James Milner, Naby Keïta and Georginio Wijnaldum are as important to Liverpool as their attack as Klopp’s team prove again they are Manchester City’s most potent challengersThe Champions League was back this week and what a start to the competition it has been. For me the highlight was Liverpool’s late victory against Paris Saint-Germain to maintain their brilliant unbeaten start to the season.I said in my opening column that I believed Liverpool would be the team to mount a serious title challenge to Manchester City this season. Well they’ve certainly proved that with six wins in a row, and while I understood but disagreed with Gary Neville’s comments that they should sacrifice the Champions League for the Premier League, I...
Leaving three forwards to float about and occasionally pull off a trick may be enough in Ligue 1 – but not when it comes to elite level. How have PSG not learned?A net €750m spent in eight years and that’s all you get? Success without money is all but impossible in the modern game, but wealth brings no guarantees. Football still has the capacity to make the richest of men seem very foolish if they pursue glamour at the expense of substance – a heartening moral, so long as you don’t think too closely about the source of the wealth that is paying for Neymar to squander his immense talents in an entitled fug of self-indulgence.For Paris Saint-Germain, there has...
Ryan Fraser ran Leicester ragged; Neil Warnock will not tolerate more Cardiff mistakes; and Rafael Benítez needs a new planJürgen Klopp was asked to describe his emotions during stoppage time in the 2-1 victory at Tottenham. His dominant Liverpool team had led 2-0 going into it but they conceded to Érik Lamela in the 93rd minute to set up a nervy finale. “I would love to say it is the first time in my life I have been in a situation like that but it happens so often,” Klopp said. “My wife hates it.” The Liverpool manager would not have gone through the wringer if some of his players – Sadio Mané, in particular – had played in a teammate...
Pep Guardiola’s team have yet to reach a Champions League final but the bookmakers fancy them to halt Real Madrid’s hot streak and outpace Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester UnitedThe Champions League is back this coming week, and easily the most striking aspect of the competition before the group stages commence is that Manchester City are the favourites to win it. With all respect to Pep Guardiola’s expensively assembled side, this seems odd. City have yet to even reach a Champions League final, yet bookmakers give them a better chance of carrying off the spoils this season than Real Madrid, who just happen to have won the last three finals and are looking to extend their record to four.Perhaps there are...
This may not have been a whirl of red pain for Tottenham, but every part of the machine looks calm and settledGet ready. It looks as though, this time, the Reds really are coming up the hill. It was not that Liverpool played irresistibly well. This was not a performance to drive the imagination or a whirl of red pain for Tottenham. Instead this felt like something better. Liverpool were solid in every position, their combinations well-grooved, every starting player blessed with the same intelligence, the same speed and spiky aggression.There was some fine movement at times from Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino, who still seems to be under the impression he has only borrowed the centre-forward position and needs...