Liverpool are nothing special – Nothing to fear but fear itself | OneFootball

Liverpool are nothing special this season, in my opinion.

I am not saying they aren’t a good team, they are.

I am just saying, Liverpool aren’t anything special.

They are a good team and deserve to be top of the Premier League table as things stand, but they aren’t anything more than that, they simply sum up how things are in the top tier at this moment in time.

I think is a season of opportunity and Liverpool are currently the ones grasping that window of opportunity.

When I have watched them this season, I haven’t been blown away by Arne Slot’s side.

Which I think is kind of the point.

They have been good enough to end up top of the table by five points, nine points ahead of third, without having to be anything special.

This is how the Premier League table currently looks:

As you can see, apart from Manchester City, all of the other clubs have won less than half of their Premier League matches so far.

At this same point of the season a year ago, seven Premier League clubs had won more than half their matches – Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa, Newcastle United and Man U.

Bottom line for me is that this season the standards have generally dropped towards the top end of the Premier League and Liverpool have taken full advantage.

This has been more of a levelling down, rather than some kind of levelling up.

Maybe best summed up by Manchester City, who have failed to win seven of their last twelve matches against Premier League or Champions League clubs. Guaridola’s team are currently on a run of four defeats in a row.

Liverpool were nothing special last season and finished a distant third to Man City and Arsenal.

Yet now they are five and nine points ahead of those two teams respectively.

I think Liverpool have certainly carried their luck this season as well but the key thing I think, is that they have remained pretty much at the same level as last season, but others have got worse.

If you don’t believe Liverpool are no better than last season, just look at all their new signings.

Liverpool’s biggest signing this past summer was Georgi Mamardashvili, the goalkeeper immediately loaned back to Valencia.

Their only other first-team signing was Federico Chiesa, he has only played 18 minutes so far this season in the Premier League and that came when the scousers were already 3-0 up at home to Bournemouth.

The reality is that the Liverpool team hasn’t changed from last season.

Which actually I think has been the secret of their relative success under Arne Slot so far, he hasn’t really changed anything significantly. He has kept the same squad of players together and they have kept playing to a similar standard as last season, whilst other teams have significantly dipped in their levels.

Man City seemingly hit far harder by just the odd key injury than should be the case. Arsenal similar, though with the Gooners there is also a feeling maybe that they have been found out a bit with this cunning plan of not really playing with an out and out centre-forward, instead having Havertz in a free role.

I don’t see anything special below that for sure.

Chelsea may have marginally improved but still look to me like flat-track bullies, looking good at times when everything goes for them against weaker opposition but looking mediocre when playing anything decent and massively overly reliant on Cole Palmer.

Tottenham are similar, in an ongoing win/lose routine, whilst Aston Villa have carried incredible luck from what I have seen, Duran kept coming off the bench to score wonder goals to win matches they didn’t really deserve to.

Which brings me to Newcastle United.

Now before any Liverpool fans start crying on, I don’t think NUFC are going to finish above them. Nor then obviously, do I think Newcastle United are going to win the league.

However, I do think this is a massive window of opportunity for Newcastle United, both in these upcoming matches and the season overall.

Newcastle United have already played six of the seven clubs currently above them in the table.

Now in these next six games that come before Christmas, Eddie Howe’s side face four (West Ham, Ipswich, Leicester, Palace) of the bottom seven in the table. Whilst the only one of the matches before Xmas that is against a top half of the table team, is against… Liverpool (Brentford the other one of the six that Newcastle play).

For me, this was always going to be a difficult start to the season for Eddie Howe, in terms of how the schedule of matches looked to an extent, but more because of the injury and fitness situation for many players, the majority of those a carry over from last season’s issues. Sandro Tonali of course, couldn’t hit the ground running, his first Premier League involvement had to wait until September due to the suspension carrying on into the start of this season.

You hate to say tempt fate, but it does look now as if post-November internationals, that Eddie Howe will finally be in a position to have the vast majority of his players fully fit and available. On top of that, Sven Botman also now back training with the rest of the squad and in the near future thoughts will turn to when he can start looking for first team playing involvement.

Unlike many other clubs of course, the fact is that Newcastle United (and Liverpool!) are also now in a position where if they choose to, they have the financial/PSR ability to strengthen in the January window, the two clubs making a profit in the summer transfer window and not using up all their PSR flex in that last window.

Maybe though like Liverpool/Arne Slot, Newcastle United/Eddie Howe will like the rhythm NUFC are in, come January, if continuing to show the kind of form that produced these last three excellent wins. Form which in reality they had been largely showing for a number of matches before that, though not necessarily getting the results it deserved.

I am not claiming Newcastle United have suddenly become world beaters.

What I am claiming is that to have a potentially very very productive season, NUFC may well not need to be.

I am saying that if Eddie Howe can get United to play to a level consistently, which is similar to how they played for much of the 2022/23 season, as well as indeed for most of the early months of last season before the ridiculous number of injuries finally became too much, then those levels could/should be more than enough to see Newcastle flying high this season.

Just how high that can be, will of course be decided by a number of factors, as always.

However, what Newcastle United have shown in these recent matches, is that they can be a big threat to those other clubs who fancy themselves as contenders for the upper places in the table.