For the first time in 1461 days, Liverpool has taken action, but six movements make Jürgen Klopp wonder.

For the past four years, Liverpool’s fortunes have not been this excellent, but now Jürgen Klopp must navigate a new obstacle as his club vies for the championship.

For the first time in 1461 days, Liverpool has taken action, but six movements make Jürgen Klopp wonder.

Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Burnley on Boxing Day raised expectations that their reign atop the Premier League standings would be short-lived given Arsenal’s matchup with West Ham on Thursday night. Irons manager David Moyes has not won away from home against Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, or Arsenal in his previous 72 managerial tries.

 

However, that run came to an abrupt stop at the Emirates as West Ham defeated Liverpool 2-0 thanks to goals from Tomáš Souček and Konstantinos Mavropanos, maintaining Liverpool’s lead. The last time the Reds were at the top of the standings this early in a season was 1461 days ago, in 2019–20, when they went on to win the league.

 

You may mention that they were top for a brief while in May 2022 after they drew 1-1 with Spurs at home to move above Manchester City on goal differential, but that was at the conclusion of a round of matches, and City still had a game to play. Even though they were the best throughout the Christmas season in 2021 and 2021, the season due to the pandemic-imposed halt in the previous season, in mid-September, and by this point in the year, Liverpool had only played fifteen games.

 

In order to go 13 points clear, you will need to travel back four years to 2019–20, when Liverpool defeated Wolves 1-0 in its 19th game of the season after dropping just two points in its first 18 games—the finest start to a Premier League season ever. While some important members of that team remain, like goalkeeper Alisson, defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, and Virgil van Dijk, and forward Mohamed Salah, this is a mostly inexperienced bunch lacking a Premier League winners’ medal.

While players like Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, and Cody Gakpo have been a part of championship-winning squads without playing a major role, three players—Ibrahima Konaté, Wataru Endō, and Diogo Jota—have never won a top-flight league title of any kind. Despite having won multiple national championships elsewhere, Kostas Tsimikas (Greece), Dominik Szoboszlai (Austria), Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina), Ryan Gravenberch (Netherlands and Germany), Luis Díaz (Portugal and Colombia), and Darwin Núñez (Uruguay) are under much more pressure because of the Premier League’s size.

So, the question is how those who haven’t had much success at the highest level of competition will fare during the second half of the season. Some will find it easy, but others would need to rely on the guidance of those who have been there and done it before—among whom Thiago is one of the division’s most distinguished players.

 

A number of Liverpool’s well-known winners have left the team, most notably Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum, James Milner, Jordan Henderson, and Sadio Mané. Yes, they had won the Champions League the season before, which gave them the confidence they needed, even though they didn’t have a Premier League championship under their belts when they romped to victory in 2019–20.

After the summer’s renovation, Klopp views this team—which he has dubbed “Liverpool 2.0″—as a new team, and it could still need to acquire that quality. In fact, starting in the new year, it will feel much more difficult to gain points than it has up to now. However, Liverpool will eventually need to show that it can advance, and it has already put itself in a prime position for the upcoming months.