AS unstoppable Liverpool prepare to end 30 years of hurt, the time is rapidly approaching when we are forced to say the unsayable.
So, through gritted teeth, here goes…
SunSport’s Mark Irwin says this Liverpool are the greatest team in English football historyCredit: Getty Images – Getty
We are now watching the greatest team in English football history.
Forget Manchester United’s 1999 Treble winners or Arsenal’s Invincibles from the 2003-04 season.
This lot are out on their own in terms of complete and utter domination.
If you were picking your Premier League team of the season, every one of them bar Kevin De Bruyne would be wearing a Liverpool shirt.
When Manchester City won the 2017-18 title with 100 points, we thought they had set a benchmark which would stand forever.
Yet here we are with Jurgen Klopp’s unbeatable side on course to blow away all the records after making mincemeat of the opposition.
If they win next Saturday’s fixture against bottom-of-the-table Norwich, they will secure Champions League qualification with 12 games to spare.
They need to win six of their remaining 13 games to be certain of their first league title since 1990.
And it’s not only on the domestic stage they have been so superior.
It is not inconceivable they could end the season with the European Cup, Premier League trophy, Fifa Club World Cup, European Super Cup and the FA Cup in
the cabinet at Anfield.
They are better than Man Utd’s Treble winning team under Sir Alex FergusonCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd
Imagine how insufferable their supporters will be if they achieve that lot…
They have already dubbed themselves The Unbearables because of their refusal to shut up about their team’s past glories.
So the prospect of thousands more Scousers banging on and on in a whiny voice is the stuff of nightmares for fans of every other team.
Like U2 and James Corden, there is no middle ground with the Koppites.
You either adore them, or abhor them.
But how can you begrudge them bragging rights when they are producing something so extraordinary on a weekly basis?
The real concern for the rest of the Prem is this Liverpool team are set to continue their domination way into the foreseeable future.
Just James Milner and Adam Lallana are beyond their 30th birthdays, while Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Alisson are all in their prime football years.
And they trump Arsenal’s Invincibles team under Arsene WengerCredit: AFP
Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have a good ten years left in them — and then there’s the kids who have seen them into the FA Cup fifth round.
United fans will argue Paul Scholes and David Beckham were better than Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum.
And Gooners will tell you Firmino and Fabinho don’t match up to Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.
But Klopp’s squad is collectively better than anything we have seen before, with no weaknesses and no passengers.
It’s not down to luck they have avoided major injuries, despite completing 41 games already this season.
Nor have they been given a helping hand by VAR making regular correct decisions in their favour.
Their only assistance has come from timid top-flight opponents who have taken a solitary point off them this season and are generally beaten before kick-off.
Liverpool are sailing on the tide of history. The rest are floundering in their wake.
SHERE TORTURE
WEST HAM fans were quick to put the boot into Jack Wilshere when he confirmed he required a hernia operation that could rule him out for the rest of the season.
But the player’s sad response on social media has come as a bitter reply to the keyboard warriors piling in on his misery.
As he prepared himself for another appointment with the surgeon’s scalpel, Wilshere posted: “Laugh at me but remember I am a human being who only wants to get myself fit and playing again.
“Football is the one thing I love and my body is not allowing me to do that. This is hurting me but I will be back.”
Even the most hardened cynic will be moved by Wilshere’s rueful words.
He knows a career which once promised the world is heading for a disappointing end.
No one should take delight in that.
Jack Wilshere has picked up another injury but no one should delight in itCredit: https://www.instagram.com/jackwilshere/?hl=en
IGGY STARDUST
MANCHESTER UNITED had their sights on Erling Haaland for the January transfer window but ended up with Odion Ighalo.
Odion bloody Ighalo.
The ex-Watford striker, who scored one league goal in his final season in England, is suddenly the answer to all Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s problems.
Having decided he could do without Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez at the start of the season, Solskjaer realised he was short of attacking options when Marcus Rashford was injured last month.
But Haaland, 19, wasn’t interested in an Old Trafford rescue mission and struggling Bournemouth didn’t think twice before rejecting a half-hearted bid for Josh King.
Luckily, Ighalo was sitting by his bat-phone in Shanghai waiting to answer the distress call.
Dismissing the need for a medical, the Nigerian international jumped on the first plane out of virus-stricken China to sign on loan for United.
Now he is ready to achieve his boyhood dream of leading the Manchester United attack.
Good luck with that one.
Odion Ighalo is hardly going to save Man Utd’s seasonCredit: Instagram @ighalojude
MARINA’S DRIED UP
MARINA GRANOVSKAIA could not keep a lower profile if she was invisible.
And the Chelsea club director won’t be breaking cover any time soon.
Blues boss Frank Lampard was banking on Granovskaia to complete the January signings he believed were vital to bolster his flagging squad.
But she failed to see a single deal over the line despite all the work which went into getting Fifa’s transfer ban overturned.
And even mild-mannered Lampard could not hide his annoyance.
With owner Roman Abramovich adopting a hands-off approach, Granovskaia is charged with running of the club.
But she has left Lampard with a young team struggling to hold on to fourth in the top flight.
Previous Chelsea executives have been replaced for far less. Yet you suspect Granovskaia is pretty much bulletproof.
Marina Granovskaia has let Frank Lampard downCredit: Getty – Contributor
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
