R
E
D
M
ENhomeland Holland, the Eredivisie was declared void
with no champions and the final rankings only used
to decide on European qualification.
Did Gini, who captained Feyenoord to the Dutch
tile in 2015, fear a similar outcome here?
“You realise it can happen and you keep that in
mind, but the way I was thinking was if they decided
to cancel the league it would be fairer to give us the
title.
“Otherwise I would have had the feeling that we
had been robbed because of the way we had played
this season and the amount of points that we were
ahead of the other teams. But I always had the trust
that if they were going to stop the league it would be
fairer to give us the title.
“I trusted that they would give it to us if they
cancelled it, so I was quite comfortable waiting.”
You don’t win a Premier League title without key
moments, goals and victories along the way so I ask
Gini, who has played in every league game bar the
3-0 win at Bournemouth, if there was a particular
game when he came off the pitch believing that
Liverpool were ready to be champions?
“The game against Leicester City away, a really
difficult game,” he replies. “We had played them at
home and it was quite difficult. We only won 2-1 with
a late penalty and we had difficult circumstances
when we had to go to Leicester because we had
been away to play in the Club World Cup.
“The travelling to Qatar, playing twice, coming
back and three days later playing the team that were
directly behind us in the league table was a really
difficult situation, but we played a really good game
and won it 4-0.
“That game gave me a really big confidence.
I was thinking: if we can do this as a team then
we are able to win a lot of big things.
“Another one that was important was the 2-1 win
against our next opponents at Anfield, Aston Villa.
That was one of the hardest away games, and so
was the game at Wolves. We still managed to win
that one at Aston Villa in the last couple of minutes,
and we also won late at Wolves.
“If you do it over and over again it’s not
co-incidence any more, it’s just quality. Those
wins gave a lot of confidence to the team.”
The last time Aston Villa arrived at Anfield with
Liverpool as champions was in September 1990,
John Barnes curling home an 87th-minute winner in
a 2-1 victory. Dean Smith’s side may be hoping that,
with the title already in the bag, the relentless Reds
take their foot off the gas. They could be in for a rude
awakening if they do.
“We want to win all the rest of our matches,” says
Wijnaldum with an ominous focus in his voice. “It’s
going to be difficult because we are playing against
really good opponents, but nothing is impossible.
“Everyone will think now that because we are
already champions we will not try as hard and we
are not going to do our best. But we want to win as
much as possible and set a new points record. That
is what we are trying to do.”
On the evidence of what they have achieved so
far this season, you would not put achieving a new
record points tally – currently standing at 100 set by
Manchester City in 2018 – past the Premier League
champions.19
INTERVIEW
: Chris McLoughlin