Sir Alex Ferguson always maintained that winning the league was the easy part – finding a way to motivate the team to defend the title was always where the challenge lay.
It does make sense as you can imagine that players will relax and get complacent once they’ve won a title, so it’s going to be interesting to see how Liverpool get on next season.
You have to fancy that their competition will improve and Liverpool’s level may drop off a little bit compared to last year, so Jurgen Klopp needs to find a way to keep things fresh.
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Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara has been linked with a move to Anfield for a while, and Wayne Rooney seems to think that Liverpool will retain their title if they sign the Spanish star.
The Mirror reported on some of his comments to Talksport, and it’s clear that he’s a huge fan of Thiago:
“So I do think it is between City and Liverpool. And if Liverpool get Thiago from Bayern Munich, I think it is done [the title].”
“That is a better signing than Messi going to Man City.”
“He’s one of the best midfielders around – I just hope he doesn’t go there! He can take the ball, be composed on it, keep things ticking over – and he’ll put his foot in.”
There wasn’t anything wrong with Liverpool’s midfield last year but Thiago would bring a world class playmaking presence and he would make them even more dangerous.
Man City will fancy their chances of closing the gap, but Liverpool will fancy themselves for the title again if they land Thiago and continue to play well.