The excitement around Liverpool this season is palpable, but it’s different from the furor created by last year’s run to the Champions League final. You can see it in the eyes of the fans on the street and the Reds at work—they’re in a good spot, but no one wants to jinx the team. They feel confident about their chances, but can they really dare to dream?
The answer is a quietly-spoken ‘yes’. Under Klopp’s tutelage, Liverpool may not have won any silverware, but the progress they have made has been astounding. Not only is the team playing well, but the way the staff of the club conducts themselves has been a real credit to FSG and the German at the helm. While Evertonians like to call themselves ‘the people’s club,’ Liverpool are proving to be just as much a club of the people as their rivals.
A lift for the city
So, what would a win mean to the city of Liverpool? In these times of austerity when food banks outside football grounds are a necessity, a first league title for the city in almost 30 years would be just the tonic to give Liverpool a boost. Yes, Everton fans would hate to see their rivals win, but the overall benefits to Liverpool as a whole would be hard to ignore.
The Everton docklands project will no doubt create a lot of jobs in the future, but with costs rising, we may not see any benefits coming into the city until its proposed opening in 2022. What the city needs right now is a shot of happiness to go all around, and a title win would bring just that.
Is it possible?
In the recent weeks, the Reds have taken a bit of a wobble. Before December you never would have backed an opposing team to score; but since then their defensive wall has started to show signs of weakness and backing both teams to score in a Liverpool match would now seem like a safe bet. However, it’s not the wobble that many in the media would have you believe it is.
The win over Crystal Palace was a nervy affair, with more than a few in the ground relieved when the final whistle blew. James Milner’s red card may have been needless, but it showed how desperate the team was to get over the line. It doesn’t take a football statistician to know that Salah, Firmino, and Mane were key to the Reds’ Champions League run last season, but this year, it’s been all about the defence.
With only 13 goals conceded so far this season, to say that the backline has improved would be a massive understatement. But it’s not just the capture of Alisson and Van Dijk that led to such a mean defence. Klopp has shown us that he can adapt, and his new sense of pragmatism is shining through in each match. Unfortunately, the days of ‘attack at all costs’ are gone, but all Liverpool fans will agree that seeing out a match and remaining at the top of the league is what it’s all about.
The recent spate of injuries has seen the backline down to the bare bones, but with Fabinho performing well, it seems that Klopp has navigated this spell fairly well. And with both Joe Gomez and Joel Matip returning to fitness, things can get back to normal. The FA cup defeat is the one stain that will be hard to wash out, but should the Reds lift their first league title since 1990, the fans won’t care one bit.
Whether you’re a blue or a red, you have to admit that in the gloom of an uncertain economy—with Brexit looming and people going hungry—a title win would give the city and the surrounding areas such an incredible lift. Happy faces are hard to ignore, and smiling is contagious. Perhaps even the odd Evertonian or two might crack a smile in May if it means that their friends of the red persuasion have something to shout about. Then again, perhaps not!
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