10 months ago
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Every season, there is always one team who outperforms all expectations and achieves what few would have thought possible.
In the WSL this season, that team is Liverpool.
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It was only last season that Liverpool suffered an embarrassing 6-0 defeat to Manchester United at Leigh Sports Village.
Few could have predicted that it would be Liverpool who would be the team to close the gap on that formidable top four.
Indeed, no team other than Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City has finished within the top three WSL spots since the 2014/15 season.
But Liverpool's story is a unique one and few sides can claim to have experienced the extreme ups and downs they have had.
They are one of just four teams to have won the WSL - what's more, to have won it twice in a row.
But they are also the only WSL winners to ever have been relegated, showing just how far they fell from their previous heights.
Now though, they are on their way back up.
When asked at the start of this season which WSL team were most likely to close the game on the league's Big Four, it was Aston Villa that was on the lips of many.
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But where Villa's hopes have plummeted, Liverpool's have skyrocketed.
Matt Beard's side have done so well that they are currently level on points with fourth-place Manchester United, only behind them on goal-difference.
In recognition of their progress, manager Beard was voted Barclays WSL Manager of the Month for his work in December, having been nominated for the two previous months' awards too.
They head to face second-place Manchester City next in a match which has the potential to shake up the Champions League places entirely.
Indeed, if Liverpool's stellar season continues, they could well be on track to pull off one of the biggest upsets in WSL history.
The early years
Liverpool Women was founded in 1989 under the name Newton LFC, before becoming Knowsley United FC two years later and then eventually linking up with Liverpool Men in 1994.
They made impressive FA Cup runs in the following years, but ultimately recorded two second-place finishes after defeats to Arsenal and Croydon.
Indeed, Liverpool have never since bettered a second-place finish in the FA Cup and will perhaps feel that a good cup run this season is their best and only chance at silverware.
Before the formation of the WSL in 2011, they jumped between the National Premier Division (then the top tier of women's football) and the Northern Division (second tier), never quite able to thrive on the biggest stage.
But all that was about to change.
WSL glory
When the WSL was founded in 2011, Liverpool were one of the eight founding teams who contested the first four seasons.
After the first two seasons saw them finish dead bottom of the WSL, the need for change was recognised.
Enter Matt Beard, who was appointed manager of Liverpool in August 2012 - incidentally, the same month that the revered Emma Hayes was appointed as Chelsea boss.
The effect was instantaneous and Beard led the club to two consecutive WSL titles having created a team that, boasting the likes of Fara Williams and Natasha Dowie, seemed unstoppable.
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But at the end of the 2015 season, Beard departed to take charge of the Boston Rangers - and Liverpool have never since regained the success of those years.
Relegation
The true effects of Beard's departure were felt at the end of the 2019/20 season when Liverpool were relegated from the WSL.
It would take them two seasons and the return of none other than their former manager Beard in 2021 to gain promotion back to top-flight football.
Upon their promotion in 2022, Liverpool Men manager Jurgen Klopp reflected on the need to better support the women's team that their fall from grace was never again repeated.
He told Sky Sports: "Obviously, Liverpool was in the last years not famous for treating or dealing with women's football outstandingly well.
"They didn't go down to the Championship for no reason."
He added: "Now they are back and we have to make sure that we use the situation.
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"It is a wonderful team, great coach and I'm really happy for them to get promoted."
The start of a new era
And things did change - significantly.
Recruitment of players like Austrian international Marie Hobinger and former Lioness Gemma Bonner has epitomised the club's commitment to investing in new talent.
And retaining players like captain Taylor Hinds - who has been at the club since 2020 - has been just as crucial.
At the start of the 2023/24 season, Liverpool also announced they had repurchased their much-loved former training base in Melwood.
The secret to Liverpool's success this season lies in the culmination of these factors.
Their progress was rewarded with a seventh-place finish last year and they look certain to better that this year - the only question remains by how much.
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Whether they are quite capable of reaching their third WSL title or even a Champions League finishing spot any time soon is debatable.
But if they continue on their current trajectory, Liverpool fans may look forward to a moment in the not too distant future where they could be seeing their side lift not just a Premier League trophy, but a WSL one too.
Manchester City vs Liverpool is live on talkSPORT 2 on Sunday 21 January from 2:30pm.
