ANOTHER week and another record for Liverpool’s class of 2019. It seems like some kind of long-standing statistical marker tumbles every week with this side, which is now, by common consensus, one of the best to ever represent the club.
Wednesday night’s savage 5-2 dismantling of a dismal Everton at Anfield not only maintained Liverpool’s eight-point lead at the top of the Premier League, it set a new club record of 32 games unbeaten in league football. Jurgen Klopp understandably waved it away as nothing more than a “nice number” as there is the small matter of ensuring the title comes back to L4 to be cracking on with. The ultimate judgement is always trophies won and being top of the league after 38 games is the all-consuming goal.
But when you consider the many great sides Liverpool have had under a string of renowned managers, including the one whose unbeaten run has now been surpassed by Klopp’s, it’s another mark of the standard being achieved. The Reds of here and now have lost just once in 54 league games. The last defeat was January 3 when they were beaten 2-1 by Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Liverpool set a new club record of 32 consecutive games unbeaten in the league pic.twitter.com/nkXTBVsHNe
— B/R Football (@brfootball) December 4, 2019
The previous record of 31 games unbeaten in the league was set by Kenny Dalglish’s side. Beginning at the tail end of the 1986-87 season, when Everton won their ninth (and last) title, it kicked off with an Anfield win over Watford and a draw away to Chelsea. Where it really impresses is how it unfolded the following season. The Reds had lost the prolific Ian Rush to Juventus over the summer. John Aldridge had already been recruited to fill his boots, John Barnes and Peter Beardsley were signed pre-season, while Ray Houghton joined early on in the campaign.
All would prove crucial in a start to the season that saw Liverpool rack up a 29-game unbeaten league run, winning 22, drawing seven, scoring 67 goals and conceding only 13. The whole record run read played 31, won 23, drawn eight, with 71 goals scored and 16 conceded. It sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Throw in that it’s considered one of Liverpool most entertaining sides of all time and you can see why it excites supporters if not Klopp himself that the numbers racked up by that team are being surpassed by this team.
Which is why it’s even more remarkable that this side has beaten that mark, and by some distance in terms of points per game, winning 27, drawing five and clocking up 86 points in a new record best of 32 games. The 1987-88 side is always regarded as being full of goals, too. And when you look back at Aldridge finishing the season with 26 goals in the league, Barnes and Beardsley both chipping in with 15 and Steve McMahon adding nine, it’s easy to see why.
Yet Klopp’s side comes out on top in terms of goals scored, too, now having scored 77 across this 32-game streak. The 87-88 side can point to a meaner defence though, with Klopp’s side shipping 26 goals – still an average of only 0.81 goals per match. For Dalglish’s side, which later routed Nottingham Forest 5-0 at Anfield with a performance Tom Finney famously described as better than Brazil, it was a 14th-minute goal from Everton’s Wayne Clarke that eventually ended the unbeaten run on a Sunday afternoon in March at Goodison Park.
It mattered little in the grand scheme of things – the Reds were still 14 points clear of second-placed Manchester United, having played two games less, while Everton trailed by a further three points in third place. The season ended with Liverpool as champions, and 90 points in the bag. That though, was from a 40-game, pre-Premier League, season. Then, it was done and dusted in April, such was The Reds’ dominance.
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It’s luxury Klopp and everyone else can only dream about at this point, especially after the burn of 97 points from 38 games last season proving only to be good enough for second. But as the games continue to be ticked off, and the goals continue to fly in, it does beg the question: who can stop Liverpool? Especially if the current relentless form continues.
A glance back at that famous game against Forest is a reminder of a glorious side with wonderful players that was full of invention, full of talent, had a great finisher, an unstoppable creator and a man pulling the strings in between. In that match, there are great goals, opportunities for more, clever free-kick routines, the woodwork being peppered and an opposition that in general looks dazed and confused.
Liverpool’s five-goal blitz at Anfield on Wednesday was surely just as entertaining and featured goals of similar supreme quality. It may have been marred by a generous couple of goals for the opposition, but going the other way, Sadio Mane can surely soon have claims on being the standard of Barnes. Meanwhile, for Beardsley read Firmino. For Aldridge we have Mo Salah.
Both Dalglish’s and Klopp’s sides featured surprise in the locker. Both sides fielded winners. And both sides lit a fire under supporters with the quality of attacking play. The difference remains though: that 1987-88 side’s long unbeaten run ultimately ended in title number 17 for Liverpool FC.
This side must make its remarkable run end with title number 19 to make the super statistics and heart-warming records really count. That’s the “nice number” we really want.
