When Manchester City beat Liverpool last week it closed the gap between first and second place to a margin that was less than 22 points. That’s the magic number, set in 2017-18, when City finished first, and their neighbors United were the closest competitor, way down in second place.
Since the second and final Liverpool-City meeting of the season, the margin has now gone back up to 23, and with five games to go, we’ll see if the Reds nab this record as well. They may not, as manager Jurgen Klopp looks set to keep giving youth players more chances down the stretch here.
The German did say that those opportunities had to be earned though, not “handed out like Christmas presents.” Either way, Klopp feels very secure about the future of the team.
“As a football club we are not worried about our future,” Klopp told his virtual news conference.
“We have a good team. The future is already prepared with a few really, really good footballers around and I’m really happy that the boys see it the same way because I said it a lot times that for young players the biggest plus they have is time.”
“But in the moment when they lose patience things go exactly how they should not go and our boys want to play, want to be involved.
“Our academy is producing a lot of good players in the last few years and we are really happy that the boys want to commit even if for the first time in their lives they don’t play week in, week out but they have a lot to learn and we give them the time to do so.”
Liverpool Starting XI Prediction at Brighton & Hove Albion
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane
Liverpool FC at Brighton & Hove Albion FYIs
Team News for both sides: go to this link
Kickoff: Wed July 7, 8:15 BST, Amex Stadium
Records: Brighton 8-12-13. 36 points, 15th Liverpool FC 29-2-2, 89 points, Champions
Odds: Liverpool FC 4/7 Draw 16/5 Brighton 11/2
Premier League Form Guide: Brighton LDWDLW Liverpool FC LWDWLW
Prediction: Liverpool 2, Brighton 0
Klopp won’t go full pace all the time in this one, but as we said before, you know how competitive he truly is, so he won’t take his foot off the accelerator completely either.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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