- Feb 13, 2004
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for the bolded reasons, and the fact that Klopp has just had his 1st pre-season and getting his fitness levels high for a pressing game, makes me believe they will do a hell of a lot better this season (hope i'm wrong as usual).
due to ground work they play their 1st 3 fixtures away, and 2 very tough one's Arsenal and us, if they pick up max points from the 1st 2, the other not easy away to Burnley, i won't be looking forward to meeting them. we might of finished above them 2 out of the last 3, but we haven't beat them on the pitch in that time, not since 2012
We've finished above them 6 seasons out of the last seven. We have finished top four in three of the last seven seasons, they have managed it once. We have finished lower than fifth once in the last seven seasons, sixth; they have finished higher than sixth once, including two seventh and two eighth placed finishes. That suggests our team is better than theirs. We may not have beaten them for a while - but they regularly beat United while United were winning a succession of trophies - so that don't mean much.
We are likely to improve due to a further years' maturity, a further years' experience, a further years' cohesion, and a strategically improved squad. We are ahead in our manager's project. With no reference to them at all, I expect us to improve. So, the question to me is will Klopp, facing a set of challenges he never faced in Germany, with a (relatively) weaker club, poorer squad and poorer youth set-up, and still, at best, half-proven in the BPL, not only improve them to catch up with the amount we were ahead of them last season, but also the improvement I expect us to make this summer?
I can't say he will, and I can't say he won't. But I have guarded optimism. Liverpool just haven't been that good for a while, aside from one Suarez-inspired season, and I am not sure that Klopp and his methods will prove to be so much better than the several teams who are richer, or better than they have been for a while, who are also working to improve this summer. He is not in the relatively poor German league, with the second best team and a hell of a youth set-up, now. He is at a much more competitive, much less deferential league.