A team built prudently to Jürgen Klopp’s designs and geared to thrive on fine margins have lacked wiggle room in adversity
The story of Liverpool FC’s wild, thrillingly committed Premier League collapse has been told mainly in numbers so far. And to good effect. Deprived of crowds, staging or a wider emotional palette, that basic outline – 38 points down on last year; 68 home games unbeaten versus six defeats in six – has captured the starkness of a complete sporting immolation. This is a train that has simply stopped.
Better to burn out than fade away, and it has to be said no one has ever won and then lost the Premier League title quite like this. It is easy to forget that 14 games and nine wins into the current season Liverpool were five points clear at the top of the table.
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An unspoken truth about Klopp’s title-winning Liverpool is that they don’t contain many obviously great individuals
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