POOL WON’T CARE ABOUT LOSING TAG
Liverpool are motoring towards the Premier League title and a record points total.
But I reckon once they seal the deal, they’ll take their foot off the gas and turn their attention to the Champions League.
That’s why I’m convinced the Reds will not be concerned in the slightest about losing the “Invincibles” tag after yesterday’s defeat away at Watford.
The bottom line is this – there will come a time very soon when Liverpool will win the title.
Once they’ve done that, their manager will have two options.
He can keep playing his strongest side week-in, week-out, and aim to go unbeaten.
Or he can ease the load on his main men by keeping them in tip-top shape for a tilt at the Champions League.
That’s the option I think he’ll go for. Jurgen’s not daft – he knows that leading a side into the ranks of the “Invincibles” would have been historic.
But a Premier League and Champions
League double would be even more memorable.
It would also add up to a second Champions League on the spin for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Can they do it? If their manager is smart about how and when he uses his squad, they absolutely can.
And, by the way, if Manchester City knock Real Madrid out this week, they will have done the Reds a big favour.
City are obviously a fantastic side in their own right.
But I reckon Jurgen Klopp would feel more comfortable being drawn against Pep Guardiola’s side than against Real.
There’s a familiarity there, given they are domestic rivals.
And few teams have done more damage to City than Liverpool over the last five years or so.
The Anfield men have been building to the level they’re at now throughout that period.
How would I describe that level? Magic.
Looking through that Liverpool side, you very quickly run out of superlatives
Looking through that side, you quickly run out of superlatives.
For me, Roberto Firmino has been absolutely huge for Liverpool this season.
He might not be hitting the net as much as he’d like, but his contribution to the cause has been first-class from day one.
Then there’s big Virgil van Dijk – and what more can we say about him?
Maybe the best compliment I could pay him is to say that he makes everyone playing around him look 30% better.
They’re my two standouts, but there simply isn’t a weak link in Jurgen Klopp’s side.
When I think back to the Liverpool teams I faced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they were like that too – and with a spine of Scots.
At the back they had the likes of Alan Hansen, big Phil Thompson, Alan Kennedy and Mark Lawrenson.
Through the middle there were guys like Graeme Souness, Steve Nicoll and Terry McDermott.
Then, up top, my fellow Sunday Post columnist, King Kenny Dalglish, ruled the roost, with Ian Rush in support.
What a team they were by the way. You knew you were in a game against that lot, let me tell you!
They weren’t invincible – but they were great. And I reckon Jurgen Klopp’s current crop can boss things the same way over the coming years.