{"id":1818,"date":"2020-07-09T11:35:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2020-07-09T11:35:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:35:34","slug":"the-champions-still-have-much-to-play-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/the-champions-still-have-much-to-play-for\/","title":{"rendered":"The Champions Still Have Much To Play For"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve played two games since I last wrote a piece and they\u2019ve offered two very different performances. Against Aston Villa we were far from being our best, looking slow and ponderous until \u2018the grown-ups\u2019 came on in the second-half. Even so, we did enough to win the three points and ensure that our return to Anfield as champions of the Premier League was a winning one. Last night we started the match against Brighton &amp; Hove Albion brilliantly, racing into a two goal lead before taking our foot off the gas and giving the home side the run of their ground for the rest of the first-half. Again, though, we emerged from the Amex with all three points. Having won the title, the Reds could be forgiven for deciding that their season is over. They have reached the holy land, won the thing that we\u2019ve all been dreaming about for three decades, so they\u2019ll still go down in history as the team that did just that regardless of what happens from here on out.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#x2705; Won the league<br \/>\n&#x2705; Fastest team to win 30 games in 132 year history<br \/>\n&#x2705; 92 points from 102<br \/>\n&#x2705; Salah &#8211; 100 goal contributions in 104 games<br \/>\n&#x2705; Best defence in the league<br \/>\n&#x2705; van Dijk taking the piss<br \/>\n&#x2705; 23 successive home wins<br \/>\n&#x2705; 23 points clear<\/p>\n<p>What a time to be alive. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S7J7OTGAaB\">pic.twitter.com\/S7J7OTGAaB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Redmen TV (@TheRedmenTV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheRedmenTV\/status\/1281171615162785792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 9, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Everyone involved at the club still has something to play for, though, not least of whom is the manager. Given that Liverpool will be making very few, if any, moves in the transfer market this summer, J\u00fcrgen Klopp is tasked with having to figure out which players he can continue to use regularly into next season and where he needs to be a bit creative with his solutions. We saw that against Villa with the decision to move Fabinho into the centre-back position when Joe Gomez went off at half-time because of his booking, then we saw it again last night when Neco Williams was asked to play left-back. I thought he played well there, especially considering it was his first start in the league and he\u2019s not a left-sided player. He was offered little-to-no support by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, so I\u2019d be interested to see how he\u2019d get on with Sadio Man\u00e9 helping him down that side. What else has the squad got to play for?<\/p>\n<h2>We Can Set A Virtually Unachievable Points Total<\/h2>\n<p>This Liverpool side is one of the best football teams ever to play the game. So far they have dropped just ten points all season. Very few sides manage to achieve that sort of dominance, yet the Reds have done just that. Drawn two, lost two, won the rest. We\u2019ve been going at an insane rate for two seasons in succession, yet we could end up with only the league title to show for it. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the league title is more than good enough for me. Yet the truth is that in twenty years time the league title alone won\u2019t be enough to put this side amongst the pantheon of brilliant Premier League teams. Arsenal\u2019s Invincibles. United\u2019s Treble Winners. City\u2019s Centurions. All of the teams that get talked about had something more than just a title to go along with their achievement and this Liverpool side very much deserves to be in the same bracket. If we can set a new points record then that is exactly where we\u2019ll be.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Liverpool need nine points (three wins) from their remaining four games to beat Manchester City&#8217;s record Premier League points total of 100. Burnley at Anfield next, followed by Arsenal away, Chelsea at home and Newcastle at St James&#8217; Park on the final day. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7ATIJOqf3G\">pic.twitter.com\/7ATIJOqf3G<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emma Sanders (@em_sandy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/em_sandy\/status\/1280980159978446848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 8, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Like it or not, clubs needs something alongside a title to prove their brilliance. Leicester City\u2019s win in 2015-2016 isn\u2019t spoken about as being one of a brilliant team, but rather a title win that was glorious because of how shocking and unexpected it was. It would be unfair to this Liverpool team for it to be remembered as the side that ended the thirty year wait for a title at Anfield rather than as one of the best sides ever to play the game. The way that they get themselves into the second bracket is by setting a new points record. Gaining one hundred and one points would be good, but if we can get one hundred and four then it\u2019s difficult to see another team getting close to that any time soon. It would pretty much go down in history as the greatest points total ever and it would be thoroughly deserved. With matches against Burnley, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle still to come it won\u2019t be easy, but the players need to have their eyes on the prize.<\/p>\n<h2>The Golden Boys<\/h2>\n<p>Whilst the overall achievement of the team is the most important thing, we can\u2019t forget that both Mo Salah and Alisson Becker are playing to coat their equipment in gold. Both of them have a fight on their hands, with the Brazilian sitting one clean sheet behind Nick Pope and level with Ederson on thirteen games without conceding; a remarkable feat when you consider that he\u2019s missed so many games this season. The match against Burnley presents us with an opportunity to put him level with Pope, should we be able to score and keep a clean sheet at the same time against Sean Dyche\u2019s men. I\u2019m sure if you spoke to Alisson then he\u2019d tell you that we\u2019ve already secured the only prize that he wanted in the form of the Premier League title, but individual honours are important. If they weren\u2019t then it\u2019s fair to say that no one would talk about them, yet they do. I\u2019m sure the goal conceded to Brighton was a frustration for all concerned.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Salah 1 goal away from hitting 20 goals for the 3rd consecutive Premier League season &#x1f44f; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lpitRkzaVM\">pic.twitter.com\/lpitRkzaVM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Anything Liverpool (@AnythingLFC_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnythingLFC_\/status\/1280974291761278976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 8, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Add to that the fact that Mo Salah is three goals behind Jamie Vardy in the search for the Golden Boot and you can see why he was so annoyed at missing the header in the final minute of the match at the Amex. Having won it outright two season ago and shared it with Sadio Man\u00e9 and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang last time out, the Egyptian will be loath to give it up this time around. It will be a matter of personal honour to him, especially after so many idiots decided to call him a one-season wonder in the wake of his forty-four goals in all competitions in 2017-2018. If the Egyptian can find the back of the net a few more times before the end of the season then you wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see him at least give the Leicester striker a run for his money. It still boggles the mind that there are some Liverpool supporters that don\u2019t give our number eleven the credit that he deserves, but then that\u2019s football fans for you. Like the players, we\u2019re always wanting more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ve played two games since I last wrote a piece and they\u2019ve offered two very different performances. Against Aston Villa we were far from being our best, looking slow and ponderous until \u2018the grown-ups\u2019 came on in the second-half. Even so, we did enough to win the three points and ensure that our return to Anfield as champions of the Premier League was a winning one. Last night we started the match against Brighton &amp; Hove Albion brilliantly, racing into a two goal lead before taking our foot off the gas and giving the home side the run of their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1819,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions\/1819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}