I know every season is different and we had the upheaval of changing managers but purely on a player by player basis this squad was good enough to win the league this season.
Of course it was if you judge it by the fact Leicester won it
But by that thought so was Arsenals, Spurs, Chelsea, City's, Utd's, Southamptons, West Ham, Everton and the list would go on..
Leicester, fair play to them, even though I've struggled to say that for all the run in, well done to them, but it's a freak occurrence that won't happen again for a number of years if at all in the modern game.
They got on a run, they had what none of the other top sides had and that's European football, they also had the fact that for the most part of the season people didn't take them seriously, the fact that the bottom few sides thought they were of their level and their six pointers, the mid rank teams thought they were better than them and the top sides did t regard them at all, so the majority of sides took it to them, played complete front foot football and therefore played into their hands with high lines that their pace took advantage of.
Their players grew and grew in confidence and that confidence mixed with teams playing open high lines just played into their hands.. Fate almost took over.
Again fair play to them, but their squad? There are probably 10+ in the league with better squads.
The difference for us? Even though we haven't won the league since 1990? Sides still see us as a massive massive scalp, a scalp that they can celebrate. Whether that's a Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal as what they deem a contender or an Everton who want to give their local rivals a bloody nose or the rest of the sides in the league who see the famous Liverpool as one of the biggest games of the season, the trip to Anfield something they tell their kids about. And they play deep, they play counter, they try to stop us rather than play toe to toe with us and afford us the space and lack of respect they give Leicester.
That's one of the biggest things we have to get over, that the majority of sides we play think of us as a cup final.. And we haven't been good enough over the last 26 years to bully that..
Klopp said after West Brom St Anfield that he would never let that happen again.. In terms of style and lack of ambition to get to us and that's the key..
Leicester and the level of their squad will never have to approach games as we (and other top sides) have to.
Again fair play to them but they aren't us. Their squad isn't as good as ours, their manager isn't either.. But they don't play with the pressure of our expectancy either.
I believe Klopp will get us to rise above that level and we will challenge