A season that started with a lot of hope but soon after fizzled out to be a rightoff, despite the recent upturn and taking 25 from 33 points. The season was surely not aided by the various injuries that players suffered, and the players who came in, especially in midfield, did not enjoy their best time in the team. Has Liverpool got burned out chasing Manchester City during these past three seasons?
In this blog, we are going to run through some of the elements that made up Liverpool’s season and what lies ahead for them in the next. Explore the LV BET Sports Blog and check our other articles on the season of Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle.
INCONSISTENCY
The win against Manchester City in the Community Shield felt like a marker had been set, and another season of fierce competition was expected between Liverpool and Man City. As the season progressed, they toppled at Old Trafford, and cracks started to show. Those cracks resulted ended up compromising the entirety of Liverpool’s season. One of the reasons that they faltered is the inconsistency in which they pressed teams. In previous seasons, they hounded teams out and won possession up the field, which was a huge factor in their title winning season. It might have come due to Darwin Nunez being introduced into the team, and some tweaks in the system were made to accommodate his strengths.
Injuries to Thiago and a drop off from Fabinho worried Jurgen Klopp, as Bajcetic filled in well for a good period of time but the workload was a bit much for him and he too got injured. At the end of it they finished fifth thanks to a great run at the end, and crashed out of every competition.
A season of inconsistency resulted in playing on Thursday nights in the Europa League next season.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United & Liverpool 1-0 Manchester City.
Both games represented a huge win that could see the season turn on it’s head. The result against Manchester United was out of this world, everything just clicked in a season where in an extended period of time they rarely threatened the opposition goal. Instead of spreading the goals evenly across a number of games they lumped them all in single games, hitting Leeds for six, seven past Rangers in the Champions League and nine beyond Bournemouth.
Liverpool’s fanbase will place that 7-0 scoreline on the highest shelf and will be cherished unike any other title they won. All the big names that were thrown in the mix for United crumbled at Anfield, Casemiro, Bruno, Lisandro Martinez who had a malfunction when Mo Salah approached him. Since the Egyptian joined in 2017, he had more bookings (2) for taking his jersey off in celebration against United than United had goals (1) at Anfield, that is some stat.
In the game against City, Salah’s twists and turns proved too much for Joao Cancelo as he made his way towards goal without any players surrounding him to slot home the winner.
GLAD IT’S OVER
These memorable victories made the season bearable, the 7-0 win against United was followed by a loss against Bournemouth, and Brighton made it a habit of causing havoc for the Reds. Losing a game is fine but the body language was suffering; the belief and the determination in the eyes and bodies of the players was no longer there.
The 3-0 defeat to Wolves was a big shock, at the Molineux, the home side were 2-0 up inside 13 minutes, Joel Matip’s own goal summed up a season in a second. In the second half, Ruben Neves added to the disappointment as they watched their team go 3-0 down and no signs of a fight back.
Now that it’s done, both the players and the manager can look ahead at the next season with renewed hope. New signing and FIFA World Cup winner McAllister will add some metal to their midfield, he won’t fix it on his own, but he will go a long way, making it easier to get to the bottom of it.
A stat that sums the team up is that they never occupied a Champions League spot throughout the past season. From a team on the verge of winning the quadruple to a team unable to reach a final in any competition and finishing outside the top four.
For the upcoming season, a lot of other clubs have invested heavily in recruiting talented players, such as Arsenal, Newcastle and Chelsea so they will do well to get into the top four next season.