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Happy New Year from everyone here at Liverpool.com.
As we know, it has been an immense challenge throughout all aspects of 2020. It is one in which we are left with a sense of immense pride for this football club at times when it seemed that nothing else in this world made sense. Liverpool have become history-makers, and as we approach 2021, we only hope that the sweet release from everyday life that football brings will mean greater happiness for us.
And with all that lies this incredible group of players and staff. Jürgen Klopp and his team facing a challenge today, which could come to define them in some way in the weeks ahead and indeed the season, and in many respects it is one that he hasn’t faced in a long time.
December and Liverpool (in a normal existence) represent the moment when Klopp and his team reached true form and accelerated, usually leaving everyone else struggling to keep up with them. Now they face a different situation, with 12 points taken in December out of a possible 18 after six games played. This is the lowest point return since Klopp’s first months on the job in 2015/16.
In the past two seasons, Liverpool have taken the most league points from their hectic Christmas schedule and, as a result, have fully asserted themselves in the title race. They are still on top today and nothing is lost in that regard, but Klopp must find a way to reconfigure a side that history tells us fades a bit after the festive period.
Liverpool have always suffered a January to March slump with the German at some point in each campaign. Last season it was after the winter break and before the pandemic that Liverpool lost a beat. The previous season saw the January loss to Manchester City and the succession of draws in late February that ultimately ended up costing a title.
In every moment that we expected Liverpool to move through the gears in the last month, it hasn’t happened. Therefore, Klopp must now make the New Year the time to do it. In a truncated and frankly bizarre set of circumstances in which we see and welcome 2021, the hope is, among many things for next year, that it can do just that.
What I read on Liverpool.com
An excellent piece on the perception of Fabinho by Mark Wakefield, looking at how we see him now and how the team benefits and does not benefit from him as a center-back. Another piece I enjoyed was this canny observation by Ollie Connolly on Liverpool away form, and why performances, not results, are more worthy of attention.
What i’m hearing
The year that was would not be complete without giving us a more savage blow, and it came last night with the news of the passing of a hip-hop heavyweight, MF DOOM. Another cruel hit, so sit back this morning and listen to one of the best in his prime.
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