Kop stars JAN LOVES CLASS OF 20
EXCLUSIVE
THE heroes of Liverpool’s glorious past are craving title success just like the supporters.
Jan Molby, a three-time champion of England in his playing days, had been asking the same questions for months. ‘Do you think they’ll do it?’
‘Do you think they’ll make it?’ With the lead at the top of the Premier League now 22 points, he has stopped asking those questions.
The former midfield maestro, still a fixture at Anfield these days working as a pundit for Danish television, is now trying to find the answer to a different question.
How do Jurgen Klopp (right) and his superstars compare with the last Liverpool team to lift the title, the one that Molby and the likes of Alan Hansen and John Barnes played for in 1990?
His verdict is a fascinating insight into how the game has changed.
“I think a lot more work has gone into this team today,” said Molby.
“Back then there wasn’t the same preparation in getting the team to do the things they did. It was more reliant on a bit of individual brilliance as well as a strong team ethic. Football in our day was played off some organisation and then you’d think, ‘Where is a little bit of magic?’
“In today’s game everything they do is taken care of. Defensive zones in your own half
– you work on that. You work on defensive shape. You work on set-pieces, for and against.
You work on pressing, all those things.
“It reminds me of when
I was at Ajax as a young kid – how we walked through every step of the game.
“With this team you feel that every single thing has been worked on. When I was a player at Anfield we used to train. Today they practice. It’s like being a golfer. You practice the same things again and again until it’s perfection. “People were sceptical when Liverpool got a throw-in coach but you look at the way that they get themselves out of trouble and pin the opposition in. It’s all these little things that add up.” Molby knows another question is coming, and he answers with admirable diplomacy.
Which team is better – the side of the late 1980s-early 90s or Klopp’s current world champions? “We were easier to get at because if our full-backs went forward we hadn’t prepared for a counter,” the Dane said.
“But I’d say that the Liverpool of today would not enjoy defending against John Barnes or Kenny Dalglish. “We had some fantastic players in our side.”