Of course, it’s still just Liverpool . But this is Liverpool’s first match in the Premier League since official information appeared about coach Juergen Klopp’s farewell at the end of the season. No more pressure…
Sooner or later, it will be time to break up. And Mr. Klopp will leave Liverpool as one of the few most successful coaches in the club’s entire history. He has won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, and League Cup. Now, he wants to leave immediately after a glorious football season. Liverpool is leading the Premier League with a 5-point gap over Man.City (despite playing 1 more match); reached the final of the Federation Cup; is facing the “easy” 5th round of the FA Cup and has entered the 1/8 round of the Europa League.
Liverpool (right) is determined to overcome Chelsea
photo: Reuters
Will there have to be a title for Mr. Klopp as a farewell gift to his fans? More than that, maybe! Liverpool fans enthusiastically cheered for Mr. Klopp in the first match after announcing his separation, and Liverpool beat Norwich 5-2 in the FA Cup. Now, he continues to conquer, in a very new situation: no more pressure. From now until the end of the football season, he will only gain and lose nothing.
Interestingly, Liverpool will encounter a strong returning Chelsea in the first round after the winter break of the Premier League. This is also Liverpool’s opponent in the upcoming League Cup final. Coach Pochettino’s team has won 3 recent matches in the Premier League. In the Premier League era , Chelsea have won 18 times when meeting the team leading the table – the most in this arena. What’s interesting is that: in the last 4 times they met Liverpool in similar circumstances, Chelsea did not win any match (draw 1, lose 3). It’s no wonder that the Opta statistics company’s computer thinks Liverpool has a 54.9% chance of winning, while Chelsea only has a 19.5% chance.
Mohamed Salah probably still hasn’t recovered from his injury in the Egyptian shirt at Afcon 2023. But Liverpool has welcomed the return after a period of absence from Dominik Szoboszlai, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson. Alexis MacAllister may also have recovered, although he did not appear in the victory over Norwich like the three famous players just mentioned. Compared to Liverpool, Chelsea’s injury situation at this time is much more serious. At least 7 injured players have not recovered…
Without Salah, the responsibility of scoring for Liverpool will fall to Darwin Nunez or Diogo Jota. They both scored in the win over Norwich in the FA Cup and both scored a double in Liverpool’s most recent match in the Premier League (4-0 win over Bournemouth ). Nunez has participated in the scoring process (scored 9, passed 3) this season, more than the total number of goals he participated in last season. But Nunez also unfortunately misses opportunities very often. On the contrary, Jota is one of the most effective scorers at Liverpool in the past (19.3% of his shots resulted in goals). With two strikers so different, it is not easy to predict what main attack plan Mr. Klopp will choose, and it is even more difficult for Chelsea’s defense to find a countermeasure to stop them. In attack, Cole Palmer is certainly the “hottest” name in Chelsea at present.
After a “rotating” winter break and having to give up the field for the FA Cup throughout January, the English Premier League is back in full swing with 5 matches at dawn this morning of round 22. In addition, there are 3 matches tonight ( The focus is the Liverpool – Chelsea match, which takes place at the latest) and 2 matches tomorrow night. After Chelsea, Liverpool will face Arsenal again in the next round. If Mr. Klopp’s teachers and students win two matches in a row, the rest of the season will be too overwhelming.
