It was noticeable in their post-match interviews that both Jurgen Klopp and Jordan Henderson refused to answer any questions regarding the destination of the Premier League title. This is a classic trademark in football, of course, which is a superstitious sport in which players, coaches and supporters refuse to make any bold proclamations in case they come back to haunt them.
The win is the thing. Sometimes when Liverpool have won a game of football this season, the performance has been a thing of beauty. And other times….well, not so much. But when all is said and done the history books only remember the champions, and it doesn’t really matter how you take care of business as long as its done.
It gets no better than this. The absolute blueprint for a FA Cup third round tie against your bitter local rivals is to make nine changes to your starting eleven, in order to rest players, and still go out and get the win. And that’s exactly what Liverpool did in the 1-0 victory over Everton on Sunday.
How’s about that for a slice of Premier League history? Following the 2-0 win over Sheffield United on Thursday, Liverpool have gone a full calendar year without tasting defeat in the English top-flight.
Ordinarily, a trip to the Middle East in mid-winter is used as an exercise – or excuse – to get some warm weather training in while enabling players to essentially put their feet up. But for Liverpool, two intense games in the space of 72 hours put paid to any notion of a mid-season jolly. Mind you, being crowned the best club team in the world will provide some crumb of comfort to the lads….
Some Liverpool fans have taken a rather dim view of the Club World Cup, and view it as an unnecessary distraction from more important matters back on home soil. Certainly, travelling halfway around the world ahead of the typically packed festive fixture list is less than ideal.
There’s the old footballing proverb of the ‘routine victory’, which often turns out to be anything but.
The cliché gets dusted off whenever a team that is high up in the league meets one towards the bottom, especially on home soil, in what should prove to be a straightforward three points.
In the end, it was much ado about nothing for Liverpool despite the fraught circumstances of the 2-0 win over Salzburg in midweek. Defeat would have the defence of our Champions League crown end rather prematurely, and the Austrians came out of the traps fast with cruel intentions in mind.
One of the key ingredients in winning a league title is in having plenty of squad depth to cater for the unrelenting demands of the domestic and continental fixture list.
In the past, it’s an area in which Liverpool have fallen down on somewhat, but in 2019/20 we finally look to have hit the nail on the head. Evidence of that was clear in the 3-0 win over Bournemouth, with Jurgen Klopp making seven changes to the side that saw off Everton in midweek.
Well, that was easy. You never quite know how the Merseyside derby is going to go. Yes, we are flying at the moment and Everton are in the doldrums, but these bloodthirsty rivalries have a habit of bringing the best out of the underdog.