IT is looking increasingly possible that Jurgen Klopp’s relentless Liverpool will not only lift their first Premier League title in May but in doing so surpass some seriously impressive milestones laid down by Manchester City in recent seasons.
Eleven wins from their remaining 15 fixtures would see the Reds accumulate the most league victories in a single campaign while a continuation of their present dominance will nudge them past the 100-point barrier and it is this one that especially rankles as a Blue. The honour of being a Centurion would be somewhat diluted if shared. It’s a cool nickname we want all to ourselves.
There is however one achievement that Liverpool will not come close to matching and in fact the only team currently chasing it down is City themselves. That is the scoring of goals; a colourful and varied cornucopia of them.
7 – This is the seventh consecutive season Man City have scored at least 100 goals in all competitions, becoming the first Premier League team to achieve this since Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United did so in nine consecutive seasons between 2004/05 and 2012/13. Relentless. pic.twitter.com/D0SoKqO7Ap
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 26, 2020
In 2018/19 Pep Guardiola’s merciless creation scored 169 times across all competitions, an astonishing number that is unsurprisingly an English all-time record. It was a ruthless and sustained prolificacy that instinct tells us will never be repeated yet Gabriel Jesus’ late header against Fulham on Sunday was City’s 102nd of the season already and if their average of 2.7 goals per game to this point doesn’t waver and cup finals are reached we can reasonably expect last year’s total to fall.
By comparison, all-conquering and unbeatable Liverpool have scored 83 goals in all comps – having played two more games than City – and this is not highlighted in the seeking of any small consolation and it is certainly not intended as criticism. Rather it illustrates the stark difference in methodology and mentality that separates the two domineering teams of the modern era.
Liverpool have unearthed a formula that works spectacularly well and gets them over the line. It’s a formula that relies on a robust and highly energetic midfield carving out opportunities for a front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah who have fired home 48% of their team’s overall goals haul this term. Last season the same trio scored 60% of Liverpool’s tally. It is this reliance on structure that mostly explains why the leaders have won so many of their games this season by a single goal. It explains too how they have scored only two more than Leicester in the league who trail them by a full 19 points. It is a means to win and solely that.
Undoubtedly they are exhilarating to watch while the manner in which the plan is consistently executed to perfection frankly astounds but ultimately Liverpool’s success is built on stolid, solid pragmatism and this is in stark contrast to City whose midfield is stocked with the ingenuity of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva. Theirs is an approach that embraces a stylish and multifarious dismantling of opponents and this explains why the goals have still been flowing abundantly even in a campaign where struggle has reared its head on occasion.
Indeed, the same can be said of Guardiola’s troubled inaugural season and perhaps this needs pointing out at a time when the media are proclaiming Liverpool to be the greatest team in Premier League history bar none: since the Catalan arrived in the north-west City have scored 521 goals. Liverpool in that three-and-a-half year timeframe have scored 430. The difference in that short period would easily be enough to secure a team the title.
Atalanta have scored more goals in Serie A than any other team this season… 18 more than first-placed Juventus.
In Europe’s top five leagues, only Man City have more. pic.twitter.com/0YBz2WDHVp
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 25, 2020
But let’s return to Liverpool’s propensity to win by a single goal because it is so very pertinent. Recently detractors of Klopp’s mandate have begun to compare it to George Graham’s reign at Arsenal that, according to legend saw the Gunners win a significant number of their games by the tightest of margins. This needs putting into context.
This season Liverpool have triumphed by a single goal 47.8% of the time in the Premier League. In Graham’s first title-winning season Arsenal did the same 23% of the time. Two years later it was 15.7%. In short we have never before witnessed such highly effective pragmatism. Liverpool are Stephen Hendry. They are an algorithm. In terms of goals scored they are a singular hammer blow compared to City’s swishing and swooshing of a sabre.
Not that City of course are immune to scraping by when necessary. Last season’s title charge required 14 straight wins and five of them heavily leant on game-management to see them home. By and large though they have lavished upon us an avalanche of goals, some special; others designed with such intricacy they prompt disbelief. And always they have been ruthless.
In 2017/18 City put four-plus goals past opponents on ten different occasions. This time out – including an eight goal demolition of Watford – they have done so six times. Liverpool only have a 4-0 win at the King Power on Boxing Day to properly reflect their supremacy in the league.
Does this place City on a higher moral ground somehow? Does this make them better regardless of what the league table emphatically states? No, it does not. But until Liverpool secure their title; and while Guardiola’s men are the only Centurions around; and when acknowledging their incredible goal-scoring feats that continue to the present day, let’s – as the kids say on Twitter – put some respect to their name.
