Ask any world football fan to name the biggest clubs in the game, and sooner or later, they are sure to mention Liverpool. The Merseyside club has one of the world’s biggest fan bases, with supporters all over the planet and millions following every game and piece of Liverpool-related news.
This enormous support is all the more remarkable when you consider that Liverpool have been relatively unsuccessful over the last thirty years or so. Compared to the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester United and Chelsea, their haul of silverware has been modest. The 2005 Champions League victory was a major triumph, but it was an isolated one. Above all, Liverpool have fallen short in the competition that their fans covet the most: the Premier League.
It is a sign of how long ago it was that the Reds last ruled English football that the Premier League wasn’t even called the Premier League. That last league title came in 1990, under the managership of Kenny Dalglish, two seasons before the inaugural Premier League, when the top flight of English football was still run by the Football League, not the FA, and was known as the First Division.
But it was the First Division that had provided Liverpool with the foundation that had enabled them to win four European Cups. Triumphs in Europe may have helped to cement their reputation around the globe, but their dynasty of dominance, passed down from manager to manager; from Bill Shankly to Bob Paisley, to Joe Fagan to Kenny Dalglish, was founded on League Championship success.
Of the eighteen First Division titles in Liverpool’s history, ten were won between 1976 and 1990 as the club took a stranglehold on English football. But with the resignation of Dalglish in 1991, the dominance began to slip. It was Manchester United who dominated the new Premier League while Liverpool endured a series of false dawns and dashed hopes, the latest of which came in 2013-14 when Brendan Rodgers’ side let the title slip in their final three games of the season.
But this year, under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have the Premier League title in sight. Once again, as it was in 2013-14, it is Manchester City who are their rivals. City may have the edge with bookmakers, while Liverpool are generally regarded as an 11/8 chance to win the title, but all the signs are that this season’s race will go down to the wire, and Liverpool fans will be eagerly following not just their own team’s games, but City’s fixtures as well, through highlights and live Sky Sports coverage.
And while the 2013-14 Liverpool side was well organised and attack-minded, there is a solidity about Klopp’s Liverpool that sets them apart. Having already assembled one of the Premier League’s most formidable front lines in Mohammed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, Klopp has added steel to the defence and a solid goalkeeper in the Brazilian Alisson, making his team much harder to beat and enabling them to grind out wins even when they aren’t playing well.
The Reds also have a more favourable fixture list, with two of their remaining three games against top-six sides coming at home and a relatively simple run-in. Of course, a lot can happen in the last few weeks of the season, and Liverpool fans are likely to be put through a rollercoaster of emotions. Some may be confident enough to back their team with one of the top bookmakers on the BigBetBookmakers.com site, while others will be chewing their nails. But above all, every Liverpool fan around the globe will be hoping and praying that this is, finally, their year.
