Roy Keane maintains that Liverpool are best team in the Premier League despite having a number of obstacles to overcome in the early part of this season.
The Champions played out a 1-1 draw with rivals Man City in a clash which did not reach great heights but after three successive league defeats at the Etihad, there is little doubt that Jurgen Klopp would be the more satisfied of the two managers.
The result sees Liverpool keep their unbeaten run going to seven games since the thumping at Villa Park.
Liverpool have fluctuated between gritty and great during this stretch of form with the manager having to dig deep into his squad with a number of injuries and on Sunday they were at their resilient best.
Keane knows all about what it takes to be successful in this league, and speaking after the game says he liked what he saw from Liverpool as the Metro reported:
“We know about Liverpool’s quality, but I look at the body language and mind-set and hunger of teams who have won the league, and I see that so much in this Liverpool team.
“I still think it’s going to take a lot to stop this team. I know they’re not at their best, they’re grinding out results.
“But Jurgen Klopp will be delighted with that result. Winning championships is about dealing with setbacks and disappointments and I saw that with Liverpool today.
But the Man United legend cast significant doubt on Man City reclaiming the league trophy this season.
“I think the big worry for Man City, they are always brilliant to watch, but it’s the lack of goals. I think it will be very difficult for them to win the league.
‘When you look at their squad, to only have two strikers, the board have to be critical of themselves. They only have themselves to blame. I don’t see Man City winning the league this season."
Fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher added that this season is going to be a war of attrition and we are not going to see the kind of points haul that Liverpool and City have produced over the last two seasons.
“It’s a strange season with the lack of a pre-season. ‘But I would say there’s more signs of Liverpool getting to their best than Man City right now.
“I don’t think any team will get the points that we’ve seen in the last two seasons and that’s what gives every team a shout.’
Both Pep Guardiola and Klopp spoke about their frustrations that the five-sub rule was scrapped for this season and the German also touched on length of recovery between games in this condensed schedule.
“Let me say it like this. We played after the last international break at 12.30 at Everton. My players were Wednesday night, some of them, at Peru. Then you play at 12.30. These kind of things should not happen. I understand 100 per cent the need of television, 100 per cent.
“But the Premier League needs to fulfil more the position of the unity of the players as well. Everything changed apart from the fixture list. Usually in a season we all have an October, November and then a very, very tricky December.
“This year, the October is like the December, the November is like the December and the December is still like the December. This intensity is really difficult. It’s completely normal that you play Saturday, it’s the 12.30 which is the killer.
“We get it, we want to play football 100 per cent with all we have – we need to play football, it’s great for the people, it’s great for us, everything is fine. But Wednesday night and 12.30 should not be allowed.
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