Liverpool arrives in the United States next week as king of Europe. To win the UEFA Champions League trophy, the Reds were required to prevail over Neymar and Paris St-Germain, Robert Lewandowski and Bayern Munich, Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona and, at last, Harry Kane and Tottenham Hotspur.
To have ruled over the England, they basically needed to best one team: Manchester City. They could not, and so they remain Premier League princes.
“The Premier League is the one I want,” LFC legend John Barnes told Sporting News. "The best team is the team that wins the league. The Champions League is fantastic, and it’s a great achievement. But we came so close in the league last year, and hopefully we can go one step further.
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"Of course, the Champions League is probably the most prestigious trophy. But from the point of view that we had won it in 2005 and, yes, we did it again … If I had to have a choice, I would definitely choose the Premier League and I'm sure the fans would, as well.”
This is where Liverpool begins its 2019-20 season. In preparation for its Aug. 9 Premier League opener against Norwich City, the Reds will be in the U.S. for a three-game tour commencing July 19 at 8 p.m. ET against Borussia Dortmund at Notre Dame Stadium, followed by a trip to Fenway Park to play Sevilla at 6 p.m. July 21, and finally to Yankee Stadium to face Sporting Lisbon at 8 p.m. July 24.
They also will begin the season still in search of their first Premier League title. LFC has won "the league" before, when it lacked the glamorous label and simply was known as the Football League First Division. There were 18 titles, the last in 1990, with Barnes scoring 22 goals in 34 appearances. That’s still the second-most league trophies of any major England club, even though the drought has endured for 29 years.
Last season's finish was among the most difficult to take because Liverpool’s 97 points would have won every Premier League competition but two: 2018, when Man City rang up 100, and 2019, when City got to 98 and clipped LFC by a point.
The most frustrating moment of the season for Liverpool fans might have been when City center back Vincent Kompany ripped a shot from 30 yards out to break a goalless draw against Leicester City in the 71st minute. It was his first and only goal of the year. Had City drawn that game, LFC would have had enough points to win.
It was similar to the moment in 2014 when Liverpool needed at least a point at home against Chelsea but surrendered a goal when Steven Gerrard, perhaps the greatest player in club history, slipped while advancing the ball in his own end and lost possession to Demba Ba, who scored the decisive goal.
Fans lament incidents and accidents such as these for years. Barnes does not buy it.
"Because there’s no one incident that makes you not win the league," Barnes, who works as a broadcast analyst for Sky Sports, told SN. "Steven Gerrard slipping is not why we didn’t win the league. Vincent Kompany scoring that goal … obviously you can look at like that and say, 'That is the point that got them to win the league.' But it's not, because over 38 games, as football fans what we don’t see is the times we should have lost when we won. What you could say is, really, we shouldn’t have beaten Everton. We shouldn’t have beaten Tottenham.
"You do what you deserve in the league."
It is not easy to improve a squad that wins a competition as challenging as the Champions League and that compiles a record of 30 victories, one defeat and seven draws in Premier League play. LFC has not made significant changes to the squad during the transfer window.
So how does Liverpool close whatever tiny gap exists with Manchester City? To at last win the Premier League, something even owner John Henry was talking about in the hours before the Champions League final against Tottenham, that somehow must occur.
"Well, if we get 99 points and get one more point than them, then we'll win. We will win the Premier League," Barnes said. "That's not going to happen. We lost one game all season. Are we then saying, to close the gap, we can't afford to lose one game next season? I don’t expect them to get 97 points. We're not going to lose just one game, in my opinion.
"Unfortunately, Manchester City are such a good team that they don’t drop points. We just have to maximize our potential and hope that Manchester City underachieve in terms of their potential. We have no control over that. We have control over what we do, and if we just focus ourselves to get as many points as possible, then we just have to let the chips lay where they fall.
"We could get 90 points next year and win the league and, yes, we’ve won the league. But is that more successful than getting 97 points in terms of winning matches and playing well? In many respects, we can't do any better. We just have to hope that other teams can take points off Manchester City."
