So, obviously I’m a Liverpool supporter so there’s some bias in this pick. Liverpool were, I thought, the best team in the premiership for the first half of the season (and had the record to prove it) and in the final quarter of the season I thought they and Chelsea were the two best teams, as evidenced by Liverpool’s thrashing of Man U and the epic Chelsea champions league match that was unendingly disappointing as a supporter. They had a stretch after X-mas where they couldn’t stop dropping points, and that’s what cost them the title. They’re returning essentially the same squad, replacing Xabi with Glen Johnson more or less. Their back four was injured a lot last season and was part of the reason for at least some of their problems, particularly at the end when they could score at will but couldn’t stop either Chelsea or Arsenal from putting 4 in the back of the net. That should be fixed this season with Johnson back there to go with Skrtl, Carragher, Agger (will he hit his ceiling as a player? God I hope so) and Aurelio. Reina in the nets is surprisingly quite possibly the best keeper of the top five teams, more because of the age of the other keepers than because he’s the most reliable keeper in the world. Either way, I think that if Liverpool’s back line can stay healthy then they’ll be a very difficult team to score on. In the midfield they’ve got Mascherano and ideally he would step up into the playmaking role to play Carrick’s position only be a better defender, but I think that’s relatively unlikely. Coming forward I don’t love/trust Mascherano all that much so they’re losing that. Instead they’ll probably replace Alonso with Leiva, who (like Mascherano) also sucks coming forward. He’s a decent defender (I don’t really like him as that either) and we’ll see if Aquilani can actually stay healthy (unlikely) and contribute to the season. The wings need some work, I’m guessing that Kuyt and Benayoun are the starters, though Babel apparently had a good offseason and if he could reach his potential that would be lovely for a Liverpool side that could really use somebody else to raise his game just a bit to make up for the loss of Alonso, who was a great player that Liverpool never really utilized as much as Spain does just because of the existence of… Steven Gerrard is obviously the focus of the team again, and part of the problem is that even now that they have Torres they still can’t really play soccer unless he’s on the pitch. Last year there were a few times where Alonso could step in and take over the game if Gerrard was off, this year there doesn’t appear to be anyone in that position. The strikers and wingers will have to show more creativity and more attacking ability than they have in the past where essentially everything has been through Gerrard at all points in time. That being said both Kuyt and Torres have gone through stretches of being completely unstoppable, and if Liverpool’s attack can stay the way it was at the end of last season then this is the best team in the premiership. I don’t really know exactly how likely that is, and the problem for Benitez has never been his side’s ceiling but it’s consistency. Personally I think they’ll be fine in the attack with Voronin or possibly Nemeth finally coming through for the second striker position if Gerrard is forced to move back to the midfield. At the end of the day this team has the best player in the premiership and one of the premier defenses and is returning a team that is largely unchanged from last year’s squad. They’re the youngest of the “big three†and see to have lost the least, again depending on how valuable you see Alonso as being. Torres didn’t have his best season last year, if he returns to form and Gerrard plays like he can then I don’t see how they can be beaten, though those are both “ifs†rather than certainties, unfortunately. To help Liverpool they have an easy opening schedule. Their first game @Tottenham is no gimme but the next five games are all against opposition that should finish outside of the top ten, which hopefully will put them at the top of the table come October and brimming with confidence. A solid defense and a goal-scoring record would be a really nice way to start the season, so… there’s nothing left to do but see what happens on August 15th! Thanks for reading!
