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Expectations Increase For Liverpool But Pundits Still Favour City
Build up continues to the big Premier League kick off on Friday evening as Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira welcomes Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to Selhurst Park for the first game of the year, but of course, Liverpool fans will have their eyes on Saturdays early kick off against newly promoted Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Having pushed Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side right down to the final day of the 2021/22 campaign in our chase for another title, although there was an air of disappointment at the final whistle and fans realised City had staged an incredibly late fightback against Aston Villa to secure the point they needed - optimism is high that Jurgen Klopp can go one step further this year with his first team charges and block the Etihad Stadium outfit from lifting three league titles on the spin so Liverpool tickets will again be in demand this year.
With the first round of fixtures nearing this weekend, most of the talk in the press (if not further and additional transfer window speculation) is about end of season predictions from journalists, pundits and former players.
For Liverpool Football Club, there is a lot of love and respect heading towards Anfield in these discussions. Plenty in the wider game, like Alan Shearer for example, know 2022/23 will be a two horse race again in reality, but have been swayed by the Erling Haaland effect given his phenomenal goalscoring record at German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Shearer explained.
"Liverpool will have been disappointed to only end up with two domestic cups last season from a campaign that promised so much, but we know exactly how they are going to react. Even just watching them in the Community Shield and seeing the body language of Jurgen Klopp and his team in that game, you can see they are up for the fight again. Only one point separated them in the end last time and it is going to be incredibly tight this season too. If I had to choose a winner now, it would be City - just about - because of Erling Haaland."
Out of 22 other TV and radio pundits at the BBC, when asked for their thoughts, nine of them favoured Klopp to come out on top and take success given how things now stand. This time last year when Aunty Beeb ran the same exercise only three out of 20 asked felt we would make the top two, so expectations have definitely changed, but for most it seems they question how quickly Darwin Nunez can get up to speed and replace Sadio Mane's contribution to our attacking front three.
Jonathan Woodgate: Liverpool are going to miss Sadio Mane badly because he brought so much to the team with his closing down as well as his goals. Without him, I don't see the title race being as close as it was last season - I think City win the league by a much wider margin.
Martin Keown: Liverpool are the best pressers in world football, and Mane was best at it, so for them to be better without him is hard for me to take on board.
Jermaine Jenas: I was thinking about Mane going and how he is a massive loss - they have lost one of the best players in the Premier League. But it freshens their team up and they don't have anything to worry about squad-wise. I can see Liverpool's younger players like Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones contributing a lot more this season, and they have got the best defence in the league.
Leon Osman: Losing Mane could be big, but his replacement could be bigger - we just don't know yet. Whatever happens with Darwin Nunez, a front three of Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah will be difficult to stop, but I still see them falling short of City.
Matt Upson: Like City, Liverpool have got a new striker with Nunez, but they have probably got a bit more clarity with their system. They are used to playing the ball forward quickly, which suits a centre-forward like him and they are more direct in that way with crosses, balls over the top and down the flanks.
Danny Murphy: I expect Haaland to settle a little bit quicker than Nunez, only because he has got that little bit more experience, but that is probably a little bit unfair on Nunez because straight away he is looking like a real threat and full of energy. They are going to go toe to toe with City again.
It could be another tight and interesting season ahead, particularly for neutrals.
Having pushed Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side right down to the final day of the 2021/22 campaign in our chase for another title, although there was an air of disappointment at the final whistle and fans realised City had staged an incredibly late fightback against Aston Villa to secure the point they needed - optimism is high that Jurgen Klopp can go one step further this year with his first team charges and block the Etihad Stadium outfit from lifting three league titles on the spin so Liverpool tickets will again be in demand this year.
With the first round of fixtures nearing this weekend, most of the talk in the press (if not further and additional transfer window speculation) is about end of season predictions from journalists, pundits and former players.
For Liverpool Football Club, there is a lot of love and respect heading towards Anfield in these discussions. Plenty in the wider game, like Alan Shearer for example, know 2022/23 will be a two horse race again in reality, but have been swayed by the Erling Haaland effect given his phenomenal goalscoring record at German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund. Shearer explained.
"Liverpool will have been disappointed to only end up with two domestic cups last season from a campaign that promised so much, but we know exactly how they are going to react. Even just watching them in the Community Shield and seeing the body language of Jurgen Klopp and his team in that game, you can see they are up for the fight again. Only one point separated them in the end last time and it is going to be incredibly tight this season too. If I had to choose a winner now, it would be City - just about - because of Erling Haaland."
Out of 22 other TV and radio pundits at the BBC, when asked for their thoughts, nine of them favoured Klopp to come out on top and take success given how things now stand. This time last year when Aunty Beeb ran the same exercise only three out of 20 asked felt we would make the top two, so expectations have definitely changed, but for most it seems they question how quickly Darwin Nunez can get up to speed and replace Sadio Mane's contribution to our attacking front three.
Jonathan Woodgate: Liverpool are going to miss Sadio Mane badly because he brought so much to the team with his closing down as well as his goals. Without him, I don't see the title race being as close as it was last season - I think City win the league by a much wider margin.
Martin Keown: Liverpool are the best pressers in world football, and Mane was best at it, so for them to be better without him is hard for me to take on board.
Jermaine Jenas: I was thinking about Mane going and how he is a massive loss - they have lost one of the best players in the Premier League. But it freshens their team up and they don't have anything to worry about squad-wise. I can see Liverpool's younger players like Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones contributing a lot more this season, and they have got the best defence in the league.
Leon Osman: Losing Mane could be big, but his replacement could be bigger - we just don't know yet. Whatever happens with Darwin Nunez, a front three of Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah will be difficult to stop, but I still see them falling short of City.
Matt Upson: Like City, Liverpool have got a new striker with Nunez, but they have probably got a bit more clarity with their system. They are used to playing the ball forward quickly, which suits a centre-forward like him and they are more direct in that way with crosses, balls over the top and down the flanks.
Danny Murphy: I expect Haaland to settle a little bit quicker than Nunez, only because he has got that little bit more experience, but that is probably a little bit unfair on Nunez because straight away he is looking like a real threat and full of energy. They are going to go toe to toe with City again.
It could be another tight and interesting season ahead, particularly for neutrals.
Written by Alan Spencer
