Liverpool (AFP) – Liverpool’s coronation as English champions for the first time in 30 years is the culmination of a dramatic journey since Jurgen Klopp’s appointment as manager in 2015.
Klopp is the charismatic face of Liverpool’s transformation from top-four contenders to Champions League winners and now Premier League champions.
However, the Reds’ success on the pitch has been made possible by plenty of shrewd work on signings and sales behind the scenes.
Of the 18-man squad named by Klopp in his first match in charge less than five years ago, only James Milner, Adam Lallana and Divock Origi have featured this season, in peripheral roles.
The construction of Liverpool’s title-winning squad has been a steady process.
In Klopp’s first summer transfer window, Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum arrived to help secure a return to the Champions League.
The next year they were joined by Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
By January 2018, a long pursuit of Virgil van Dijk resulted in the Dutchman becoming the world’s most expensive defender for £75 million ($93 million).
Inspired by Salah’s free-scoring form, the instant impact of Van Dijk and growing maturity of full-backs Robertson and academy graduate Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool reached the Champions League final in 2018.
Two howlers from Loris Karius against Real Madrid delayed a sixth European Cup win for a year, but what happened afterwards showed the club’s ruthless desire to get back to winning major trophies.
Karius has never played another game for Liverpool as another world record fee, this time for a goalkeeper, was splashed on Alisson Becker from Roma.
Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri were also recruited in 2018 in a spending spree of more than £160 million.
“Maybe this season finally you demand they win,” jibed then Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho.
Win is what they have done relentlessly for two years.
A mammoth total of 97 points was still not enough to win the title last season due to Manchester City’s own stunning levels of consistency.
However, the upgrades for the 2018/19 season were rewarded in silverware with a Champions League triumph. On the way to the trophy Liverpool thumped Barcelona 4-0 in the second leg of the semi-final, even without the injured Salah and Roberto Firmino.
– Money well spent –
The momentum of Madrid rolled into this season, with only the coronavirus pandemic preventing possibly the earliest-ever crowning of English champions.
from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2YwX7fE
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