[ad_1]
BRUNO FERNANDES threatens to fire Manchester United to become a contender for the Premier League title, but Liverpool may be about to launch the perfect vaccine to neutralize the threat.
hiago Alcantara was only on the field for 20 minutes in the 0-0 draw at Newcastle on Wednesday night, but they gave us a wonderful reminder of what class he is.
If you like football, you have to enjoy watching Thiago, as he is a Rolls-Royce of a footballer.
His passing range and intelligence is on a different level than everyone around him, and he may flip the ignition switch on this Liverpool team for months to come.
Manager Jurgen Klopp has suggested that Thiago will be the equivalent of a multi-million pound signing in this month’s transfer window and the snapshot of what we saw when he made his first appearance in more than two months was very exciting.
There was a lot of excitement when Liverpool signed Thiago from Bayern Munich last summer, and while that embarrassing challenge from Richarlison in the Merseyside derby in October took him out of the game, he seems ready to finally bounce back.
Klopp will expect Thiago to return to his starting lineup as soon as possible and if he’s ready to make a comeback against Southampton he could provide a huge boost to a Liverpool side that has failed over the Christmas period.
The draws against West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle came amid disappointing performances from an offensive perspective, and it’s not often that we’ve said that in recent years.
Mohamed Salah looked off the beat and, without a bit of concentration, Sadio Mane did not look his best, with the injured Diogo Jota as an additional attacking option.
Now Klopp will hope that Thiago can give his team a new look, with the playmaker’s ability to direct a game and set the pace from midfield, offering the potential to start a season that is increasingly difficult to predict.
No team appears to be able to gain momentum or find a level of consistency as games continue to be played in empty stadiums that are not conducive to competitive action.
We get the false sound noise when we watch games on television, but players hear nothing but their own voices in stadiums and it is difficult to play without a crowd.
The strange results that we are seeing each week are opening the door for teams like Manchester United to believe they can get into the title mix, although I am struggling to believe that they are in the position they are in now.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s position as United manager appeared to be under real threat a few weeks ago, but now they are expressing their hopes of winning the Premier League title.
Their lofty position in the table doesn’t make sense when you look at some of United’s performances this season, but they have a line of attack that can win games and have found a way to avoid goals at the other end.
Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani and Anthony Martial are a threat going forward and in Fernandes, they have a player who can open a game with a moment of magic.
Okay, this kid gets a ton of penalties and a lot of big decisions seem to go in United’s favor, but Fernandes is a class act and makes Solskjaer score well.
If injured, United would certainly have a difficult time winning games at the rate they have been doing lately and I still don’t see them winning the title, given their team’s weak points.
However, in a season where nothing is predictable, anything is possible and that is why Liverpool need to act together in those away games.
Aside from a 7-0 win at Crystal Palace, Liverpool have only won one Premier League away game so far and it is notable that goals have been hard to come by.
Now they are preparing to face a big test against Southampton and, make no mistake, this will be more difficult than Newcastle’s game, as they face a team that has real ambition and a good tactician running their ship at Ralph Hasenhuttl.
They have done very well to bounce back from their 9-0 beating against Leicester last year and if you look at their form since then, Southampton are comfortably in the top six with the points they have accumulated.
So Liverpool will have to be in their prime to get a result and based on the evidence from what we have seen in the last two games it will require a huge increase in form.
I still believe that any team that finishes ahead of Liverpool this season will finish as champions, but I am also convinced that Klopp’s team will not win the title unless they sign a center-back in this month’s window.
They’re so short in that area of the field after Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez’s injuries that they simply have to try to find a solution in this month’s window.
Finally, I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all the readers of Sunday World.
We have all experienced some misery in the last 12 months, so we hope that 2021 will bring some hope to our hearts.
[ad_2]