EMIRATES STADIUM — There is a certain amount of kidology involved in being a football manager in a razor-tight title race.
After all, no one wants to be Kevin Keegan, pointing a finger and ranting about how “he’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something” only to end up losing.
If Liverpool pull off this victory, they will have overturned a 14-point gap to Manchester City, two more than the gap by which Keegan’s Newcastle led Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United back in 1995-95.
But in a nod to the theatre of the title race he himself is involved in, Jurgen Klopp insisted after pulling to within a point of them that he “really doesn’t think a lot about City”, which may will be the 2022 version of “I will love it if we beat them”.
Liverpool
- 20 March – FA Cup, Nottingham Forest (a)
- 2 April – Watford (h)
- 5/6 April – Champions League quarters, first leg
- 10 April – Man City (a)
- 12/13 April – CL quarters, second leg
- 16 April – Aston Villa (a) [FA Cup semi-final weekend]
- 19 April – Man Utd (h)
- 24 April – Everton (h)
- 26/27 April – CL semis, first leg
- 30 April – Newcastle (a)
- 3/4 May – CL semis, second leg
- 7 May – Tottenham (h)
- 15 May – Southampton (a) [FA Cup final weekend]
- 22 May – Wolves (h)
- 28 May – CL final
Man City
- 20 March – FA Cup, Southampton (a)
- 2 April – Burnley (a)
- 5/6 April – Champions League quarters, first leg
- 10 April – Liverpool (h)
- 12/13 April – CL quarters, second leg
- 17 April – Wolves (a) [FA Cup semi-final weekend]
- 20 April – Brighton (h)
- 23 April – Watford (a)
- 26/27 April – CL semis, first leg
- 30 April – Leeds (a)
- 3/4 May – CL semis, second leg
- 7 May – Newcastle (h)
- 15 May – West Ham (a) [FA Cup final weekend]
- 22 May – Aston Villa (h)
- 28 May – CL final
“I know that the only chance we have is to win an incredible amount of football games,” Klopp said after cutting the lead to a solitary point, “because our opponents win an incredible amount of football games.”
Klopp can only pretend he is not thinking about City for so long. The two great rivals of the modern Premier League era will meet on Sunday 10 April at the Etihad, a game for which Liverpool are almost certainly already planning.
In all likelihood, the gap between the two will still be just a point when they do meet, given Liverpool host Watford and City make the short trip to Burnley but the status of their season will not be clear until a few days before. The Champions League draw will dictate where they spend the week building up to the fixture, because the first and second legs of their respective European quarter-finals.
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In fact, since it is an open draw, there is a 15 per cent chance that they will end up playing each other three times in a week, the kind of fixtures pile-up that would leave the tactical gurus who already relish two meetings of Pep Guardiola and Klopp a season positively frothing at the mouth.
If that were to be the case, you would think the aggregate winner of the triple-header would take the momentum into the title run-in. Liverpool’s 2022 form would suggest they already have plenty behind them.
“Momentum is the most fragile flower on the planet,” Klopp added on Wednesday night.
“Somebody just walks past you and steps on it and [it’s] done. And then you work again I don’t know how long to get any kind of momentum back. So I’m not a big fan of momentum.”
He also said: “I would prefer to be 20 points in front!”
Both teams will have double-ringed, highlighted and underline 10 April, but there will be other dates to be concerned about too, albeit City appear to have a simpler run-in. Guardiola’s two main worries will probably be the trip to Wolves on 17 April and then his penultimate Premier League game of the season at European hopefuls West Ham.
Klopp has several more obvious banana skins: Manchester United will need no excuse to get up for their game at Anfield (19 April), Everton could be fighting for more than just city pride five days later and then Tottenham will come to Anfield on 7 May.
However, it could be that Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has a huge influence, in either direction, on whether his former club win the title; Klopp’s Reds will visit Villa Park six days after playing Man City while Guardiola will hope to lift the trophy in front of the visiting Aston Villa on the final day.
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