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Elementary mathematics tells us that you don’t need to beat your title rivals to win the Premier League. As unlikely a scenario as it may be, a title-winning team could happily lose every single game to their four nearest competitors and still rack up 90 points from their remaining fixtures, a tally that would have clinched the title in nine of the last 10 seasons.
As Liverpool are proving this season, however, the reverse is equally true: you can batter the teams in the top six league positions and still come nowhere close to sitting atop the footballing pyramid.
(Sorry, Jurgen, it's true.)
The Reds are unbeaten against top six sides in 2016-17, averaging 2.1 points per game in their nine matches against title rivals. Against the league’s so-called lesser sides, however, they currently average just 1.8 points per game. They’ve been beaten by Burnley, Bournemouth, Swansea and Hull, and dropped points against West Ham, Sunderland and Southampton. No matter that they barely scraped by today with three points in a narrow 2-1 victory against Burnley. The takeaway remains: Liverpool struggles when it comes to matchs they should, on paper, win.
Collectively, Liverpool are good enough to compete with the very best teams, but only when the opposition is willing to attack and open up. If Liverpool want to win the league, they need to solve their problems with the belligerent scrappers in the EPL’s lower echelons.
In short, Liverpool need a Small-Time Player.
Let’s get one thing clear right now: Small-Time Player isn’t meant as a pejorative term, or at least it shouldn’t be. A Small-Time Player, or a Flat-Track Bully if you will, is the man who will score you goals at the Hawthorns in mid-January. He’s the guy who will unpick a stubborn 10-man rearguard action away to relegation-threatened Hull and Sunderland. The Small-Time Player is invaluable, and by no means cheaply acquired.
One of the greatest Small-Time Players the Premier League has ever seen is Cristiano Ronaldo. You might scoff at that sentence, but Ronaldo was often dismissed as a flat-track bully during his time at Manchester United: capable of hat-tricks at home to Newcastle, but nowhere to be found in a Champions League final. Ronaldo’s relentless goalscoring against the Premier League’s lower lights, however, brought countless silverware to Old Trafford.
That's right. Ronaldo was a small-time player in the Premier League. And that's why Manchester United won. Have at it trolls. (Photo: Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley | Shutterstock)
Frank Lampard filled a similar role for Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the mid-2000s, battering the likes of Fulham and Charlton, but showing less against an Arsenal or Liverpool. Of Lampard’s 29 goals in the title-winning seasons of 2004-05 and 2005-06, just one was scored against a top-four rival.
Indeed, the last time Liverpool pieced together a meaningful title challenge, in 2013-14, they had their very own Small-Time Player: Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan scored 31 league goals that season, and not a single one was against a team that finished in the top four.
The Small-Time Player is a vital ingredient to any successful title challenge. If Jurgen Klopp wants to bring the league title back to Anfield for the first time in nearly three decades, he needs to find his very own man for the small occasions.
