Liverpool Remains Joint Favorite for Premier League Title with Manchester City Next Year, Says Paul Merson | Football news

With Virgil van Dijk back, Liverpool remain the joint favorite for the Premier League title alongside Manchester City next year, Paul Merson insists.

In his latest column, Merson insists that Liverpool have been unlucky this season, and that with their best defenders back, intensity will return and they will remain one of the teams to beat in 2021/22.

Liverpool has seen the biggest drop in points of a Premier League champion, with 40 points in 24 games after losing the last three and winning only twice in the league since December 19, 10 games ago.

Merson also talks about the summer signing of Thiago, who he is convinced will come in handy, but does not fit in at the moment in a depleted Liverpool.

And after Tottenham’s 3-0 defeat at Man City on Saturday, a game in which Harry Kane failed to register a single touch in the opponent’s area, Merson asks: Should the English forward think about leaving the Spurs? ? And who could come for him?

‘Liverpool will return’

They will return to 100 percent. As soon as Van Dijk comes back, this is a different team. I have no doubt about it. I still think that next season will be the team to beat. If everyone is fit, it’s 50-50 for me, heads or tails with City for the title.

It’s the biggest drop in points, but you have to remember the numbers they scored last season. They were out of this world. I know they haven’t been very good and they’ve had a lot of injuries, but at halftime against Man City at home they were still in the title race, which I think is a phenomenal feat given the players they have. had come out.

If you asked us how Liverpool were going to start each week last season, we would hit the starting eleven nine times out of ten. He chose himself, he was such a machine. They drowned teams.

When you hit the players coming in and they hadn’t played much football, it’s hard to play that rhythm. If you turn off, you are punished.

When Van Dijk is in the team, Liverpool plays in the middle line. They recover the ball 25 yards, then it’s a pass and they score. Now he plays with a central midfielder in the center and is playing in his own field. This year I don’t think they were very lucky.

There is a decrease in intensity this season, and that is due to the entry of players. The goalkeeper is, for me, the best in the world. Look at it now. There is no confidence in the four behind, and he is playing a razor’s edge. Everything is by Van Dijk.

Why is Man City succeeding right now? They have defenders playing out of their skin. Nobody wins anything without good defense, and right now Liverpool’s defense is nowhere near the level it was last year.

‘Difficult times for Thiago … but we will see improvements’

Bayern Munich have the ball 99 percent of the time. Now all of a sudden he comes to this league, he gets booked in practically every game, then he walks a tightrope and the intensity has to go away.

He comes here and shows that this is the toughest league in the world by a million miles. But he is joining a team that is struggling. You think you are buying time with the ball, trying to make things happen, but it is difficult.

When Van Dijk comes back, I think we see a better Thiago. You can see a pass like Kevin De Bruyne. But right now he has to run, get the ball back and that pass is 40, 50 yards from his own goal. You need to place the ball on the edge of the box and pass it through the eye of a needle.

At the moment, it is the wrong team for him. When they start to get their best players back and are delivering the ball to 30 yards, it will cause problems. I have no doubt about it.

You can’t board, and if that was your job when you bought it, it’s a bad buy. But they didn’t buy it for that.

‘Kane has a big decision to make’

I thought after Saturday’s game, ‘I wonder how Harry Kane will feel when he gets home.’

He’s turning 28 in the summer, his next three years will be his best. You have something important to weigh now. I don’t think it comes close to Alan Shearer’s record (260 Premier League goals against Kane’s 156) at Tottenham playing this way. Far from there.

I said at the beginning of the season that he will have a great decision. When you have a game like this against City, and he knows his football because he is a smart player, he will know that Spurs are a million miles from Man City. A million miles.

For me, I played soccer to win trophies. Nobody can turn to me and say: “You never won the FA Cup, the League Cup, the Cup Winners’ Cup, the League title twice.” No one can take that away from you. You play soccer to win! You want to win the league, win trophies, there is nothing better than winning trophies.

I think club owners have football in a top four culture – they don’t care if they don’t win anything as long as they finish in the top four. That is a trophy.

I think Kane is the best striker in the world. He is the only one who can make chances, pass the ball through the eye of a needle and also finish. There aren’t many center forwards in the world who can do that.

But it’s difficult. You have to think about your family; He has a wife and two children, he could be happy like Larry where he is. It’s all very well that we’re saying he should go, but he might like his football at Spurs. We do not know.

Could Manchester clubs get in?

But if I’m Man Utd, I’m doing everything I can to buy Kane. I know Erling Haaland is on a lot of radars, but there should be only one person on Man Utd’s radar: Harry Kane. If they want to close the gap with Man City, they need someone to come to that club and score goals the moment he enters that club, like Harry Kane can.

Because Kane has done it, year after year, in this relentless league. Who is to know that Haaland will start racing in this league? You don’t have time in this league. Timo Werner was scoring goals on the left, right and center, but he arrived here and has had problems.

Sometimes I look at Kane and think, ‘Am I the only one seeing this?’ I’d pay everything to sign him. It has the whole package.

Man Utd needs to win the league now, not in five or six years. Don’t get me wrong, Haaland is an incredible prospect. But for me it’s a no-brainer, I’d like to win the league now!

I wouldn’t be surprised if City went for him, but that depends on how they do in the Champions League. The only thing that will prevent them from winning the competition is the missed opportunities. When it comes to missed opportunities, I know who I want on my team next year: Harry Kane.

But I’ll say it again: your family can be happy where it is. Many things in Tottenham tick their boxes, but you won’t want too many days like you had on Saturday.