Are Liverpool destined to become one of the few great trophy-less teams?

REGARDLESS OF WHAT happens between now and the end of the season, what Jurgen Klopp has achieved at Liverpool has been remarkable.

If the Reds win their remaining two Premier League games, against Newcastle and Wolves, they will finish the season on 97 points. That tally would have been good enough to win the title in every season in the modern era apart from last year, when Man City claimed a historic 100 points.

Already, their 91 points is better than most previous Premier League winners, yet they may still have to settle for a runners-up spot.

Man City just need to beat Leicester and Brighton to become the first English club to retain the title since neighbours United did so in 2009, while they could also seal an unprecedented domestic treble if they overcome Watford in the FA Cup final.

And even if City or Liverpool lose their remaining two matches, one or the other is already guaranteed to finish the season as the best Premier League runners-up ever in terms of points accumulated (the 89 collected by Man United in 2011-12 was the previous best tally).

Liverpool also appear set to fall just short in the Champions League, by virtue of coming up against arguably the best footballer in history, Lionel Messi, and going down 3-0 to a Barcelona team at the Camp Nou with a scoreline that did reflect how closely fought much of the semi-final first leg was.

“I’m scared for Liverpool… It looks like there is destiny that is against Liverpool,” former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said on beIn Sports recently.

“From 1989-90 until today they cannot win the championship anymore and every time there is small things against them.”

Indeed, the chances of Liverpool becoming the best Premier League runners-up ever are looking increasingly likely.

It has also been the closest title race since 2014-15, when Liverpool again on 84 points fell just two short of champions Manchester City.

Yet this Liverpool side is superior to the team of four years ago. Brendan Rodgers’ men scored 101 and conceded 50, whereas Jurgen Klopp’s team have scored 84 and conceded just 20.

Wenger may have recalled at least one of his own Arsenal sides when reflecting on Liverpool’s plight.

Man United’s 1999 treble winners are rightly remembered as one of English football’s great teams, but it is easy to forget that the Gunners were agonisingly close to spoiling their party, with the Red Devils needing to come from a goal down to beat Tottenham on the final day to clinch the title. They also required a Ryan Giggs wondergoal in extra-time to overcome Arsenal in a thrilling FA Cup semi-final. Moreover, the Red Devils finished the campaign on 79 points, which would leave them just third in the current standings and only good enough for fourth on goal difference in the 2013-14 campaign.

Yet there are some caveats to the remarkable success of both City and Liverpool this season. Not many Premier League teams, past or present, have been able to match their financial might.

When a manager is not happy with a team’s defence, the majority cannot afford to spend £75 million on arguably the best centre-back in the world in Virgil van Dijk and £66.9 million on the similarly talented Alisson, in the process making them the world’s most expensive defender and goalkeeper (the record for goalkeeper has since been broken after Chelsea paid Athletic Bilbao £71.6 million for Kepa Arrizabalaga).

So it is somewhat unfair to compare Liverpool and City to the great Premier League sides of the past given how much finance has facilitated their success in comparison with previous teams, but it also should not detract significantly from their achievement, with other big-spending teams showing how money does not necessarily guarantee success.

Looking back over the course of history though, it is difficult to identify a team that emulated the consistent brilliance of Liverpool and still finished the season empty-handed.

Truly top sides that fall just short are perhaps more common at international level, given that it is essentially cup football at the highest level — the Brazil side of 1982 or the Netherlands team from 1978 spring to mind.

There have been impressive Premier League sides who have missed out on the title in the past — Kevin Keegan’s 95-96 Newcastle team spring to mind, as do the United side that lost the league on goal difference to City, or indeed the Liverpool team who were a last-gasp Michael Thomas goal away from triumphing. Some other notable runners-up are listed here.

Yet all these teams were flawed and lost a number of games over the course of the season, whereas Liverpool, assuming they win their final two games, will complete the season having been one game away from an ‘Invincible’ season (a 2-1 loss to Man City). And even that great Arsenal side that went the season unbeaten drew 12 games, whereas the Reds have dropped points on just eight occasions since the beginning of this campaign.

It seems unfair and somewhat irrational that what Man City do over the next two games will have a serious impact on this Liverpool team’s legacy, but it is an unfortunate inevitably that any team who fail to claim silverware are bound to see their achievements tarnished to some degree.

They may well end up having no trophies to show for it, but this Liverpool side still deserve to be remembered as one of the Premier League’s great sides.