Liverpool bottlers? Think again

By Frank Gavurin, second year Politics and Spanish

When looking back on their rollercoaster of a season, Liverpool fans (among whose number I count myself, so take the following article with as many pinches of salt as you deem necessary, reader) will surely be left rueing what proved to be hugely costly draws against the likes of West Ham and Leicester. Just two more points would have sent the Premier League trophy down the M62 to Merseyside.

Liverpool have long had a reputation for slipping up in games they are expected to win. Their 2016/17 campaign, for instance, saw them undefeated against the rest of the top six, yet suffering embarrassing reversals at home to Swansea and Crystal Palace, and away at Burnley, Bournemouth and Hull.

It is perhaps with this partially merited reputation in mind, as well as a good degree of Schadenfreude in the case of rival fans, that some have accused Liverpool of ‘bottling’ their title charge. A video of Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson saying that Everton thought they had stopped their neighbours winning the league, after a goalless draw which would be the last occasion that the Reds dropped points this season, was gleefully shared by rival fans. Elsewhere, Guardian journalist Jacob Steinberg suggested that Liverpool ‘froze when they were in front’.

Now it is of course entirely fair for supporters and journalists to wonder what could have been, and no team should be above scrutiny. But it seems very harsh indeed to suggest that this Liverpool team ‘bottled’ anything. The momentousness of its achievement should not be forgotten amidst the entirely warranted plaudits for Manchester City’s record-breaking back-to-back titles. Liverpool reached 97 points, the third highest total since the advent of the Premier League in 1992.

It is also comfortably the highest points tally for any English top-flight runners-up, six ahead of Leeds’ ninety-one (a tally adjusted to three points for a win). Even Arsenal’s fabled invincibles were seven points short of what Liverpool managed in 2018-19. In fact, the Reds very nearly did replicate Arsenal’s feat; the only loss they suffered all season came at the hands of, unsurprisingly, Manchester City, and they will rightly consider themselves unlucky not to have taken what would have been a merited, and decisive, point from that pulsating encounter at the Etihad. Vincent Kompany could easily have seen red for a reckless lunge on Mohamed Salah, while Liverpool came agonisingly close to opening the scoring in the first half, with John Stones miraculously clearing the ball when it was 1.12 centimetres from crossing the line. New technology was again decisive when Sergio Agüero scored a priceless winner against Burnley that only crossed the line by 29 millimetres.

If they were aggrieved or their confidence dented by their City loss, however, Liverpool did not show it. They demonstrated a grit, fighting spirit and belief that was conspicuous by its absence in previous seasons, with hard-fought victories away at Southampton, Newcastle and Burnley, and last-minute winners at home to Spurs and Everton. Admittedly these last two were more or less gifts from the visitors’ goalkeepers, and it’s true that Liverpool had their fair share of luck this season, of course – fans could have been lamenting three points dropped rather than two at West Ham had the linesman disallowed Sadio Mane’s goal for offside.

So none of this is to say that Liverpool would have been worthier champions than Man City; the Sky Blues played scintillating football that was ultimately smoother than Liverpool’s, and showed just as much composure and determination as their rivals. It is only to remind fans that football is almost always a game of narrow margins, never more so than when a title is won by a solitary point. Had Kompany been sent off against Liverpool, had John Stones been even a microsecond later in his clearance; had Salah not squandered a host of chances at Goodison Park, then City would have been the ones thinking back to opportunities missed in defeats against Crystal Palace or Newcastle. It is the fineness of the margins in football that makes the sport a sometimes agonising, sometimes thrilling, and almost invariably compelling spectacle. If 1.12 centimetres is the difference between one team or their opponents being branded the bottlers – especially if the two end up accumulating 97 and 98 points respectively – then perhaps the label would be apposite for neither of them.

Featured image by Flickr / Terry Kearney

What are your thoughts on how the title race played out? Let us know!

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