Former Manchester United defender and pundit Gary Neville has explained the only way he can realistically see Liverpool winning the Premier League title this season.
The Reds are being talked up as strong contenders to put up more of a fight to last season’s runaway champions Manchester City as the 2018/19 campaign gets going this weekend.
Having surprised a few by reaching the Champions League final last season, Liverpool have strengthened well this summer with some exciting signings in the form of Alisson, Fabinho, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri.
MORE: Liverpool confirm Alisson and Fabinho squad numbers, hint at first-team role for wonderkid after change
Neville, however, feels LFC could struggle to balance a Champions League run and a title challenge with the way that they play.
Klopp’s sides are known for being extremely hard-working and for playing at a fast pace with pressing all over the pitch.
Neville argues that this kind of style is hard to maintain with games in midweek and at the weekend, so believes they need to give up on challenging for the Champions League again if they are to really stand a chance of pipping City to the title.
‘I don’t think they can challenge on both fronts with the way they play, unless they adapt and they change,’ Neville told SportsJoe.
‘The way they play, at 100mph from the first minute to the last minute, means it’s very hard to do that Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday. I think it’ll be tough. But if they were to go out of the Champions League and they had free weeks after Christmas, Saturday to Saturday, they could be a real threat this season to City.
‘I do think they have one over on City. The challenge for them is to repeat that level of energy and that level of focus every three days. But they are a challenge this year, Liverpool.’
Neville seems to be speaking perfect sense here, but would Liverpool really dare to throw one competition away without any guarantees of actually winning the other?
Liverpool, remember, have not won the title since all the way back in 1990, though they most recently won the Champions League in 2005 and have been beaten finalists twice since then, so always seem to have something going for them in Europe.