Liverpool have had a remarkable season in 2019/2020 despite unique circumstances that we probably (and hopefully) will never see again. Since October 2015, under the reign of Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool have reached the heights that many fans feared they would not see again for a long, long time. In his first game in charge, the starting 11 included names like Mignolet, Moreno and Sakho alongside Coutinho, Milner and Can. As he arrived, he suggested his project at Liverpool would last around 7 years, and already after just under 5 years at the club, he has managed the reds to a Champions League, Super Cup, Club World Cup and most importantly their first Premier League title in 30 years. To just put that into context, their last Champions league was the infamous night in Istanbul, while their last Premier League title was in a season where their top scorer was John Barnes.

Despite the incredible achievements in the campaign which, knowing Liverpool fans, will be celebrated and adored for years and years, watching the post-lockdown games I found myself thinking “have they been a bit of a let-down this season?” I understand the trophies and circumstances surrounding the whole season make 2019-2020 an incredible success for the club, but given the way they started the season, and their performances and attitude up until Christmas time, will Liverpool fans perhaps look back and ask what could have been. On social media and in conversations around the world, Liverpool fans are arguing about this side being the best the Premier League has ever seen. However, with no other domestic trophy, no Champions League, no points record and no unbeaten league season, should they have done better?

At this point, given that I am well-aware of Liverpool fan’s stereotypical response to criticism against their team, I want to state that this is purely an opinion piece and it may well be shown as absolute nonsense over the next few years. However, after the socially distanced celebrations cool down, the fans may well look back with some regret over this campaign. In the post, I am going to look at what the club achieved over the season, and then consider what they could have realistically managed over the year. I am incredibly intrigued to know the feeling around this so please go ahead and tell me I’m talking nonsense, or just let me know what you think.

Enjoy.

Achievements

Liverpool’s reign of dominance began really in June 2019, and specifically the 1st of June 2019 in the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid. Their convincing 2-0 win over Spurs after an early penalty from Salah and a late finish from Origi gave the reds their first Champions League trophy since the unforgettable night in Istanbul, 2005, and their 6th in the clubs history. This game was the culmination of a dramatic run in the competition, and ended the clubs drought of 7 years without a trophy (their last being a penalty victory in the 11/12 League Cup final). In the 18/19 campaign, the Red’s had been knocked out fairly early in the domestic cups, and missed out on the league by just 1 point despite losing only 1 game all season. Until the Champions League victory, it seemed like Liverpool were destined to be a team that just missed out.

After the season ended with Liverpool European champions once again, the work began on just perfecting the squad with little tweaks in through Harvey Elliott and Adrián, while the club tidied up their squad depth through the release of Sturridge, Moreno and sale of Danny Ings. The club seemed to have not missed a beat over the summer break, as despite losing out on penalties to rivals City in the Community Shield, they won the Super Cup in Istanbul on penalties against Europa League winners Chelsea. In the League, they stormed to 8 straight victories before being halted by a 1-1 draw with big rivals Manchester United. After just the 2nd game of the season, they settled into the no.1 position and remained there for the entirety of the season. After the stumble at Old Trafford, they went on to win the following 18 league games including dominant victories over City, Everton, Leicester and Man United. It looked like they were almost guaranteed to reach the unbeaten league season and do it in some style. That was until the quite shocking defeat away to Watford in February 2020. This result was incredibly surprising considering the contrasting seasons of each side, however they were simply outplayed on the day and so the unbeaten run came to an end on gameweek 28. After scraping past Bournemouth the following week, we hit the Covid-enforced break in play. Despite the uncertainty of how the season would finish, rumours of a null and void season looking like potentially Liverpool would again miss out on the rewards for their remarkable efforts, 3 months later, on the 21st of June, the reds stepped out again in the league against major rivals Everton, only to struggle to break them down as they had done earlier in the season and returned with a meagre 0-0 draw. After a victory over Palace, and results going in their favour elsewhere, the Red’s finally were declared champions and despite the inevitability of their victory the celebrations begun in major (socially distanced) fashion. A guard of honour from 2nd place Manchester City will have felt sweet despite going on to lose 4-0. In the final 4 games of the season, dropping 4 points meant the club achieved a club-record 99 points and just 1 off the league record set by City in 17/18.

The European champions became English champions and also World champions in December of 2019 as they ventured over to Qatar for the Club World Cup games. In the season, they took home a total of 3 trophies (Premier League, Club World Cup, Super Cup) from a possible 7 available to them. A non-recognised treble in the record books, it has been a remarkable season. At no point did the league seem to be slipping from them, and they amassed some fantastic club and league records in the process. They held the highest ever points-lead at 25 points during the season, most home wins in a row with a total of 24 straight home wins, they claimed the earliest title win with 7 games to spare, amusingly also the latest title win in June 2020 due to the enforced break. Additionally, to throw some more into the mix they also were the fastest team to 30 victories, had the best league start ever, most home wins in a season and also most wins in a season equalling the 32 of Manchester City. All over the place records were being set, players were playing remarkable football, the manager has ultimately changed the way English football is played and they finally won the Premier League title which had eluded them for so long.

Truly remarkable.

What Could Have Been

After going through all the achievements that this side have accomplished over the last year, it feels wrong to even ask the question ‘What could have been’. However after social media, pundits and pretty much everyone discussing the quality of this side against others over history and the comparisons to United’s 99 team, City’s 100-pointers, Arsenal’s invincible side and Chelsea’s Mourinho squad, this side is Liverpool’s legacy for the foreseeable future. But what will they be remembered for? The first title in 30 years is impressive but just highlights the failures of teams before them, their impressive performances have changed the way we look at football, however playing good football is expected from the Champion side, and the Covid season is obviously memorable but doesn’t particularly relate to the impressive quality Liverpool have shown.

What I’m getting at really, is that Liverpool should (in my opinion) have done more. This season has been theirs from the outset and they have been the masters of their own downfall at key moments. This side is of high enough quality that they could have cleaned up every single trophy, or at least broken some major league records (despite having done a decent job for many of them). Let’s begin with the Community Shield, sure they were unlucky to have lost on penalties to the City side that were league champions. However, City left out some big names on the day, they were playing without a recognised striker, and under 3 months later Liverpool showed their dominance over City in their thumping 3-1 league win. The Community Shield is a bit of a ‘nothing’ trophy unless you’re Jose Mourinho equating it to the Champions League, however it’s a missed opportunity.

Moving on to the 17th December 2019, the EFL Cup quarter-final fixture against Aston Villa. I understand to an extent the issues of focussing on the Club World Cup fixtures in Qatar just a day later, and obviously you can’t be in 2 places at once. However, surely the club could have come to an arrangement with the EFL organisers around the dates of the game which would have given them a full-squad selection. I am struggling to appreciate the decision to play their U-23 side and not have their manager involved in a quarter-final match. For me, if they couldn’t rearrange the date, then at least split the squad to ensure some first-team players were available for each fixture. I truly think that even with some youth players mixed with some senior players, Liverpool could have put up a fight against a below-average Villa side. This trophy would have taken much more than just the performance against Villa to have won, and I can understand to an extent the choices that were made, but winning this trophy would have made them a double-winning team which again adds to the legacy.

In the FA Cup, Klopp again messed with the starting 11, and Chelsea showed no remorse as they dominated the Liverpool side at Stamford Bridge, winning the fifth round tie 2-0. Young midfielder Billy Gilmour ran the show on the night and in the middle of the Champions League clash with Atlético Madrid, Liverpool were rocked following the Watford loss, the FA Cup loss and the Champions League difficulties we will come on to shortly. As with the EFL Cup, I can appreciate that winning the game against Chelsea would not by any means have handed Liverpool the trophy, however as Chelsea got to the final against a pretty average Arsenal side, Liverpool could have looked again at another trophy chance slipping through their fingers. Timing on the domestic cups has been unfortunate for the Red’s, however as I can’t help but keep coming back to, the great sides are great every single game and just showing that in league games isn’t good enough.

The final trophy that Liverpool went all-out for and missed the mark with, is the Champions League. Coming into the competition as the existing champions meant the teams they faced were looking to break Liverpool hearts from repeating the 18/19 contest. Atlético Madrid were the ones to do just that in the first knockout round of the tournament. Everyone is well-aware of how Atlético play, they are defensively unbreakable and nick a goal or 2 when they can. In Madrid, they did just that earning a 1-0 advantage to take with them to Anfield. After the Madrid loss, the FA Cup defeat and the loss away at Watford, Liverpool looked to come out all-out attack to salvage the tie at home. With 65% possession and 29 shots (13 on target), they took a first-half lead to level the aggregate scores and eventually take the game to extra-time. In just the 4th minute of the extra half-hour, they got another as Firmino gave them the aggregate lead until just 3 minutes later when Marcos Llorente nabbed 2 goals in the first-half of extra-time to level the scores 2-2 (2-3 on aggregate). Liverpool needed to get 2 goals in the last few minutes to proceed in the competition, however it was Madrid who got the final goal to finish the tie 2-3 to Atlético Madrid and 2-4 on aggregate. It was a truly remarkable performance from Atlético which left Klopp seething at their defensive approach. Ultimately though, they were unable to break down the resolute defence over 2-legs and paid the price, Klopp’s critique seemed just petty as despite the defensive approach being more slow and less entertaining, he was tactically defeated and as mentioned previously, it should have been expected. We are yet to see what will happen with Atlético Madrid in the conclusion of the competition, however Liverpool putting all their efforts into the tournament, undoubtedly led in some part to the loss at Watford and the FA Cup defeat. Once again this season, their focus on single competitions/matches meant their unbeaten season, chances at a double with the FA Cup and Champions League dreams all came tumbling down in the space of a month.

By now, you may be thinking that I’m incredibly harsh on the team for not winning 7 out of 7 trophies, and to an extent that’s exactly what I am saying. I think that this Liverpool side have enough quality and depth to have done just that. Would I ever realistically expect a team to win everything, NO, but they really could have done. The domestic trophies were unfortunate timing, the Champions League was a wild tactical contrast and the unbeaten season was bad luck (maybe?). Post-lockdown I expected Liverpool to at least lay down a marker of 100+ points and exceed City’s record. But, as we so often see from crowned champions, they relaxed and dropped easy points with many players seemingly still ‘merry’ from the celebrations. Basically, they cruise controlled their way to the league, but had a few too many bumps at the end of the journey.

Overall

To wrap this piece up, Liverpool fans, you really shouldn’t care about anything I’ve written. You are the current European champions, and you are the league champions. The football your team has played is remarkable, the tactics have become a new way for all sides to try and emulate, and even more special for your club is that your team are happy and have a good 3/4 years left as a unit. The club don’t need to spend big on a complete overhaul, they just need to pinpoint key players to improve the team and ensure there’s no complacency. And even if there were hints of complacency, you have one of the best managers and motivators in the world who would stamp that out immediately.

No, this post isn’t for you Liverpool fans, it’s for rival fans who want that slither of optimism that maybe this side aren’t the best in the world, or the best ever. Arsenal fans, they didn’t do the invincible season, Man United fans, they didn’t manage the treble, City fans, they didn’t break your points record, Leicester City fans, they didn’t have the top-scorer like you have and Chelsea fans… well actually this side on their day would probably batter any Chelsea 11 past or present (FA Cup aside). We can certainly include this side in the debate of best team ever, but as with all big debates like that we can’t ever truly know the answer. Liverpool may make me eat my words next season and win everything, but for now let them enjoy their title because they truly earned it. But remember they weren’t perfect by any means, no side has ever been truly perfect and to avoid this league becoming like the one just over the Channel or north of the border, I hope nobody ever is.