Football news - Do Liverpool have the bottle to win the Premier League?

Perhaps it was Carles Puyol who put it best. Watching Saturday evening’s prime Premier League offering unfold, the former Barcelona captain simply tweeted: ‘OMG Liverpool’.

In many ways, that simple phrase has been the story of the season. After a 2017-18 campaign which saw Manchester City reach the mythical 100-point barrier, few could have foreseen that Jurgen Klopp’s side would finish their efforts for the calendar year with a nine-point lead at the top of the table.

The only unbeaten team left in the Premier League, Liverpool have risen to every challenge and answered almost every question posed to them, winning 17 games and drawing three. Only two teams in league history have had a superior record at this stage. The Reds are currently projected to get 103 points. OMG Liverpool.

With just eight goals conceded after 20 games, they are right on course to match the Premier League record low of 15 goals conceded in one season – set by Chelsea in 2004-05. OMG Liverpool.

And Saturday night’s 5-1 evisceration of Liverpool saw Klopp’s magnificent side absolutely tear apart an established power in English football, with all three of their frontline on target and Roberto Firmino dismissing any suggestions he might be having an underwhelming season with his first hat-trick in club colours. OMG Liverpool.

If they win away at City on January 3 it will be tempting to declare that the season will effectively be finished. But Liverpool should be wary of rushing to any such conclusions. Painful outcomes in both 2008-09, the year of Rafa's facts, and 2013-14, the year of Gerrard's slip, demonstrated that staying power is required at the culmination of the campaign, and that is one of the big unknowns around this Liverpool side.

Namely, do they have the bottle to win the title? When the pressure is really on, will they stick it out? Can they handle the tag of champions elect? Against a squad full of multiple champions like David Silva and Sergio Aguero, do this Liverpool team have the nous required to see the campaign out?

Not all title-winning teams are full of players who have won big trophies before – Klopp’s Dortmund team were a case in point. Even so, now is a good time to cast our eye over Liverpool’s key performers to see how experienced they actually are in the art of winning titles…

Alisson has been a transformative signing for Liverpool and, after the capture of Virgil van Dijk, potentially the final piece of the title-winning jigsaw. His shot-stopping expertise has been a big feature of Liverpool’s season and his superb distribution has been a weapon too – as demonstrated with his excellent pass for Liverpool’s fourth goal against Arsenal.

But the Brazilian hasn’t won much of note so far, if we discount four regional titles won with Internacional in the Campeonato Gaucho – not the most exacting standard. His one senior season at Roma was fairly spectacular but saw the Italian club fall short in the league and Champions League.

Simon Mignolet isn’t much of an issue given Alisson’s excellence but apart from a second-tier title with Sint Truiden in 2009, he only has a hat-trick of cup runner-up medals to show for his career.

Liverpool’s defence has been the big factor behind their stunning form this season with just eight goals conceded so far – Manchester City have the next fewest with 15, having played one game less. Clearly the key man has been Virgil van Dijk, a bargain at a world record £75m last January, who has transformed Klopp’s team into an almost impregnable fortress.

The Dutchman is also one of only two Liverpool defenders with any title-winning experience having won back-to-back leagues with Celtic in the two seasons he spent in Scottish football. However, with Rangers still battling in the lower leagues following their demotion, Celtic effectively won the title under no pressure at all: winning the league as early in March in 2013-14, ending with a 29-point advantage, and then 17 points the following season.

Dejan Lovren is the only other member of the defensive ranks with a title to his name. Liverpool will rely heavily on two resplendent young talents, Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and a player who has served his time in Scotland and the lower leagues, Andy Robertson, to deliver the league title this season.

Klopp’s midfield is the most changeable element of his side and the German coach boasts an array of players who have been and done it before. The experience of James Milner could prove important as the season progresses with his history of having won two titles with Manchester City, while Naby Keita, Georginio Wijnaldum and Fabinho all know what it takes to emerge as national champions.

By far the most decorated of Liverpool’s players is Xherdan Shaqiri, with the Swiss playmaker having won five successive titles across spells with FC Basel and Bayern Munich between 2010 and 2014. Despite spending three seasons with Stoke City he clearly remains attuned to the top level and has made a number of important contributions so far this season – not least with his two goals from the bench in the recent win over Manchester United.

The most feared attack in England, and arguably the world, has a surprising lack of title-winning pedigree. Roberto Firmino has never troubled an honours board while Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah’s solitary titles have come outside of the European elite. Daniel Sturridge has a Premier League title to his name but contributed only one goal when Chelsea clinched the title in 2009-10.

Salah was never able to help Roma break the stranglehold of Juventus during his two seasons with Roma while Mane and Firmino have rarely been in a team capable of contending for a major title. But such is their incredible interplay, they will be very confident of changing that this season. Even so, it may see the trio come under unique pressure as they try and deliver a first league title for Liverpool since 1990.

Liverpool's defence and attack are routinely cited as their two major strengths so it is interesting that neither area of the squad has much in the way of title-winning pedigree. If Liverpool maintain their current form then the league season might turn into a procession - but if a few results don't go their way, and Manchester City get their act together, then the pressure of ending the club's lengthy trophy drought, and sustaining the hopes and dreams of supporters, could become almost unbearably heavy. In that case, Klopp's midfield could play a key role in ensuring this amazing team does manage to stay the course.