Why Liverpool are the dark horse in the 2021-22 Premier League

Liverpool are the forgotten team in the top four from the 2020-21 season. Manchester City, Chelsea, and Manchester United are considered the best teams in the Premier League. The Reds were just about in the title race last season but they were hampered by Virgil van Dijk’s injury.

LFC still have a solid core lineup from their victorious 2019-20 EPL-winning run. The only member of the first XI who has exited the squad is midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum who has been replaced by an arguably better player in Thiago Alcântara.

While retaining a core lineup is good for most clubs, people are not confident in LFC because the other top three clubs got stronger with the signings like Jack Grealish, Romelu Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo. It is easy to see why people are not looking at LFC because they were dwarfed by those transfers. When you look at the Sportsbet news portal, you can see that the Reds only made one big transfer which was Ibrahima Konaté from RB Leipzig.

Klopp is the key to success

When you look at the cast of head coaches in the Premier League, Jürgen Klopp is always at the top with coaches like Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel. All of these coaches are tactically strong but Klopp has a special skill of unlocking his players’ potential. Back in the day, LFC captain Jordan Henderson was not known as a top player but when he joined Klopp’s system, he became one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.

Klopp has always been the coach who helps his team maximize their potential. He knows that LFC has a good squad no matter what happens.

The coach showed his belief in his squad as he said, ‘We have a good team whoever is playing, that’s how it is. No, we try to bring the best team always on the pitch and that can have some probably physical reasons sometimes, and sometimes shape reasons. But we need the squad definitely for the whole year, that’s definitely the case. But now thinking about these games, my first idea was not to think about rotation or whatever, it’s about playing football and go for it’.

Mo Salah should always be the centerpiece

Mohamed Salah is Liverpool’s best forward because he can both score goals and create scoring chances for his teammates. He plays as a right-winger but he mainly runs as a striker.

The team is built around him because his skillset needs to be featured as the club’s main weapon. He can cut in from the right flank and make runs into the box but he can also dribble his way into the final third and score on his own.

While Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino are good players, they can slow down and enter a slump. Salah has never fallen off and he has proven that he can be the best player in any game.

Since Salah is the centerpiece, they need to build around him well. He has a good partner with Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right flank. If they get the momentum like the 2019-20 campaign, you might see LFC emerge as the champs in the Sportsbet news portal at the end of the 2021-22 campaign.