Seeing red
Liverpool face Everton at ideal time
“We will not defend the title next season; we’ll attack the next one,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said last July ahead of the 2020-21 English Premier League season starting.
“I have learned when you think you have reached the pinnacle, you are already on the way down.”
Liverpool had reached the pinnacle, winning their first title of the Premier League era and ending a 30-year wait for the club to be the English champions.
After running Manchester City to the wire the season before, Liverpool were imperious champions and runaway winners, finishing 18 points clear of Pep Guardiola’s side on 99 points – one more than City had amassed the year before.
Many thought that the procession would carry over the summer and into this season. Not Klopp. He also identified where the main threats to their quest to successfully retain the English title for the first time since 1984 would come from.
“City will be strong next season, [Manchester] United will be strong next season, Chelsea will be strong,” the German said.
“It’s obvious City is an outstanding team, United is in outstanding shape and Chelsea is in a really good shape and doing some interesting business.”
Klopp has been proved right, in part, conceding the title to City last weekend after losing to Leicester City.
Liverpool’s defeat – a third in a row for the first time since Brendan Rodgers was manager – was typified by mistakes from Alisson Becker in goal, a week on from two costly errors in a 4-1 home defeat to Manchester City. That Anfield annihilation was the first time that Liverpool had lost back to back games under Klopp in the league.
“I don’t think we can close the gap,” Klopp said after losing to Rodgers’ UEFA Champions League chasing Leicester. “We are not worrying about the title, we are not silly.”
“We have to win football games and big parts of the football were really good. We scored a great goal but conceded a strange one and I think it’s offside, and the [goal to make it] 2-1 is a misunderstanding. That had too big an impact on the game. We had to show a different reaction, and the third we gave away too easily.”
“We have to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings. Today we didn’t do that. The rest of the game was really good. First we have to perform again – results are massively related to the performance.”
“We are not looking for excuses. A lot of things happen. We should have done better. We spoke about that, in the moment, it’s tough. The only way out is to play good football, fight and work hard.”
Tuesday saw Liverpool travel to Budapest to play German side RB Leipzig, the neutral venue a nod to COVID-19 travel restrictions in Europe. They y passed that test, winning 2- 2-0 0 and taking control ntrol of the tie.
“I think hink people expected us to slip tonight,” Klopp said after the game. “I’m pretty sure a lot of people eople thought that it would be really tricky for Liverpool. And it was difficult, but we did it.
“I don’t on’t believe too much in motivation in that manner, where people want us to do badly ly and that makes us want to show them.
“Yes, s, we can use things like this from time me to time, but we don’t have enough h contact with the outside world to o really know how much people wish us to fail.”
The next step is of course the derby against Everton on Saturday and that at will have added spice as if it were needed. eeded.
Not only could the Toffees give Klopp more to o chew over with a fourth league defeat on the spin but an Everton win would move them level evel on 40 points with Liverpool with a game in n hand.
Everton rton have not beaten Liverpool since 2010 and nd have not finished above them in the league gue since 2004- 2004-05 05 – though the Reds ended the season lifting the UEFA Champions League. .
The main reason though is that it was the last derby rby in October where Liverpool lost defender er Virgil van Dijk to a season-ending injury inflicted by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. rd. Everton striker Richarlison then injured d Liverpool’s Thiago Alcantara in the dying minutes.
Liverpool rpool against Everton has seen more red cards ds then any other game in the Premier League era and Saturday may be no difffferent different as the champions may choose to show some fight a little too literally.
Whatever atever Klopp said, they are still fifighting fighting for the title. City boss Guardiola knows it.
“What hat I saw, the way they played today against t Leicester, of course we have to lose games, but of course they can do it,” the Catalan said d after his own team had beaten Spurs last weekend. ekend.
“It’s the same Liverpool that I met in the last few w years, but in the boxes they are not so clinical as they were before. It’s still there. But football l is boxes. Sometimes they have a period where here you have to create more and more to score e goals.
“Football otball is moods, feelings. And sometimes they hey need this type of spirit, but the quality of the team is still there. I don’t like to suffer them, but as a spectator I enjoy to watch Liverpool ool play football.”
He might not enjoy watching them on Saturday, depending on if they see red against the Blues, but he might enjoy watching them even less in the coming weeks.
A derby erby win for Liverpool could reinvigorate them for the run-in.