Home form improvement needed before there can be title talk

Former Liverpool captain and assistant manager Phil Thompson has said that it’s too early to call the Reds title challengers, as they have yet to show great form at Anfield.

Despite blowing away Chelsea and Manchester City in recent Premier League away games, plus the hammering they gave Southampton in the Capital One Cup, Jurgen Klopp’s men haven’t set the world alight in their matches at Anfield, and until they do so, Thompson says that he’ll hold off on giving them a realistic chance of winning the title.

He told Sky Sports News:

I think a lot of teams can challenge for this title. All the managers identify that. It’s hard to say Liverpool are out-and-out genuine contenders, though.

You have to be careful with this side. The home form does have to be a little bit better but they are a genuine top four challenger, they’ve already played seven of their most difficult away games. Chelsea, Manchester City and Southampton are all very good teams.

They’re going to have the ball and attack so you have a great chance to have that high press, ‘gegenpress’ and counter attack.

The negative is the home games when they have more possession. Klopp has to work tactically on how to break down defences.

We dominated games, particularly against Swansea, where we only got one goal and then against Palace where we had plenty of possession but didn’t create chances.

If they do want to become genuine title contenders, Liverpool will have to continue to score plenty of goals and the man most likely to do that for them is Daniel Sturridge.

The England striker was brought back into the team for the tie at St Marys and he immediately proved his quality by scoring two goals, and Thompson thinks that Klopp needs to treat the injury-prone striker carefully:

What’s important is how Jurgen Klopp handles Daniel Sturridge; how many games he plays, how many minutes, but more important than anything is his recovery afterwards, immediately afterwards and then the next day. At the moment he does need to be handled with kid gloves.