Sven-Goran Eriksson has backed Liverpool to win the Premier League title this term and believes Jurgen Klopp deserves enormous credit for the way he has handled the club’s young talent in recent months.
Only goal difference separates Liverpool from top-of-the-table Arsenal with ten games remaining of the campaign, in what is Klopp’s farewell season as manager.
Liverpool had been on course for a historic quadruple after lifting the Carabao Cup last month, but a dramatic FA Cup defeat at the hands of Manchester United leaves the club battling for honours in the Premier League and the Europa League.
The Merseyside giants will be desperate to return to winning ways when they entertain eighth-placed Brighton in a week’s time, with Klopp’s men drawing 1-1 with title rivals Manchester City last time out in the top flight.
Without many of Liverpool’s key players for large parts of the campaign, Klopp has been forced to rely heavily on players from the club’s youth ranks as the gruelling season has wore on.
Former England manager Eriksson, a lifelong Liverpool fan, has huge admiration for the job Klopp has done and is predicts the German will get his hands on the Premier League trophy for a second time come May.
Asked whether Liverpool can win a treble this term, the Swede replied: ‘I don’t know…
‘Well, I think that Liverpool will win the league. They can’t win the FA Cup, unfortunately.
‘But they’re playing good football and young players coming up, players which I never saw.
‘Suddenly, he puts them in very important games as well. You need a lot of courage to do that.
‘So it’s nice to see that Liverpool is great and will Liverpool will be great, even in the future, looking at the young players.’
Eriksson, who will manage a Liverpool FC Legends side against Ajax this weekend, was surprised and saddened when Klopp announced his impending departure back in January.
‘That was a surprise for me. No, I haven’t spoken to him but it was very kind of him to make an invitation and one day I will come!’ he said.
‘But he’s doing a great job and I am sad that he’s going to leave.’
Eriksson, head coach of the Three Lions between 2001 and 2006, revealed in January that he had ‘at best a year to live’ after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
A campaign quickly gathered pace to grant Eriksson his dying wish of managing Liverpool and the 76-year-old said it was fulfilling a ‘dream’ by leading the likes of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Sami Hyypia against Ajax this weekend.
‘When I was a manager I always dreamed about [managing] Liverpool but it never happened,’ he told reporters.
‘It was close once. There were some discussions once, many years ago.
‘It’s like a dream. I could never have dreamed of it. It must be the best atmosphere in the world and part of that is the song when the players walk out – You’ll Never Walk Alone.
‘When they asked, I thought it was a joke. Of course I would come to a Legends match. It is for charity, which makes it even more lovely.’
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