – so they can then be compared to that United side.
Until that happens they are just a great side in the isolation of one particular Premier League season.
PREMIER LEAGUE
The drama went all the way to the final afternoon as United played Tottenham at home knowing the title was theirs if they won. But after 24 minutes Les Ferdinand had Spurs ahead. It did not last long and goals from David Beckham and Andy Cole secured a 2-1 victory and the first part of the Treble as United lifted the title by a point from defending champions Arsenal. FA CUP
Roy Keane went off injured after only nine minutes against Newcastle at Wembley and was replaced by Teddy Sheringham. Within two minutes, Sheringham (left) had put United ahead and Paul Scholes grabbed the second goal in a straightforward 2-0 win. Next stop, the Nou Camp. CHAMPIONS LEAGUE United produced the most astonishing comeback to defeat Bayern Munich 2-1 with both goals in injury time. Sheringham struck in the 91st minute and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer pounced two minutes later to earn his place in United immortality. The treble had been achieved.
Liverpool’s work ethic is beyond anything we have seen