The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
I fear final failure marks the end not the beginning of a Liverpool era
Ifear the Premier League could turn into the Bundesliga with the same team winning it every season. Yes, I know Pep Guardiolia is only currently contracted to Manchester City until the end of next season and I also know Liverpool have worked wonders just to stay in touch with a superior side in recent seasons, but I sense the Reds are coming to the end or an era rather than arriving at the beginning of something special.
Winning a quadruple was always fanciful, but this was their chance to achieve something heroic with a team at its peak and the blew it.
They had the easiest run through a major competition since England at the last World Cup and they still failed to win the Champions League Final against a Real Madrid side who would struggle to finish top four in the Premier League.
In the knockout stages Liverpool scraped past Inter MIlan,
who finished runners-up in a low standard Serie A this season, after managing to lose the home leg, before beating a Benfica team who finished 17 points off top spot in the Portuguese League.
They then saw off Villareal, who must be the worst team ever to reach the final four, and who will represent Spain in the European Conference League next season.
This of course didn’t faze the multitude of Liverpool fans/ former players who hog punditry duties at their games.
Michael Owen has surely ruined his chances of working in TV again after claiming his first club were still the best team in Europe at the end of a week when they didn’t win their domestic competition or the Champions League.
So-called ‘mentality monsters’ don’t reach three finals and fail to score in any of them, relying onstead on the lottery of a penalty shootout to win a couple of cups which are way down on a list of priorities of major clubs as well as mid-table sides like West Ham United and Brighton.
Instead of four trophies they won two.
Doubts now exist about the long-term future of Sadio Mane and Mo Salah and good luck replacing players of that quality.
Others surely don’t have long left at the top level, while only a fully fit Thiago would get into the City midfield.
A City side, incidentally, who have probably clinched the 2022-23 Premier League title just by signing a proper centrefoward in Erling Haalad.
Don’t forget City have finished above Liverpool in the last two editions often playing without a centre-forward, thanks to the brilliance of their manager.
I hope I’m wrong and Jurgen Klopp, a breath of fresh air in our football, can find midfielders capable of creating and can teach Trent Alexader-Arnold how to defend, but It’s a long shot.
Klopp deserves success for creating a top (but not as great as City) side much more than those fans of his club who believe booing the national anthem is defendable.
If they really think they live in Scouseland rather than England why do they, and their sycophants the media, wail every time Trent AlexanderArnold isn’t selected by Gareth Southgate?