Liverpool FC: A sleeping Lion ready to roar again

Before the emergence of Sir Alex Ferguson, Liverpool had been the most dominant force in English football, having won 18 domestic titles to United's 7.

Such was the Reds' dominance, that the closest to them was Arsenal with 10 titles, 8 behind the Merseyside giants. 28 years down the road, Liverpool haven't had even a single taste of Premier League success.

Many of their finest players, most notably - Steven Gerrard has played and retired without a sniff at the title. Several managers have come and gone. From Kenny Dalglish (the last man to win a league title for Liverpool), Graeme Souness, Roy Evans through to Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Brendan Rodgers to current manager Jurgen Klopp, The Reds have tried and failed to return the title to Anfield.

Since their last league triumph, Liverpool have had a plethora of marquee players. Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, and Philippe Coutinho among others, but still the league title remained elusive.

There was a feeling that Liverpool was falling further and further behind because they were ignoring some of the dynamics at play being embraced by their rivals to achieve the kind of success Liverpool weren't having.

Sir Alex Ferguson - dethroned Liverpool from its perch as promised

Another school of thought is that perhaps Liverpool's time of dominance had gone and English football had moved on to embrace a new approach to football, especially with the emergence of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.

Having seen Liverpool dominate English football for so long, the Scott moved south to take over the reins at Manchester United with a mission to foil the Merseysiders' advantage.

In his response to Liverpool legend and BBC pundit, Alan Hansen in 2002; Sir Alex Ferguson retorted:

"My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f****** perch, and you can print that."

Indeed the Scott was up to that challenge, for by the time he retired - he had completely shuttered Liverpool's league record - winning 13 titles, and left United on 20 championships to the former's 18.

Liverpool have on several occasions been found wanting, and that is not coincidental. Liverpool have just not been good enough. Yes, they've had some very, very good players as earlier mentioned, but their team as a whole has had so many issues to address, both psychologically and with regards player recruitment.

Mo Salah - Liverpool messiah?

For a team to compete for trophies, they must have at least two good players for every position on the pitch. Without that, there are more possibilities to capitulate than to triumph.

If we can put the Arsenal squad that reached the Champions League final in 2006 into perspective, they had a very good starting XI - but the bench wasn't good enough.

Whereas Barcelona brought on Andres Iniesta, Juliano Belleti and Henrik Larsson (who made the difference and swung the game in Barca's favour), Arsenal brought Mathieu Flamini, Manuel Almunia and Jose Antonio Reyes who could barely affect the game.

In this year's Champions League final, with Mo Salah injured - Jurgen Klopp brought on Adam Lallana, while Zidane feeling that he had to change things a bit - took off Isco and brought on Gareth Bale who won the game for Real Madrid with his two stunning goals!

Once that happened, there was always going to be one winner. This outlines the relevance of having a very good squad, not just a good XI. This for years has been Liverpool's greatest undoing.

Liverpool's new recruit - Allison Becker

This summer it seems Jurgen Klopp and the owners have realised this shortcoming and have gone all out to buy players of real quality. When you look at the Liverpool team, you see nothing but top quality players.

Allison, Brazil's number one goalkeeper is a truly world class player, and Liverpool didn't set a new record for the most expensive goalkeeper in the world for nothing. He is everything that Loris Karius and Simon Mignolet aren't.

Virgil van Dijk's arrival from Southampton in the January window for a record £75 million is also the highest for a defender, and was a real statement of intent, and the difference he made to Liverpool's defending en route to the Champions League final was noticeable.

The signing of Guinea and RB Leipzig's midfield dynamo - Naby Keita, along with Fabinho, promises a fearsome midfield partnership, reminiscent of the Mascherano/Alonso dynamic duo under Rafa Benitez.

If Egyptian sensation Mo Salah repeats last season's goal-scoring exploits, Liverpool could offer the stiffest challenge to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City for the title next season.

There are concerns though. Klopp's gegenpress is a nightmare for opponents when Liverpool are in full flow. That is particularly the case with most of the big teams who want to play against The Kop.

Liverpool's rock at the back - VVD

Man City and Arsenal can testify as they didn't know what really hit them when they faced the wrath of the gegenpress last season. But against smaller teams who play conservatively, closing all the spaces that Liverpool thrive in, Klopp's Liverpool struggled to break them down and ended up dropping valuable points.

Then again, since the departure of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in January this year, Liverpool have lacked a genuine playmaker, one who can thread passes through to the strikers to score goals.

One can argue that they played so well after the Brazilian's departure that his absence was not felt. Very true! But make no mistake, there's a massive difference between playing very well for four months and playing very well throughout the season.

Besides, if Coutinho had been around in May, Mo Salah's injury couldn't probably have been felt as badly as it was. If I were Klopp, I would do all there's to resurrect the Nabil Fekir deal, because in him lies a genuine replacement for Coutinho.

Klopp (l) - Better days ahead?

Finally, Klopp must tweak his tactics a lot more and learn to manage games. He needs to know how to play when they are in the lead, when they are trailing, etc, not the attack, attack, attack thing his team seems to do all through his time at Liverpool.

By focusing on attack, they have always left themselves bare at the back and got caught, conceding needless goals that come back to haunt them in the business end of the campaign.

Despite the above flaws though, Liverpool have all it takes to win the title next season. The sleeping Lion is more than ready to roar again!