What a season it was for Liverpool, who surely made their fans proud and most likely got themselves some new fans along the way. With all ups and down that Liverpool had to endure in 2018/19 season, this season was one to remember and one that we will surely talk in the years to come. Without wasting too much time praising Liverpool, let’s jump into a time machine, go back at the start of 2018/19 season and see what a year it was for the Reds.
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah during the Premier League match at Craven Cottage, London. (Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
A close title race
Of course, we must start where it all began, the Premier League. It did not take Liverpool long to establish themselves as a real threat to win the league in 2018/19 season. This, of course, was not something we would have expected from Liverpool, who finished the 2017/18 season a whole 25 points behind Manchester City. Despite low expectations, at least as far as the title goes, Liverpool came into 2018/19 with all guns blazing, which made us believe they have got it in them to really leave a mark this season, and maybe, just maybe even be able to stand against Manchester City. The impossible became a reality when we saw Liverpool at the top of the league with only a couple more rounds left to be played in the EPL, but a streak of bad results resulted in Liverpool losing their chance to shock the world and take the title from Manchester City. While the Reds failed to reach impossible, it hardly felt like a failure. They finished the EPL season with a record 97 points (3rd highest in the division’s history), took the title race to the final day and to top it all off, lost only 1 match in the whole season. In addition to that, their star players, Salah a.k.a. The Egyptian Messi and Mane won the golden boot, Allison won the golden glove. van Dijk won PFA Player of the year
Cup competition not too kind for Klopp and his men
While we could see Liverpool dominating in the EPL, the same cannot be said for the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. The latter was never a priority to win for Liverpool, who exited the competition rather quickly after suffering a 1-2 defeat against Chelsea in the 3rd round in September. In their defence, Liverpool played with a second-string team, secretly hoping they can exit the cup and focus on other, more important achievements.
As for the FA Cup, Liverpool did not fare much better, with yet another 3rd round exit, this time against Wolves, who dismantled Liverpool and won 2-1. This meant Liverpool once again failed to impress in the world’s oldest cup competition once more, however considering their rather poor results under Klopp, we can’t help but wonder if he even takes FA cup as a priority.
Europe no match for Liverpool’s might
Talking about cups, Liverpool managed to end the season with the most prestigious one high above their heads. We are of course talking about the Champions League cup, which Liverpool won for the first time since the historic year 2005 when they put up arguably the best show of the UCL finals in the history of the tournament. Despite the fact, the show we saw on June 1st was nowhere near as entertaining as the 2005 finals, Liverpool still won and earned themselves their 6th UEFA Champions League title in the history of the club. Coming from heartbreak in Kyiv last year, the title was arguably well deserved for Liverpool. Of course, their road to the finals was not easy, and at one point seemed like it was impossible for Reds to appear in their 2nd consecutive UCL finals. But Klopp’s side proved to the world once more that football is played until the final whistle and that sometimes miracles can happen. This season it was a miracle at Anfield stadium, where Barcelona kneeled down to Liverpool, who won 4:0, thus managed to compensate for their 3:0 defeat in Spain and with that got themselves into the finals of UCL.
Prior to the clash of the season, Liverpool also had to overcome PSG, Napoli and Red Star Belgrade in the group stage, followed by clashes against Bayern Munich, Porto and as mentioned Barcelona in the playoffs.
Finals, as we know, ended in a 0-2 win for Liverpool over a well-known opponent Tottenham, who proved to be a stern opponent, but Liverpool’s experience class and the 2nd-minute penalty proved to be enough for the Reds to reach the glory for the 6th time.
What has next season got in store for Liverpool?
Considering how strong Liverpool looked this season, the team seems more than ready to step into the 2019/20 season just as strong as they were this season. There is understandably the question which asks what Liverpool needs to do to have a better chance to win the EPL next season and while we some may expect a long answer including all the tweaks needed to be made in the team, the answer is simple. Liverpool do not need to do anything. They have proven their team is more than capable of fighting against the world’s best and even though they lost the EPL title, we cannot forget the fact they only lost 1 match in the entire season. Instead of defeats, it was the draws which sunk Liverpool’s ship in the title race, however, unlike losing matches, the draws were not the issue of lack of quality in the team, but rather bad luck or shall we say unfortunate streak of bad form which ultimately decided the winner of EPL.
Asking the team to not change a thing might be harder as it seems, especially after a great season behind them. Putting themselves and their players on the radar we can expect at least one departure from the team and with that at least one new arrival. Should Liverpool approach the transfer market with the right approach, we might be looking at an even stronger team next season, however, with Salah rumoured to leave the Reds this summer, Klopp just might have a very exciting summer ahead of him, when instead of looking through catalogue for a holiday destination, he will be searching for a player that could replace his star striker.
