Pep Guardiola has described Arsenal and Napoli as the two best teams in Europe this season but last term, that wasn’t the case, which offers hope for Liverpool.
Liverpool looks pretty far away from the summit of European football at the moment. It is only the middle of March, yet on Wednesday night, the Reds exited their third and final cup tournament of the season, losing by a hefty six goals to two after 180 minutes of competition in the Champions League against Real Madrid.
The stage was set for a miraculous comeback in the second leg, but the Anfield side just didn’t seem to have the belief, energy or quality to deliver an unforgettable night in the Spanish capital. Liverpool now ranks sixth in the Premier League table, having amassed the same number of points as Brighton and Hove Albion, even despite the Seagulls playing one game less.
It will feel like a long way back for Jürgen Klopp right now but in football, you are never as far away as you think. It won’t take much for the Reds to make a dramatic leap almost overnight if they address their biggest issues in the transfer market this summer, with recent comments by Pep Guardiola proving to be very relevant to Liverpool and their current predicament.
Speaking after Manchester City’s incredible 7-0 win over RB Leipzig earlier this week, Guardiola was asked about contenders for the Champions League title. “Napoli are perhaps the best team in Europe this season,” he said. “In terms of playing style, they are close to Arsenal.”
Nobody would argue with the decorated Spanish coach based on what both sides have delivered in Italy and England this term, but his words are curious once considering how each of those teams looked less than 12 months ago.
Last season, Arsenal showcased improvement under Mikel Arteta yet finished fifth in the Premier League table. The Gunners had to settle for Europa League qualification, ranking 23 points behind Liverpool in second, and 24 points behind top-of-the-table Manchester City.
Arteta’s outfit scored just 1.6 goals per match, and conceded around 1.2 goals per match. This term, however, they are scoring at a rate of 2.2 goals per match, while conceding an average of 0.9 goals per match, which captures an improvement in both attack and defense.
The story is similar for Napoli, who finished third in Serie A last season, seven points behind champions AC Milan. This time around — with 12 matches still to play — they have established a remarkable 18-point lead at the summit, effectively guaranteeing themselves as winners regardless of what happens over the next few months.
Arsenal and Napoli have gone from outsiders to potential title winners in a very short space of time — grabbing the attention of Guardiola in the process — whereas Liverpool has made the opposite movement. Klopp’s men competed for an unprecedented quadruple as recently as last May but now, they are struggling for consistency and seem in desperate need of fresh legs.
It is imperative that Liverpool get the upcoming transfer window right. If they do, it is reasonable to suggest they will be back competing for the biggest honors on the continent in no time, and Arsenal and Napoli are proof.
FSG’s leaked Jurgen Klopp text speaks volumes after Liverpool’s Champions League failure
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will be counting on the full support of owners FSG after the Reds crashed out of the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp will need the full backing of the club’s owners Fenway Sports Group in order to rebuild his ageing squad, who saw their limitations exposed by Real Madrid over two legs in the first knockout round of the Champions League. The Reds crashed out of the tournament on Wednesday evening as they failed to overturn a three-goal deficit at the Bernabeu, with Karim Benzema’s winner on the night sending Real Madrid into the quarter-finals after their 5-2 triumph in last month’s first leg at Anfield.
The result marked another low point in a hugely disappointing campaign for Liverpool, who are on course to finish the season without lifting a major trophy after being outclassed by their Spanish opponents in Europe once again. It seems clear that another expensive rebuild could soon be on the horizon at Anfield as it becomes increasingly clear that Liverpool are no longer the feared beast they were only a couple of years ago, with many of their most important players no longer doing the business.
The loss of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich in the summer has coincided with Liverpool’s downturn in fortunes this season, while the likes of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Virgil van Dijk have looked past their best in recent months as they approach the latter stages of their respective careers. Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah have also struggled to impress on a consistent basis over the course of the campaign and that is before the large amount of deadwood in Liverpool’s squad is even taken into consideration.
The task of rebuilding a misfiring team is one that Klopp has been no stranger to since moving to Merseyside back in 2015 when the Reds were hurtling downhill after reaching their collective peak and in need of fresh faces in order to ensure their longevity. The scale of the job at hand was as clear then as it is now and Klopp previously revealed that FSG went out of their way to apologise for the sorry state of the squad at his disposal by way of text.
“At the beginning, I received a message from the US saying, ‘Sorry for the squad we’ve given you’,” Klopp revealed in 2021. “But all was good I replied, it just needs time.”
FSG went on to back Klopp by bankrolling a large-scale rebuilding process over several years that resulted in a squad being built to go on and conquer world football. The Reds did just that by winning the Premier League, Champions League and Club World Cup at the peak of their powers but are currently a far cry from the side they once were, which suggests that Klopp will now be relying on the patience of their American backers once again as he aims to lead another comprehensive overhaul at Anfield.
It seems clear that FSG could be forced to spend a large amount of money in order to get Liverpool firing on all cylinders once again, such is the modern climate of the transfer market given the wild inflation in football since the Reds last rebuilt their playing squad. Significant fees were dished out to sign players like Van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Fabinho and it is only logical that more records could be broken over the coming years if Liverpool are serious about climbing back to the very top.