Red marauders
Liverpool may not have won a trophy in 2018, but it's been a brilliant year for them on and off the pitch. Jurgen Klopp's side reached the Champions League final and finished in the top four last season, while they currently lead the Premier League at the midway point of the campaign.
In this slideshow, we pick out 10 things we've learned about the Reds in the last 12 months...
1. Klopp can coach a defence
Liverpool conceded 23 goals in the first half of last season - considerably more than Manchester City (12), Tottenham (18), Manchester United (14), Chelsea (14) and even Burnley (15). Jurgen Klopp had managed to get the attack firing, but doubts remained over his ability to shore up the Reds’ backline.
The signings of Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk have certainly helped to tighten things up, but Klopp has also made improvements to the team’s structure. Liverpool haven’t always been exhilarating to watch in 2018/19, but there is a newfound solidity to their game which could make all the difference when it comes to the title.
With eight goals against in the first 20 games of the campaign, Liverpool look like they have what it takes to compete with Chelsea’s record of 15 in 2004/05.
2. There’s life after Buvac
When Zeljko Buvac left Liverpool in April, many fans feared the worst. The Serbian had worked alongside Klopp since 2001 and was thought to be the mastermind behind the Reds’ pressing game.
Yet although Liverpool started the season a little slowly by their high standards, they’ve now found the net 21 times in their last six Premier League matches. It feels like their pragmatic opening to the campaign was a deliberate ploy to ensure the team didn’t suffer burnout over the hectic festive period.
A key appointment made by Klopp in the summer was that of Dutch coach Pepijn Lijnders – formerly a youth and then first-team development coach at Melwood – who has effectively replaced Buvac as the German's right-hand man.
3. Salah’s no one-season wonder
Liverpool fans were pleased with the signing of Salah in summer 2017, but even the most optimistic of supporters wouldn’t have envisaged the Egyptian plundering an extraordinary 44 goals in his debut season on Merseyside.
A slow start to his second campaign led to some critics dismissing Salah as a one-season wonder, but his form in recent weeks has made such claims look very premature indeed. Nobody has scored more goals in the first half of the season, while Salah has provided seven assists – four more than Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Harry Kane.
Now that he's fully recovered from the shoulder injury which forced him out of the Champions League final, expect Salah to score at least another 15 goals in the second half of the season.
4. Medicals matter
That defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League final was a rare low point for Liverpool in 2018; and really, their failure to land Nabil Fekir in the summer was the only other major disappointment.
The French attacking midfielder was seen as the ideal No.10 in Klopp’s 4-2-3-1 system. He had all but completed his move from Lyon before the World Cup, but concerns over a pre-existing knee injury ultimately scuppered the transfer. Klopp has responded by deploying Roberto Firmino in the withdrawn role he previously fulfilled at Hoffenheim – a move which has worked brilliantly so far.
5. There’s a plan
It's clear that there's now a strategic plan at Anfield running right through the club. Klopp trusts in sporting director Michael Edwards, admitting that he and his scouting team pushed for signings such as Salah. This harmony between dugout and boardroom was absent before the German’s arrival, and Liverpool are all the better for it.
A year ago the Reds acquired Virgil van Dijk, showing a willingness to stick to a long-term strategy having failed to land the Dutchman in the summer. Other clubs may have hurriedly splashed the cash on a second-rate alternative; instead, Liverpool waited a few months to get their principal target.
6. Klopp will spend big
“If you bring one player in for £100m and he gets injured, then it all goes through the chimney. The day that this is football, I'm not in a job anymore, because the game is about playing together,” Jurgen Klopp said when Manchester United paid £89m for Paul Pogba in 2016.
"Other clubs can go out and spend more money and collect top players. I want to do it differently. I would even do it differently if I could spend that money.”
Fans of other clubs delighted in resurfacing those quotes when Liverpool broke the world transfer record for a defender and goalkeeper with the acquisitions of Van Dijk and Alisson. Those moves signalled a change of approach from the German, who explained that Neymar’s remarkable €222m transfer to PSG had permanently changed the landscape. Klopp has now shown he’s willing to spend big – but only for the right player.
7. Records are there to be broken
There are some achievements in football that will never be bested in the modern game, such as defender Phil Neal’s incredible run of 417 consecutive appearances for Liverpool between 1976 and 1983.
But in 2018, Salah smashed the Premier League record for goals in a 38-game season, while Liverpool recorded their finest-ever start to a season in their 126-year history. This season Alisson should break the club record for most clean sheets in a Premier League campaign (12 so far, leaving him eight short of the record), although he still has work ahead to match Ray Clemence’s 28 shut-outs in 1978/79. This Liverpool team are embracing the challenge of laying down new markers.
8. Reds are a European force
This was the year Liverpool restored their place among Europe’s elite. After a disappointing return to the Champions League in 2014 under Brendan Rodgers, Klopp's side blitzed their way to the 2018 showpiece in style, scoring five or more goals against every team they played in the competition (home and away combined) bar Real Madrid.
Their entertaining brand of football won admirers across the continent, while it also helped make Liverpool an attractive proposition for potential signings. After seeing the progress made by Sadio Mané, Firmino, Salah, Van Dijk and even Xherdan Shaqiri, more and more players will be keen to join the Klopp revolution.
9. The title is possible
If it wasn't for Manchester City’s incredible early-season form, Liverpool would have found themselves clear at the top of the table much earlier than Christmas. Three defeats in five games for Pep Guardiola’s side mean the Reds have moved seven points clear.
Liverpool are yet to lose this term and have let in just eight goals, meaning they also have the best goal difference in the division. Things can change quickly, of course, and no one on Merseyside will be taking anything for granted - especially with the memories of 2014 still haunting the Reds' fanbase.
But as Klopp has pointed out, previous failings don’t mean anything for this set of players, only three of whom remain from that near-miss under Brendan Rodgers five years ago. This is a new dawn and a new era.
10. The future is bright
Regardless of how 2018/19 ends, we’ve seen that the future is very bright for Liverpool. Most of their key players are yet to reach their peak years; Van Dijk and Lovren (both 27), and Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson (both 28) are in their primes, while James Milner is the only regular in his 30s.
Beyond those, the likes of Fabinho (25), Naby Keita (23), Andy Robertson (24), Salah, Mané (26), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (25), Joe Gomez (21) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (20) have plenty of time for further improvement. Gomez has shown his class at centre-back in 2018, Oxlade-Chamberlain has proven his ability in a central role, and Alexander-Arnold has flourished into one of Europe’s best young talents.
The club's academy is also stacked with high-quality talent and Klopp appears to be in it for the long haul, making this a very exciting time to be a Liverpool fan.
