The date? April 27, 2014. The setting? Anfield, the home of one of England’s most illustrious clubs, Liverpool. Liverpool are playing Chelsea. Liverpool are first in the table by six points, but second-place Manchester City are hungrily following them with a game in hand. At the very end of the first half, Mamadou Sakho passes the ball to Liverpool legend, Steven Gerrard, who is the last man. As the ball zips towards Gerrard, he is prepared to caress the ball to a rolling stop, as he has thousands of times before. Somehow, as the ball finds the smallest of gaps under the studs of his cleats and escapes: opposing striker Demba Ba sprints to get the ball, and as Gerrard tries to recover it, he slips. Ba scores.
The infamous Gerrard slip is characteristic of Liverpool’s attempts to win a Premier League. Despite Liverpool’s rich history and devoted fanbase, they have always been millimeters from securing the title. Even last year, despite holding an early lead over Manchester City, they faltered in the closing moments of the season, losing the title by a narrow margin of one point.
After the Gerrard slip, the team largely fell apart. Star striker Luis Suarez moved to Barcelona in the summer following the devastating failure to win the title, and with Gerrard’s retirement, the future seemed bleak.
This year, however, their coronation as title-holders seems inevitable. At the time of this writing, Liverpool are fourteen points clear with a game in hand: for reference, a win earns three points, so Liverpool are effectively five or six wins ahead of the nearest competition. They ruthlessly pick apart teams and create chances with ease: the sheer number of chances they create means that they can afford to miss a couple opportunities.
Head coach Jurgen Klopp has assembled an incredible roster and has utilized his “rock and roll” soccer philosophy to create a winning machine: Liverpool have gone undefeated in the league for over a year.
To begin with, the acquisition of world-class wingers Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane have provided endless inspiration upfront: the speed, technical ability, and goal-scoring prowess of the two have provided the backbone for this Liverpool juggernaut. Perhaps more importantly, Liverpool’s defense has improved in spades under Klopp. The purchase of Virgil Van Dijk, center back, and Alisson, goalkeeper, has solidified their defense considerably. Van Dijk was voted as the second-best player in the world in 2019 behind Messi, and his towering presence in the Liverpool defense gives them a solid foundation to build from.
Fullbacks Trent Alexander Arnold and Andrew Robertson are also integral. The pair have revolutionized the position of fullback. Despite their defensive duties, they often drive forward, creating assist numbers greater than most midfielders. Their passing is insightful, accurate, and consistent: they allow the team to transition from defense to attack in mere seconds. They are young, too. Arnold is 21 and Robertson is 25, so they still have the majority of their careers left.
Klopp’s strategy has also been crucial to Liverpool’s success. Klopp is attributed to his philosophy of “gegenpressing,” which is best explained as intensely pressuring the opposing team at full throttle when they have possession. Although it can seem rather chaotic, Liverpool has won a remarkable number of balls back, simply due to their incredibly high work rate.
Klopp has also ensured that his players coalesce into a team. Often, with higher caliber players there are issues related to ego, but Klopp has fostered a loving community in Liverpool where players feel understood, and as a result, the team performs better.
There have been whispers that Liverpool will go undefeated this year, a feat that has only occurred once in Premier League history by the Arsenal “Invincibles” squad of ‘03-’04. And perhaps they will. Monikers such as “greatest Premier League team” and “unbeatable” are becoming common too.
But even without the accolades and records broken, this Liverpool team is fun to watch. Every game, they innovate with their audaciously ambitious passes, run more than what appears to be the possible limit, and most importantly, score with ease. After Gerrard’s slip and last year’s fiasco, perhaps it’s fitting that the first Premier League title-winners for Liverpool would be a record-breaking team.
The fans, the players, the manager, the board: all have waited eagerly for a year like this. But until they inevitably win—and if they don’t, this will go down as the greatest “choke” in soccer history—Liverpool fans will be enjoying the games on their seat every weekend, waiting for the day captain Jordan Henderson lifts the Premier League trophy.