Liverpool FC are now top of the Premier League table and the way they got there, coupled with the timing of it, will make the title charge narrative even more red hot than you would expect. A very proud club with a rich history, large devoted fan base, long title drought and recent near miss leading the league is a huge story.
It’s an even bigger story when you factor in how they got there, with an overwhelming 6-1 victory over Watford that owned social media on Sunday, and the fact that the reached first place right before another long, dull tedious international break.
There isn’t going to be much news these next two weeks so we’ll all have plenty of time to overanalyze the Liverpool FC title odds, chances and prospects. It’s only November, and we’re a long way off until determining the champion in the spring of 2017, but title talk will be a hot topic anyway.
There will be a lot of references to both 1990 and 2013-14. Everyone will bring up the team’s unique position of having their manager as the club’s biggest star and how his zany personality is sound bite gold. (He really is a joy in interviews)
All us media types are going to call him a mad scientist, about how his unconventional ways have defied the critics and put the Liverpool FC rebuilding plan ahead of the supposed schedule, at least by one year.
What about all the media types who derided Klopp this summer though for not acquiring big name players this summer? People like me who gave his summer transfer window a C- or 5/10?
Are they going to come clean like I did and say “my bad,” “the angry funny German was right and I was wrong?” Will they do a mea culpa? As I wrote on September 1st:
Jurgen Klopp has some nice pieces, and he added a couple nice pieces this summer, but he failed to really get the keystone individuals to make it all work as a strong, cohesive unit.
Klopp knows what he’s doing, so give him some more time, but his roster is still quite lacking now that deadline day has come and passed.
Liverpool FC are like a person wearing a really nice shirt or pants, but can’t seem to locate the right accessories to “pull the whole outfit together.” They have some parts, but not the whole Gestalt to make the team more than the sum of its parts.
Liverpool FC are perhaps the most entertaining side in all of the English top flight. They’re high scoring, they do concede goals and they often up or down to their competition. It’s going to be a really fun ride watching them contend for the title.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.