With VAR and no long term injuries to important players effectively giving Liverpool a twelfth and thirteenth player in every game plus the amount of goals they manage to score in what can now be termed as “Klopp time”, it is difficult to see any other team mounting a serious challenge for the title this season.
They have the dubious distinction of being the “best team in Europe”, whilst not being the best team in England, an anomaly the type of which is regularly thrown up by football. It’s similar to when Cristiano Ronaldo was voted best player in the world but Lionel Messi was the best in Europe, duh!
This season sees the best opportunity for years whereby Liverpool can prove they are the tops in both worlds, England and Europe, but will they do it?
The early indications are yes, they will. This has to be countered by the fact that Liverpool, over the last few seasons have also become quite good at being the nearly men. They have either finished marginally behind the eventual champions or have been overtaken when in a reasonably comfortable position. On both of these occasions it was Manchester City who became champions and there is always the possibility that they will do so again.
The difference this time around appears to be that Liverpool are winning more consistently than ever and City are not!
With an eight points cushion to their nearest rivals, who just happen to be Leicester City and Chelsea at the moment, it is difficult to see the Merseysiders losing three games between now and the end of the season but, as we have already said, injuries to important players could see that opinion change.
Could this man see his team finish second in the Premier League for the second time?
They have experienced life without their first choice goalkeeper for a short while when Alisson was out with injury but the likes of van Dijk, Firmino, Mané and Salah have been very lucky on that front to date and have stayed injury free.
How would they cope? We have yet to find out but City, who are suffering currently because they are without their best central defender in Aymeric Laporte and one of their first choice wingers in Leroy Sané both through injury and the decision of Vincent Kompany to return to Belgium has also had a negative effect, are sitting in fourth place and not looking anything like the team which won the title last term.
Having said that, in their recent game at Anfield they were the better side throughout the ninety minutes and the result could, and probably should, have been very different had VAR not worked, wrongly, in Liverpool’s favour.
In fact City could argue that VAR has been their worst enemy since it’s inception considering that decisions made by the “man who can see for miles” have cost them a chance of winning last season’s Champion’s League, certainly cost them two points at home to Tottenham and now probably cost them the game at Anfield.
Still, the title is won over a season of 38 games, not just the two against your closest rivals and the hope on one side of Manchester, (if not two because of who the rivals are), is that Liverpool will drop points against more lowly opposition. Even Jürgen Klopp’s team have been guilty of a little complacency in the past and, while it hasn’t yet been too costly, there is always the chance that a draw in a game which should have been won can be the difference between finishing as champions or as runners-up.
There’s still a long way to go but, even at this early stage, it is Liverpool’s to lose.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 