Where I think Liverpool will finish this season
Liverpool had a successful season last season, but failed to win silverware. They finished fourth in the Premier League behind the two Manchester sides and Spurs. Klopp’s side also reached the Champions League final, beating Manchester City on their way to Kiev.
They’ve strengthened massively over the last two summers and the January transfer window. Salah, VVD, Allison and Keita are major players who have come into Liverpool. They’ve strengthened their weak positions in their defence and have kept three out of three clean sheets so far in this Premier League campaign.
Another signing that may go a bit more under the radar, is a long throw specialised coach. A sign of a team looking to advance, improve every aspect and squeeze every point.
Challenging for the Title
Liverpool fans want the Premier League. They haven’t won the top division of English football since 1990. Every year Liverpool fans question is it’s ‘their year’.
Manchester City looked for a undefeated season in the league, losing just two matches (to Liverpool and Manchester United) and reaching 100 points and breaking plenty of records on the way.
Guardiola and the Manchester City board are looking to accomplish an era of domination in English and potentially European football. As we’ve seen, they’re willing to spend to accomplish this.
Where do Liverpool stand? They’re the biggest challengers to Manchester City, and if they are going to win the league, now would be the time to do it. Chelsea and Arsenal are looking to rebuild under new managers, Spurs are a bit of an unknown after not signing any players and could decline from last year after not replacing key positions, as explained by Nathan Clark.
Manchester United have had a poor start to the season and things look tense with Mourinho and the board. Although most of the speculation is by Football Twitter.
Squad Depth
That leaves Liverpool and Manchester City. I think that Guardiola wants to target the Champions League this season. Whether he can win the Champions League without sacrificing the Premier League remains unknown.
He may be able to challenge for both due to the great squad depth he has available to him. Above you can see how Guardiola could rotate his whole starting 11 in a 4–3–3 and still have a great team. This is one of the factors that sets aside Manchester City and makes them so impressive.
My worry for Liverpool is their lack of depth. A few injuries to key players and their side looks significantly weaker. Especially in their front three. Shaqiri was an important signing to give depth across the front three this season. With congested fixtures and their intense style of play, injuries are likely and could be a large barrier to success.
The other issue for them is dropping points needlessly. They drew 12 games last season, 8 more than Manchester City and the most in the top 6. They struggle against teams who play a low block and slow their play. Liverpool’s front three are most dangerous at speed on the counter attack. They struggled to break down Brighton and Palace this season, but tore apart West Ham, who failed to stop the Liverpool full backs. However, they did eventually break down those sides, whereas last season they may have struggled more and come away with just a point.
Conclusion
When fit, Liverpool’s first eleven will be able to challenge for the title and with some luck, win it. They may need to bring in some quality in depth to meet the standards of Manchester City, but you can’t rule out Liverpool winning the Premier League. The Premier League is always getting better and this is going to be an exciting season with all the top teams looking to improve. And new ones entering the picture.
