It was 1990 when Liverpool last won a first division title, the 18th in the club’s storied history. To put that into some kind of perspective, at the beginning of that season the Berlin Wall had not yet fallen, nor had the Premier League been established.
They have come second on numerous occasions since then, and last season they went as close to winning an inaugural Premier League title as possible. Ending up just a point short of Manchester City, the Reds won 30 games and lost just one throughout the course of the year, ultimately compiling the most points – 97 – in English top-flight football history without actually winning the title.
The heartbreak was, to an extent, nullified by the fact that they won the Champions League, the second time they have had success in that tournament since their last first division title. The reality for many Liverpool fans, however, is that they would have much preferred the reverse.
Early in 2019, when Liverpool were firmly in the running for both tournaments, questions began to be asked of manager Jurgen Klopp surrounding whether or not he would consider prioritising the chase for a Premier League title over the Champions League. His answer created plenty of headlines: “If you would have to decide, for all Liverpool fans it is the Premier League, that is clear, we know that.”
The reality is, though, that he was giving an answer that most people already knew to be true, and he followed up that comment with something a little less attention-grabbing: “But now we play Champions League and I think we all expect we will do our best tomorrow.” It’s safe to say that he stood by his statement, the Merseyside outfit going on to become Champions of Europe.
4 – Since joining @LFC 4 years ago today, Jürgen Klopp has collected more points in the Premier League than any other manager in the competition (320). Normal. pic.twitter.com/hrtROWC4KC
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) October 8, 2019
As recently as August, however, the question reared its head once again when it was revealed that Liverpool’s owners had instructed Klopp to prioritise Premier League and Champions League over domestic cups. Invariably this got tongues wagging, wondering if further prioritisation would occur in the form of placing a greater emphasis on winning the Premier League than the Champions League.
Again, however, Klopp played a straight bat, saying that “I have to take what I can get”. He continued: “We didn’t decide last year that we would go for the Champions League and ignore the Premier League obviously so we just try to win the next football game.”.
Clearly, Klopp would never openly state an intention to flop at the Champions League, but the fact that the team made it all the way through the 2018/19 edition of the tournament while they were still well and truly in the running for Premier League success certainly suggests he firmly believes what he is saying.
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The pressure will continue to mount as this season progresses, though. Liverpool are in the Premier League driver’s seat early and, if you take a look at what the bookies think, they have only one genuine threat to the title; the team that beat them by a point last year, Manchester City. The Reds already have an eight-point buffer on Pep Guardiola’s side, having won all of their first eight games, but should things begin to tighten up the same questions will once again arise.
So should they do it? Should Liverpool concede another genuine chance at Champions League success in order to give themselves the best possible chance at breaking their Premier League duck?
There are almost certainly some fans who would say yes. As Klopp said, fans of the club would unequivocally prefer a Premier League title – to be crowned the best club in the nation and end a streak which has now lasted for three decades. And there is certainly an argument that the Champions League gets in the way of that quest.
On numerous occasions earlier in 2019, Liverpool played three games in the space of a little over a week as they sought to win both titles. This was during the final stretch of the Premier League season when each and every game was of the utmost importance, and players were given just two or three days’ rest to recover from high stakes, high-intensity matches. Football is a gruelling game at the best of times and there’s no doubt this had to have had an impact on the players.
And that’s not even mentioning the potential for injury. Can you imagine if Mohamed Salah or Virgil van Dijk went down with an injury in a Champions League game and it cost the Reds points in the Premier League?
But Klopp’s words carry some merit. Last season, they didn’t prioritise either tournament – winning one and falling agonisingly short in the other. Maybe this season the opposite will occur and they’ll end up victorious in the tournament which realistically holds a little more merit, both for players and fans.
The reality is, these players are competing to be the best in the world, and reaching that peak requires a certain mindset; one that wants to win every single game. Players can’t afford to head into one game playing a few gears below their best – particularly in the Champions League where the stakes are still very high – and then expect to perform at their peak a few days later. Of course, there’s the potential for the prioritisation of the Premier League to come exclusively from a managerial level in the form of resting players, as has been done in the past for the smaller domestic competitions, but doing so in a high stakes Champions League game would ruffle a lot of feathers.
Which leads to perhaps the most pertinent point of all. The Premier League might be the top of the mountain, the title which players and fans would choose to win if they had the choice, but the Champions League is hardly a small-time competition. The stakes, as mentioned, are enormous, and winning it is an achievement that very few players and teams will ever attain. Liverpool – the third most successful club in the tournament’s history – has still won it just six times in 64 seasons, and only twice since 1984.
Champions League success doesn’t come easy, and if you have a chance in the tournament then you take it. If Liverpool were to put all their eggs in the Premier League basket then, sure, there might be some tangible benefits related to fatigue – or there might not. Or the advantage might be negligible. And if they were to sacrifice the Champions League and still fail to win the Premier League – a very distinct possibility – it would be an enormous waste during a period in which they are so well set up for success.
The question will most likely continue to be asked, particularly if things get close in the latter stages of the Premier League season. And most likely, there will be a handful of fans who would be happy to sacrifice the Champions League. There is, however, no guarantee that it would benefit their Premier League title run, and as Jurgen Klopp said, you take what you can get.
Gerrard admits he would have ‘loved’ to play under Jurgen Klopp
