When people ask me what I remember most about my first year at Liverpool, one thing always comes to mind: Boxing Day 1981.
I’d signed for a club that had won the European Cup three times in five seasons but the campaign I arrived for started dismally. A 3-1 defeat at Anfield by Manchester City on December 26 left us 13th in the table.
Getting into the dressing room that evening, Joe Fagan — Bob Paisley’s trusted assistant — went absolutely berserk and told everyone in no uncertain terms: ‘This does not continue!’
So Bob began to change things around. Our next game after City was away to Swansea in the FA Cup and everyone was expecting us to lose but we went and won 4-0 and that was the start of the transformation.
The outcome was spectacular. We hit such a vein of form that we won 20 of our next 25 league games and ended up pipping Ipswich to the title.
Towards the end of that run, though, I had this feeling that was like nothing I had ever experienced. I’d expect Jurgen Klopp’s players have it now, too: the sense of going out on a Saturday and knowing that you are going to win.
It doesn’t matter who you are playing or where you have to go, you feel almost invincible.
We knew in the spring of 1982 that we were going to win the title. As the wins kept coming, you just felt ‘this is going to happen’ and you could not wait for the next match to come. The excitement of getting closer and closer was fantastic.
If Liverpool carry on in the spectacular way they have done through December — and we could end up looking back at Divock Origi’s goal against Everton being the day it all changed — then Klopp’s squad will get to experience that, too. In fact, I’d go as far to say that if they avoid defeat against Manchester City on Thursday, Liverpool will be champions.
They really are brilliant to watch right now — the biggest compliment you can pay them is that they are as good as City were last season.
It will be a big test but what I like most about Klopp is that he will not change his approach — he wants his team to play the same whether they are at Anfield, the Etihad Stadium or anywhere in between.
He has tweaked things so that Liverpool play 4-2-3-1 and that has made them more potent, as they can get an extra man into the penalty area. Xherdan Shaqiri must think he’s arrived in paradise – £13million? I mean, wow! What a steal!
When they played 4-3-3, they just didn’t quite have enough goals from Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and James Milner but the alteration has put Mohamed Salah through the middle and his goals have started coming again.
There is still half a season to go and we know things can change but, really, it looks on the cards. These boys could be in for the time of their lives.