Jurgen Klopp led Liverpool to the triumph of their “Holy Grail” Premier League title and the great Ian Rush of Anfield is delighted with the long wait.
Liverpool legend Ian Rush says Jurgen Klopp, the Premier League champions, are “right up there” with the club’s biggest teams. And according to record Reds goalscorer Rush, after breaking a 30-year wait to win the English crown, Liverpool will be well poised to retain their title next season.
Manchester City’s 2-1 loss at Chelsea on Thursday meant the Reds couldn’t be found on top.
Rush, a five-time league champion with Liverpool, told BBC Radio 5 Live during celebrations on Merseyside: “It is for the younger generation. The younger generation must have been fed up with their parents or grandparents saying, ‘I remember when Liverpool won the title.’ This younger generation will say now, ‘I’ve seen Liverpool win the title.’ And hopefully, they will go on to something bigger and better. We have been waiting for too long. Around one point you thought: is the season going to be over? In the end, we got there. I think it’s going to be a very, very nice couple of days.”
Rush was a member of the championship-winning side of the 1990s and felt that saying Liverpool won’t secure another top-flight title until 2020 would have been deemed absurd at the time.”If you had told me if this would be the case in 1990, I would have laughed and replied, ‘Don’t be dumb.’ It’s like the Holy Grail – great managers have tried and failed, and Jurgen Klopp has come and succeeded and it’s just incredible for the club,” replied Rush.
The Liverpool teams of the 1970s and 1980s were trophy-winning machines but Rush believes the resemblance of the current generation bear to those sides.
Rush said: “I’m suggesting that you should equate teams when they won things and this team has won stuff now. They would need to be right up there to break records for Liverpool Football Club. It’s as simple as that. The stats tell you the story.”
For the most points earned in a Premier League season, the Liverpool sights record is with 15 points needed from seven games to hit a total of 100 out of the 2017-18 campaign in Manchester City.
“If they could go on and win five of those seven games that I think they’re going to go for as well, they ‘d have to be right up there,” said Rush.
“At Liverpool, we’ve always been told that the easiest thing is to win it, the hardest thing is to retain it. I tell you what, this side is quite capable of doing that and I think Liverpool is in a very good place for the next three to five years. These players will, and rightly, deservedly so, become Liverpool legends. Perhaps this is just the beginning of events.”
