The 2013/14 season was supposed to be Liverpool’s year. With just 3 games of the Premier League campaign remaining, they sat perched on top of the table, on the verge of their first ever Premier League title.
It was all downhill from there, however. After a loss and a draw in two of their remaining 3 games, the club was beaten to the summit by Manchester City and “what was meant to be” became “what could have been.”
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It didn’t end there, though, for the Liverpool faithful. Just months after having success snatched away from them, Luis Suarez, their star striker, their player of the season, decided it was time to move away from Merseyside.
Courting interest from a number of clubs, Suarez eventually chose Barcelona and signed for the Catalans in 2014 for £64.98m, becoming one of the most expensive players in the game.
In Spain, he has forged one of football’s greatest ever partnerships alongside Neymar and Lionel Messi, winning trophies at will. Liverpool, meanwhile, bereft of their attacking talisman, have missed out on Champions League football for two consecutive seasons.
Also Read: What if: The Munich air disaster never took place
But what if the Uruguay hitman had stayed on for another season? Could he have lifted Liverpool to their first ever EPL title? What about Brendan Rodgers? Would he still be in the picture?
Our next ‘What If’ feature takes us through the state of world football had Luis Suarez decided to stay at the club.
#1 No world beating M-S-N(Messi-Suarez-Neymar) trio
Barcelona moved to sign the 29-year-old striker at the end of the 2013/14 season after Liverpool missed out on the Premier League title.
Along with Messi and Neymar, the three attackers, commonly referred to as MSN, have formed the most threatening football trio of, possibly, all time. In the 2015/16 season alone, they combined for 196 goals in just 151 appearances. 100 goals in a season is itself an achievement. 196 goals is simply outrageous.
Barcelona, meanwhile, spearheaded by the three, completed a double of the La Liga and the Copa Del Ray. The Catalan club also managed to bag the UEFA Super Cup along with the FIFA Club World Cup, in what was an amazing season.
Such feats, though, would not have been possible without the Uruguayan in the mix. Suarez, in fact, was the club’s top scorer, finishing with 59 goals in all competitions and was arguably their best player in the season.
A joy to watch, the M-S-N trio is more a force of nature than just a football trio and the world would have been deprived of watching these superstars at work had Luis Suarez stayed at Anfield.
#2 S-S-S (Suarez-Sturridge-Sterling) would still be intact
While the world would be bereft of one exceptional trio, they would have had the opportunity to witness another one, albeit not of the same calibre.
The Sturridge, Sterling, and Suarez partnership, commonly referred to as SSS, was broken up following Suarez's departure. Sterling moved to Manchester City the following season, leaving Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool alongside eternal flop Mario Balotelli.
Had the trio remained intact, they could have gone on to form one of the most formidable partnerships on the planet, behind Real Madrid's Bale-Benzema-Ronaldo partnership.
With the ability to interchange roles in an instant, they constantly terrorised defences in the 2013 season and were easily the biggest attacking threat in the Premier League at that time. Suarez’s cunning and poacher’s instinct, alongside Sterling’s raw pace and Sturridge’s directness, breathed life into a Liverpool side that desperately needed rejuvenation.
Sturridge and Suarez alone contributed a whopping 51 goals that year, while at the same time, allowing Sterling to grow into his role. With a growing understanding, the trio could easily have conquered English football.
#3 Liverpool double
Liverpool missed out on the Premier League by inches in the 2013/14 season, following which Suarez called it quits and headed out to Spain. Had he stayed, however, Liverpool would easily have had their best chance at a major trophy in years. They could have even possibly gone out and done the double.
The following seasons saw the club drop to 6th and then 8th as they lacked firepower up front. With SSS still in play, however, Liverpool would probably have won their first Premier League title in the 2015/16 season. Although most teams struggled in 2015, it would not be unreasonable to assume that with the best front three in the league, Liverpool would have been favourites for the title.
Throw in one of the cup competitions as well and the club could have been back to their old glory days. The club would also be competing in the Champions League and could even have made it all the way.
Liverpool is a club, famous for producing great European nights, and who is to say that they could not have gone all the way and left fans with a memory similar to Istanbul.
#4 Brendan Rodgers would still be the manager of Liverpool
Luis Suarez’s Liverpool exit following Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip, left Liverpool in tatters. Rodgers, meanwhile, was left trying to steady a sinking ship. After a torrid campaign where they ended in 6th, Rodgers was sacked midway through the 2015/16 season.
But the Northern Irelander would easily have retained the reigns at Liverpool had he managed a trophy, which he would have if he still had the Uruguayan in his team.
It would be hard to imagine a club of Liverpool’s stature sacking Rodgers if he had won trophies and he would still be the Reds’ manager today.
Rodgers, to his credit, played a brand of football the Premier League had not seen in quite a while. The 2013/14 Reds were astonishingly quick in attack and disregarded defence somewhat alarmingly.
The Merseyside club scored 101 goals that season, a feat only matched by Manchester City in the past 6 seasons and fans were happy with what they were seeing.
5. Jurgen Klopp stays at Dortmund- Champions League success?
With Rodgers still at Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp would still be holding the reigns at Dortmund. Dortmund, under Klopp, played some of the best pressing football in the recent past. The German arrived at Dortmund in 2008 and transformed them into one of Europe’s powerhouses.
His system, now known as gegenpressing, saw his Borussia Dortmund side claim 2 Bundesliga titles. Klopp took Dortmund from the lows of bankruptcy in 2011 to the highs of a Champions League final in 2013.
Although they did miss out on the coveted trophy that time around, it is conceivable that Dortmund would follow that up with Champions League success, either immediately, or definitely in the near future.
Also, Premier League fans would never have gotten the opportunity to watch the German's philosophy up close and personal.
