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'Are Liverpool a great team? No' | Daniel Harris on defining 'greatness'

Football journalist Daniel Harris says Liverpool will not be a "great" team until they manage to ...



'Are Liverpool a great team? N...
Soccer

'Are Liverpool a great team? No' | Daniel Harris on defining 'greatness'

Football journalist Daniel Harris says Liverpool will not be a "great" team until they manage to retain the Premier League title.

Jurgen Klopp's charges picked up their first ever Premier League title last week, and currently sit 23 points ahead of their nearest rivals Manchester City, on course for a record points haul.

And while the Merseysiders' also picked up a Champions League last year, Harris argued on OTB AM that they need to do more to be considered a truly great team.

"They've won the league and the Champions League last year, if they can do either of those two things next season, or both or keep going, then they'll be a great team.

"I wouldn't measure greatness really in points because the way that seasons work are different. If you look at what's going on below Liverpool, the answer is not a lot.

"City's title defence hasn't been great, and the teams below them - Leicester have barely won a game since Christmas, Manchester United barely won a game before Christmas, Chelsea keep chucking results away.

"The standards below them, they're not the best iterations of these teams. And that is one of the reasons why Liverpool have got so many points.

"Of course one of the other reasons is they've been relentless and they've found a way to win so many games where they haven't played particularly well, and so many games by the odd goal.

"To me, you don't really measure greatness in quantity of points over a season, but in success and glory and repeated success and glory, and the way that teams negotiate big games and pressure.

"Personally, if Liverpool played a reserve team in every game for the rest of the season and lost them all, I wouldn't conceive of them any differently to if they played their first-team and won them all.

"Their achievement is already enshrined in the annals of football history, and what they need to do now to go on to be a great team, if they do go on to be a great team, is to win again next season and the season after that."

Asked directly if this current Liverpool crop were great based on their current achievements, Harris said another domestic triumph would end all argument.

01 June 2019, Spain, Madrid: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp lifts the UEFA Champions League Trophy after winning the UEFA Champions League final soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Photo: Jan Woitas/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

"Are Liverpool a great team? No, I would say not. They are a really, really excellent team, but I would say to be a really great team you need to win more than one league in a row.

"The Champions League is obviously important. Over the course of being a great team you need to at some point find your way to win a Champions League, if you want to be talked about amongst the very best.

"City did amazing things in the league in the last couple of seasons but, they haven't won the Champions League. So at that point, if you start talking about great teams, then inevitably you're having to compare them to other great teams.

"Liverpool have done that [won the Champions League] but you also need to find your way to retaining a league title. For me, the best teams that I have seen are the teams that have won consecutive league titles, and at some point happened upon a Champions League.

"In the Premier League era, that is United's team of 1999-01, and '07-09, and Mourinho's Chelsea team next, because they retained the league title, and some years later [Chelsea] found their way to winning a Champions League as well.

"For Liverpool, they've had a great season, they've had one of the great seasons, but to be a great team they need to add another title to that. If they add another title to that they've gone Champions League, league champions, league champions, then I don't see how you could really argue against that.

"They've had a great season, they could well go on to be a great team, but yeah, retaining league titles is one of my standards, I'm sorry.

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