Liverpool are deservedly in the final of the Champions League, and are looking to win Europe’s biggest club competition for the 6th time in their history.
Liverpool have impressed many supporters this season with their attacking displays of football both at home, and on the continent. On their day, Liverpool are capable of beating any team, and possess the likes of Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino, Emre Can, and Sadio Mane in their talented front line.
With Liverpool making it to the Champions League final, and Mo Salah breaking Premier League goal scoring records, fans and pundits alike are queuing up to sing their praises.
However, are Liverpool really as great a team as the media and supporters are making out? Are they a genuine European footballing power? Or are they having a good season albeit, punching slightly above their weight?
First of all, no one can state that Liverpool are not one of the legendary clubs of European football history. Their record of trophies alone means that their status will always be that of a major football club. 18 domestic titles and 5 European Cups is something any supporter would be proud of. Not to mention the various domestic cups they have won in the past.
But for the basis of this article, we are looking at Liverpool as a football club in their current form, and cover some of their recent campaigns, rather than dwell too much on the distant past.
First we will look at Liverpool’s Premier League campaign for the season just ended. Liverpool finished in 4th place in the league, scoring 84 goals and conceding only 38 in the process. This gives them the second best goal scoring record in the league after Manchester City’s whopping 103 goals, and also gives them the joint fourth best defensive record, along with Chelsea, but not as good as the two Manchester clubs, and Tottenham.
How did Liverpool fair when playing against their top 6 opponents? There is a mini league of the top 6 clubs which will illustrate how the biggest teams in England compare, when based purely on their form against each other.
In this season’s mini league Liverpool finished 5th out of six, behind the two Manchester teams, Tottenham, and Chelsea, but above Arsenal. Their record in the mini league is scored 16, and conceded 21 goals. The second worst after Arsenal.
Liverpool were applauded for being the first, and one of only two teams this season, to beat the runaway Champion Manchester City. But in their five games against top six opponents they won a total of ten points with only two wins and 4 draws.
Beating Manchester City and smashing Arsenal 4-0 on the opening game of the season, accounting for the two wins. The second game against Arsenal resulted in a draw, and they also manged draws against Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester United, all of which were home games.
If you look at the away form against top six clubs, Liverpool managed just one point out of a possible 15, with that point coming against the weakest team in the pack; Arsenal.
The other games resulted in a 5-0 loss to Man City, a 2-1 loss to Man United, a 1-0 loss to Chelsea, and a 4-1 defeat at Spurs.
With that in mind, it put into question Liverpool’s ability to beat the very best teams. Yes, they may well score four or five goals against inferior opposition, but when they play the big teams, it is clear that they struggle.
But what about Liverpool’s European form? They are in the final after all, and any team that gets there surely deserves it on merit. That is correct, despite how you get there, you can only beat the teams that are put in front of you, and Liverpool are clearly in the final on merit.
The two wins against Manchester City in the Quarter Final stage alone, gives them credibility. Over the two fixtures, manager Jurgen Klopp got the tactics spot on, and showed just how you beat a team like City.
But what about the rest of their European campaign? Liverpool had possibly the best group they could have asked for. The opponents in the group stage were very weak, and the only surprise that came out of the group was that Liverpool didn’t top the group by more points.
Their opponents in the group stage were NK Maribor (who?) Spartak Moscow (not exactly a team full of star players, and Sevilla, the seventh best team in the Spanish League based on this year’s table.
Liverpool then played FC Porto in the first round of the knockouts. This is probably the worst Porto team in some time, and it is no surprise that Liverpool beat them convincingly. I would genuinely expect any team in the top 10 of the Premier League, to beat the current Porto team.
Liverpool then of course did the double over Man City, which has to be the highlight of their season so far, and does deserve admiration and respect. City went into the game as heavy favourites, but got the tactics wrong, leaving them open to Liverpool’s counter attack. No complaints here. Liverpool deserved the win.
Liverpool then went on to face Roma in the Semi Final where they won the first leg convincingly, but were very lucky to come through in the end following a Roma fightback in the second leg, where Roma were unlucky with some of the refereeing decisions given.
Roma are no minnows, having finished third in the Italian league this year, and having beat Barcelona in the quarter finals. However they were the best possible choice that Liverpool could have had at that stage, with the alternatives being Real Madrid, or Bayern Munich.
Although Roma are a good team, able to beat big teams on their day, they are not in that elite category of teams feared across the continent. Chelsea for example were knocked out by Barcelona, and Spurs by Juventus. Both teams that have a higher status in Europe.
If Liverpool go on to win the competition, it will be great for the Premier League, and the English game. They will also most likely be supported by most neutrals who do not want to see Real Madrid win it again after dominating for the past few years.
As stated previously, if they do win the Champions League, then they will have deserved it as they will have beat every team put in front of them. My intention here is not to discredit their achievement, but rather to put some perspective on it.
But whether Liverpool win it or not, you could argue that their season has been good, if not great. But the media, in England at least, seem to constantly suggest that Liverpool are this great team, and that they are a serious football power-house. The coverage of Liverpool in the newspapers, and on TV, and the praise they receive from pundits, is disproportional to their performances on the pitch.
Once again, it is important to note Liverpool’s rich history, and the successes they have had in the past, and this could partly explain the fascination with the club.
There is also the fact that Mo Salah has mesmerised fans up and down the country, with his performances for Liverpool this season, resulting in a golden boot, and record goal scoring campaign.
But based on current, and recent form; where do Liverpool stand amongst the top six clubs? Well, on recent form this is easy, they are fourth. And as they say, the table doesn’t lie. But if you look over the past 5 seasons, or even the last ten seasons, then you would have to say that Liverpool are the sixth.
Being a top six team is an achievement on it’ own, but why are Liverpool still seen by many to be a top two or three club. Again, we know the history of the club, but even based on recent form, it seems that everyone always expect Liverpool to do much better than they end up achieving.
At the start of each season you will start to see the pundits in the media state their predictions for the season. Who will win the league, which team will get a Champions league spot etc. Every single year without fail, a large portion of these “experts” predict a Liverpool success, even when there is very little reason to think so.
Why is this? Are people basing their opinions on past successes? Do they genuinely believe that Liverpool are going to surprise everyone? Or is it simply a case of the media being dominated by ex-Liverpool players, and fans?
Most journalists are at the age where the Liverpool were the dominant team of their childhood era. Could this be the reason for the biases?
In the last ten years, United, City, Chelsea, and Arsenal have all been more successful than Liverpool. Whether you base it on trophies won, or final league positions.
The closest team to Liverpool right now, and the team that is probably best to measure them against is Spurs. They are in a very similar position at the moment. Both are teams that are showing progress, are regularly competing with the bigger teams in English football, but both seem to fall short at the final hurdle.
Historically, Liverpool are by far the bigger team, but what about in recent years? If you were new to football and were to believe the media hype, you would assume that Liverpool were currently the better team, or at least the more successful of the two in recent years.
But this isn’t really the case; in the last 10 years Tottenham have finished above Liverpool 8 times, including 8 of the last 9 seasons. In that time Spurs have failed to win a trophy, where Liverpool have won one, albeit the League cup back in 2012.
So what can Liverpool do to return to their glory years? Especially if they do not win the Champions League Final this month? It is not an easy task; the way money has come into the game, giving oil rich billionaire backed clubs a huge advantage, it is more difficult than ever for a team in Liverpool’s position to force their way back into the setup.
They are however, doing the correct thing. The only thing they really can do, which is to attract all the top players they can get, without paying silly amounts.
They have a great manager in Jurgen Klopp, who has brought stability to the club. They are purchasing top players, but only players that haven’t been snapped up by the big clubs yet, mostly young talented players. And when they do sell their best players, they are receiving the highest amount possible, and reinvesting in the next big thing.
They are doing everything right, but they need to take baby steps. They don’t have the options available to Chelsea, Man City, and PSG, where they can take punts worth hundreds of millions, on players from all over the world.
Liverpool were a great team in the past, but are currently a sleeping giant. They don’t however need the pressure and the hype which comes from the media. They are better left to keep quietly [progressing as they have been, and maybe then, the sleeping giant will awake.
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