FOWLER Klopp’s signings are exciting but Liverpool are still playing catch-up with City slickers
Our Anfield legend always hits the mark
Yes, Alisson is world class. It’s a strong statement of intent and Reds fans are buzzing. But Manchester City are still the team to catch.
I’m thrilled at Liverpool’s spending during the summer, bringing in Alisson, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri (right, top) and Naby Keita (right).
But City finished 25 points clear of Liverpool when they won the Premier League title in May. It would take a huge swing to turn that round.
So I don’t think anyone associated with Liverpool can come out and say: ‘Yes, we’re going to win the Premier League’ with any great confidence.
I believe they will put more pressure on City, but Liverpool are still playing catch-up. It’s the same for every other team in the Premier League.
We have to be realistic. That points difference is massive.
It’s still brilliant, signing all these players, especially with £75m defender Virgil van Dijk starting the season in the same defence as Alisson.
There’s also Fabinho and Keita. They are all brilliant, on paper – though Jurgen Klopp has to make sure they all gel. He will be looking to get them working well as a unit from the off. But look at Manchester City again – they have brought in Riyad Mahrez from Leicester for £60m. They’re not standing still.
In fact, right now in the Premier League if you’re not signing players you are going backwards, never mind ‘standing still’.
If you don’t sign decent players you can expect to slip down the pecking order.
Liverpool are heading in the right direction. They are not allowing themselves to become detached. They are looking stronger.
Hopefully, Klopp can scatter some magic dust over the new boys, and my old club can hit the ground running.
The good thing is that Liverpool have also gone about their transfer business the way they used to years ago. They have acquired their targets quietly and effectively. They have brought them in early doors, without any great fuss. Everyone knows Liverpool’s weakness has been the goalkeeping position. That came back to haunt them with the mistakes of Loris Karius in the Champions League final. Signing Alisson (right, top), Brazil’s World Cup keeper – who is joined by fellow Brazilian Fabinho (right) – puts down a marker. Alisson is undoubtedly a world class player, but the Premier League is tough. There will be times when he will makes mistakes. David De Gea took time to settle at Manchester United before becoming recognised as a great goalkeeper. Alisson’s signing was urgently needed. Liverpool have stood by Karius over the summer and pre-season, but the new campaign was always going to be brutal for the German. He would have got huge stick and that not only places extra pressure on him, but on the whole club. So to go out and spend big on a star keeper is great for everyone connected with Anfield, the fans included.
He’s been spared it now, but the pressure on Karius would surely have been intense once the season started. He has even been getting stick in pre-season games.
It’s the way the world is these days, I’m afraid. If you make a mistake, people are ready to jump on it and use it as a weapon to try and undermine you.
If Karius had continued as Liverpool’s No.1 keeper the focus would have been on him in every single game – people looking for his next mistake. That’s extra pressure on everyone around him too.
And he got it wrong when he posted a video of himself having fun in a Los Angeles mansion – swimming and posing next to a flash car – just days after his mistakes cost Liverpool so dearly in Kiev.
He should have been lying low and not drawing attention to himself while the memory of that defeat was still raw.
If he had wanted to post a video it should have been of him working hard on the training ground, making loads of saves, not looking like someone out of Baywatch.
I’m certain the decision to release that video was his alone.
No one at Liverpool would ever have condoned it.