Wolves boss O’Neil would be ‘very surprised’ if Liverpool do not challenge City, Arsenal for Prem title
Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil is expecting Liverpool to challenge for the Premier League title this season following their strong start to the new campaign.
Liverpool go to Molineux in Saturday’s early kick-off and they will go top of the Premier League if they leave with three points.
Jurgen Klopp’s team finished fifth at the end of a disappointing season in 2022/23 and they were 22 points behind champions Manchester City.
But after three wins from their opening four matches Wolves boss O’Neil believes Klopp will have Liverpool in the hunt for the Premier League this term.
He said: “I’ll be very surprised if they’re not right at the top this year. Of course, as with most people, Man City will be the favourites I’m sure but Liverpool have added a lot of really good players in the summer.
“I would expect them to improve significantly on the points tally they achieved last season.
“They’ve got 10 points from four games with some difficult fixtures in there as well.
“Managing to win at Newcastle when you’re down to 10 men is an incredible effort. I know how tough it is, as everyone does, to go away to Newcastle and get a result with 11.
“So to be 1-0 down and be as good as they were with 10 men shows that they’re in a real good place.”
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Joe Hodge (hamstring) remains a doubt but Tommy Doyle should be available after missing the defeat at Crystal Palace with a knee issue.
Liverpool are without the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold and O’Neil admits that has made his preparation trickier.
“I would expect it to change their structure, although it doesn’t mean that it will as they could still try and do the same sort of thing with somebody else,” he said.
“Trent not being available has made preparing slightly more complicated because, before, you knew what they were going to be.
“Whereas now they need to come up with a different way or they use somebody else but, from my point of view, preparing the team for exactly what it’s going to look like has become more difficult.
“We’ve got a good game plan in place that allows us to be aggressive when we’re ready, that allows us to have good spells with a ball and I’m looking forward to seeing what the boys can produce again.”
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