Jrgen Klopp is right to dismiss any notion that the league is wrapped up. Asked about a phony inevitables tag on Friday, Klopp wasnt having any of it. We couldn't care less about these kind of things, as far as I'm concerned, Klopp said. "I think at this moment we are not even mathematically qualified for the Champions League for next year.

That quite is telling. Its right as fans to focus on ending the league title drought. But Klopp isnt seeking inevitable status, he wants immortality. That not only means winning the league in dominant fashion a mid-March end-date is in play but taking another run at the Champions League.

Football history is littered with sides who have run away with their league domestically and faltered in the Champions League. Pep Guardiolas Bayern Munich springs to mind. Guardiolas team practically broke German football for three seasons, racking up a ridiculous 257 points in three seasons. Klopps Dortmund finished a distant 29-points behind Peps team in the Spaniards first-year in Germany before Klopp left to take a sabbatical. No doubt Peps bunch left a lasting impression.

In Guardiolas final two years in Germany, Munich won the league by ten points apiece but had the league title wrapped up well before the final few weeks of the season. Yet they still faltered in Europe: players took their foot off the gas. Ramp things down by even a fraction of a percent, and it can have a debilitating effect at the business of the season a time other clubs have been building toward.

Each year, Bayern crashed out of the Champions League in the semi-finals, with Guardiola left fuming over his tactics and the lack of intensity he felt around the club on a day-to-day basis once the domestic title was taken care of. Nobody should get too comfortable, Guardiola told Mart Perarnau in Pep Confidential once he team took a post-title dip. I want them to work like bastards to earn their place. In every training session. If we dont well end up like other teams. Guardiola couldnt stave off the complacency.

That Bayern team serves as an important benchmark for this years Liverpool side. The same stuff that is chucked at Paris Saint-Germain each and every year was lobbed at Guardiolas side: they dialled it back against weaker domestic foes and couldnt crank back through the gears when they needed to most.

Last years Premier League title race kept Liverpool and Man City sprinting to the very end. Liverpool bottled that ferocity and dumped it on a bewildered Barcelona.

Klopp will want more of the same down the stretch in this campaign, a trickier task to navigate with two months of uncompetitive league action. Europes top clubs are struggling. You can count Munich, Dortmund, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, and Man City among the teams unhappy with their season thus far. Even PSG has lost three games 20 games, a weak return for a squad with 13 of the 15 highest-paid players in League 1. No one else in Europe has shown the same level of domestic dominance as Liverpool.

Klopp knows how special his group is. The other teams Guardiola was referring to was not Augsburg and Schalke. It was Sacchis Milan, Michels Ajax, and Peps Barcelona. And thats who Klopp is competing with now; a double or treble is there for the taking if his Liverpool side dares to dream.

Fans should focus on ending the 30-year drought; theyve waited long enough. But Klopp knows this is a rare chance to accomplish something that would cement this side among Europes all-time greats. Keeping the pedal to the floor for an entire season isnt easy. When the title win comes eyes will naturally wander. Klopp is doing all he can to get his squad to stay the course.

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Jrgen Klopp is pacing this Liverpool season perfectly because Bayern Munich taught him the hard way - Liverpool.com