Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes that there are four key reasons why Liverpool ’s current team are the very best he has ever seen.
The Reds have a genuine chance of winning a historic quadruple this season, with their 2-0 victory over Villarreal in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final only amplifying their claims. An own goal, deflected from a Jordan Henderson cross, and Sadio Mane's goal were the all-important difference at Anfield.
With a star-studded team like Jurgen Klopp’s, it is hard to see why Liverpool aren’t one of the best teams in Premier League history. But despite having some of the best players in world football, Ferdinand does not believe that is the reason behind their success.
Speaking after the Villarreal victory, he explained to BT Sport: “This is the best Liverpool team I’ve ever seen. They’re relentless with and without the ball. It’s the way they press teams, the energy, effort, application, you marvel at it.”
He then went on to say that the team are should be targeting winning the quadruple, he continued: “That has got to be the aim for these Liverpool players. There are going to set themselves a target and if they achieve that they are immortal and better than anybody that has ever played football in this country if they achieve that. That has got to be their target, but that is yet to be seen.”
Liverpool hero Michael Owen then added: “Just imagine it. It is impossible isn’t it, but now all of a sudden, you are thinking, can it happen? The way they are playing, the amount of players they have got fit, the confidence, the atmosphere around the stadium, all of a sudden you are thinking can it happen?”
Manchester City have the best chance of preventing the Anfield outfit from writing themselves into the history books. They are currently one point above the Reds in the Premier League on 80 points, and if they don’t slip up in their final five games of the season then they will be lifting the trophy at the end of the season.
They are also likely to be Liverpool’s opponents in the Champions League final after beating Real Madrid 4-3 in their semi-final first leg clash on Tuesday night, though Los Blancos won’t go down without a fight at the Santiago Bernabeu in the return fixture.
Of course, Liverpool will be taking the season one match at a time – as they have all season – and attention will turn to their match against Newcastle on Saturday. And Klopp will be hoping that his side will be able to replicate the impressive nature of their performance against Villarreal at St James’ Park.
Speaking about Tuesday’s performance, Klopp said: “It was a brilliant game, to be honest. The first half, I liked it a lot, the only thing that we were disappointed with was that we didn’t score. But we kept them quiet and that was important because of the threat of the counterattack, so we tried to create, tried to be direct, tried to play through the lines and over the lines, we had a lot of good moments. And then the second half, we finished off those moments and we deserved those goals for our performance.
