DM1ST
mirror.co.uk/sport THURSDAY 05.03.2020 DAILY MIRROR^53
BRIAN READE
At the heart of football
joyous. To be named, within
12 months, club champions of
Europe, the world and
England would be beyond the
wildest dreams of most
Kopites. Especially champions
of this country – because,
over three decades, that is the
one they have ached for.
To win it up against this
incredible Manchester City
side, who averaged 99 points
in the previous two seasons,
is enough of an achievement
for now. There’s no point
being greedy when you’re
already gorging yourself to
breaking point.
If they win the league, the
release of that 30-year-old
mental pressure valve will see
Liverpudlians partying harder
than they ever have.
The question of whether
Klopp’s team bears
comparison with Fergie’s
Treble-winners or Arsene
Wenger’s Invincibles can be
left for another day.flattering, but meaningless
sideshow.
Nobody was celebrating at
the end of last season, having
secured the third-highest
top-flight points haul. It just
made the pain harder.
The most important game
now is Bournemouth on
Saturday. Win that and they’re
nine points from the title.
Win that title and,
regardless of what
happened at Watford
and Chelsea or
against Atletico
Madrid next week,
it’s impossible for
this season to be
remembered as
anything
other than
u t t e r l ythe owners can’t argue if
Klopp tells them he needs
more depth and variation in
his squad to move forward.
Serious money needs to be
spent this summer bringing
in top-class competition up
front, in attacking midfield
and at left-back as too many
laurels are being rested on.
Plus, as was evidenced
at Stamford Bridge,
there are senior
squad players just
not up to it.
The tsunami of
statistics that
greeted Liverpool’s
winning exploits
were always – as
far as Anfield
was concerned- a very
machines down the years,
they knew there was no basis
for the comparisons with past
greats, as this side has only
won one big, proper trophy.
When Arsenal went
unbeaten in 2003/4, it was
their third title in seven
seasons and when
United won the
top European and
domestic Treble in
1998/9, it was
their fifth title in
seven years. Both
also won the FA Cup three
times during those periods.
They were superb sides,
containing winners who were
peaking when those towering
benchmarks were set.
The statistics over the past
12 months may back up the
view that this Liverpool side
are exceptional “mentality
monsters” – but they are not
the finished article.
The real blessing in disguise
over the past fortnight is thatA NARRATIVE began to
emerge last month that
Liverpool had decided to
set their sights on an
unbeaten season and the
ultimate Treble.
That, having all but
wrapped up the title, their
ambitions had
been scaled up to
emulating
Arsenal’s
Invincibles and
Manchester
United’s Treble-
winners. Suddenly there were
TV graphics and phone-ins
helping pundits decide where
Jurgen Klopp’s “Unbeatables”
sat in the pantheon of all-time
great sides.
The flip-side of the
immortality prematurely
being thrust on them was
simple to predict: as soon as
either of their supposed
objectives were missed, their
season would be deemed, at
best, an anti-climax and, at
worst, a failure. Hence the
current post-mortems.
The truth, though, is that
these objectives were an
invention by outside forces.
Not only did Klopp’s
annoyance at having them
put to him after every win tell
us that, you would have
struggled to hear a serious
discussion between match-
going Liverpool fans about
the possibility of going
unbeaten or winning a Treble.
All that consumed them
was the league.
Talk of the Watford defeat
being a blessing in disguise, as
it threw the unbeaten monkey
off their back, was never in
their thoughts.
The only burden at Anfield
is the 30-year absence of a
title parade.
Plus, having witnessed one
or two trophy-winningForget being unbeatable...
to be the world, European
& English champions all in
12 months would be joyous
PEP Guardiola’s haul of
domestic trophies at
Manchester City these past
three seasons has been nothing
short of magnificent.
so magnificent it needs no
overhyping, as Guardiola did when
he bragged: “i’ve won all six finals
since i’ve been part of this group.
it’s remarkable to win eight of the
last nine titles.”
He’s counting the Community
shield as two of those finals and two
of those titles. sorry Pep, but the
Community shield doesn’t count as
a final or a title, just a meaningless
friendly before the season starts.
The Champions league does
though. Which is another reason
why City need to break their duck
and leave the counting of minor
trinkets to lesser teams.IT’S that time of the
season when the talk
becomes more and more
about who will be relegated, and
you hear ex-players and pundits
on TV and radio studios say
about teams they have never
played for or have no obvious
affinity with: “If I’m going to be
honest I’m really worried for
them.” No. If you’re going to be
honest, you’re really not.The only burden
at Anfield is a
30-year absence
of a title paradeiT’s hard to know what made Gareth
southgate wince harder on sunday
as he gathers his thoughts for the
Euros.
Jordan Pickford’s howler at
Goodison that gifted Manchester
united an equaliser, or John stones’s
howler at Wembley that let aston
Villa back into the Carabao Cup final.
Both were part of a pattern that
suggests these two key England men
are either developing concentration
lapses at key moments or just aren’t
up to it at the highest level.
But there was a bigger picture in
both of those games that should
have lifted southgate’s spirits. at
Goodison dominic Calvert-lewin now
looks consistently like a real goal
threat, Mason Holgate is blossoming
into a genuine star under Carlo
ancelotti, and aaron Wan-Bissaka is
starting to look like the £45million
player united hoped he’d be.
Meanwhile at Wembley, Phil Foden
was man of the match and Jack
Grealish may not have had the
greatest of games but was again
Villa’s biggest threat and yet again
showed touches of his obvious class.
The doubts persist over whether
Harry Kane or Marcus rashford will
be fully fit for the Euros and others
may be lost to injury before then.
But southgate must be secretly
chuffed that he’s watching games
most weekends which offer evidence
there are plenty of others coming
through.Hope behind
the howlers
JUST HAND
IT TO HIM
Klopp has so much to
celebrate, despite the
recent losses to
Atletico, Watford
and Chelsea