Liverpool fans know that there were plenty of disappointments in the 2021/22 campaign as what could have ultimately become a historic quadruple, eventually saw us lose out to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side by a single point in the weekends final round of action, and then we unfortunately lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
However, with two trips to Wembley in the domestic FA Cup and EFL Cup bringing two more trophies to our rich and already packed trophy cabinet, there is plenty of solace to be taken, and dare I say pride to be shown from knowing that at one point we were 14 odd points behind them in the table but the players proved manager Jurgen Klopp right by battling as hard as we could to just make life difficult for them for the rest of the year.
Some might even say even the odd better moment of referring in their final game of the season against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium as they went into the final 20 minutes of action 2- down might well have changed what is now history.
But simply put, going into 2022/23, we cannot give them the advantage we did at one point last year as it really is as simple as one defeat into a draw would have added massive pressure, and then a draw into a victory moves us up a place and then everything would change and for those who like a flutter, any Premier League betting site would give you good odds on us not doing just that again after last seasons experiences.
With build up to Friday night’s big Premier League kick off well underway as Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira welcomes his former club, Arsenal and fellow gaffer Mikel Arteta to Selhurst Park for the opening game of the year, Betway Insider sat down former Liverpool right back Glen Johnson and former Manchester City skipper Richard Dunne to discuss both clubs ahead of our Saturday kick off, and their Sunday match and Johnson had some interesting things to say about us.
Whilst 37-year-old, 54 capped former England international Johnson begrudgingly seemed to accept that the title would not be returning to Anfield this season, there were no doubts in his mind that Liverpool remained the bigger club (and would do for some time) and he even broadly elicited a largely similar answer from their four time Player of the Year award winner, as he described us as a ‘monster of a club’ irrespective of how his own side for nine years have improved since their big money takeover back in 2008.
Johnson explained:
“United, Liverpool were winning trophies before we were born you know and City, like you say, they’re obviously a force of a club and they will go on to win things for many, many years but, you know that history is just the bit you can’t replace at the moment.”
Whilst Johnson did not believe the title would ultimately come our way this season, he did fully expect us to have a brighter start to the year than Guardiola’s side, mainly owing to the fact that Darwin Nunez was already up and running during pre season and, of course, whilst it might only be 13 league games, 25-year-old Luiz Diaz has already begun building a nice partnership with Mohamed Salah and a good understanding of the team and, of course, he rated Klopp as the better manager.
“So I’m doing it with Haaland out of the equation as he hasn’t done anything yet, but obviously Nunez is my gamble. I think Diaz is top class, Mo Salah is probably the best striker in the league. If Nunez can get it right with the other two, I think that three will be more dynamic than the others until Haaland performs.”
Scousers will be hoping Haaland does not perform, but Nunez settles very quickly indeed as despite Johnson’s scepticism here on the domestic title, a great ‘dynamic’ start from those three could well speak volumes come the end of the campaign.
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