Back on top: Have Liverpool returned to the peak of English football?

From 1972 until the inception of the Premier League – 1992 – Liverpool Football Club were incontestably the dominant force in English football.

Years later, they then threatened a return to monopolising the sport again during the first few years of the new Millennium. At times, English football has stood, conversely, in the shadow of the Merseyside giants.

Today, that shadow has sadly shrunk to something cast by a translucent gossamer in faded light. But, things may well be on the up again.

With Jurgen Klopp guiding the Reds to a thoroughly deserved Champions League Final – one they’re easily good enough to win – the club may well have found the perfect man to cement their status at the top of English football. Dare we say European as well?

The German gaffer has nestled Liverpool into the top four over consecutive seasons for the first time in nine years and has taken them further than they’ve been in Europe since those infamous nights in 2005 and 2007.

We may be jumping the gun here, and forgive us for igniting the hope in your so beaten hearts, Reds, but it looks like Liverpool FC are limbering up for another shot at life in the big time.

For fans old enough to remember the 1970s, this notion will seem absurd. Back then, Liverpool didn’t finish outside the First Division’s top two more than once in almost 20 years. So perhaps a couple of top four finishes and a punt at Europe’s most coveted silverware doesn’t scream high-flying as load as we’d hoped.

Comparing that to recent years, however, these feats becomes all the more impressive. Things have been bleak for Pool fans, with Brendan Rodgers’ side’s faltering charge for the title still providing a now out-of-date shot of adrenaline into the veins of supporters across the globe.

The side had become somewhat of a laughing stock and their team – with the departure of Luis Suarez – became replete with below-par players. Anyone good enough for the top of the game jumped ship fairly swiftly and the club were left clutching at an all too distant vision of glory.

Today, however, they can showcase the most potent attacking trio in the country and boast of a gaffer fully integrated into the Merseyside way of doing things. Klopp has Liverpool running like a well-oiled machine that can play eye-catching football as well.

This has been rewarded, and making the Champions League Final is recognition in itself. The competition seeks to coax out Europe’s most talented teams and so making the final two is quite the statement of calibre.

It may be nothing like the glory days of Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan, but there’s hope to be had for Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp is getting things right and this is arguably the best side the Reds have fielded since their last time near the top. A win on Saturday could kick-start something momentous and should the gaffer hold on to his reigns, that something might just travel.

It may be a rose-tinted envisagement, but it could easily have legs. Batten down the hatches, Liverpool FC are once again aiming for the top of English football and they’re finally ready to fire.