RTÉ soccer commentator Jim Beglin says Liverpool are a superior outfit to the side which let slip the Premier League title in 2013-14 but cautioned that their lauded attacking trio are not quite gelling to the same extent as last season.

The Waterford-born full back was an influential member of the only Liverpool side to win the League and Cup double in 1985-86 and says the nervous tension that characterised the title run-in back in 2014 is also evident this season.

However, speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Beglin argues that the current team is built on more solid foundations this time around, even if their opponents are also somewhat more formidable.

"The nerves levels are the same. I think this is a better team. Defensively, they're much improved. It's something that Klopp was addressing all along. He was trying to bring down the goals concession tally. In adding Allison and Van Dijk, it's been a huge improvement.

"I think the team now is much more solid defensively. I think they trust themselves now. Back then, it wasn't quite the case. But then you look at what's ahead after the Porto game, it's Liverpool-Chelsea again on Sunday and you go back to 13/14 and you think of Steven Gerrard and that unfortunate slip.

"And Anfield will be a bag of nerves on Sunday and all those memories will come flooding back and all that tension will come spilling onto the pitch again."

The campaign has witnessed one of the most high quality duels ever for a Premier League title. With both City and Liverpool currently winning relentlessly, the latter could yet conceivably amass 97 points and still fall short.

But Liverpool's victories have been arriving in a more frantic, chaotic manner as compared with their Manchester rivals, whose serene progress is reminiscent of the jockey in the Harry Enfield sketch at times.

Beglin argues that while the Liverpool team as a whole has improved in the past 12 months, the attacking trio of Mane, Salah and Firmino haven't been quite as devastating this season.

"I don't think you're getting the same interaction from that front three.

"At this stage last season, they were just blitzing teams, blowing them away. Porto come to mind. The first leg of that round of 16 where they won 5-0 and Mane got a hat-trick.

"They've all individually contributed this time around. But I don't think the collective has been as strong. If they could just up that 10%, then we could get what we got last season, certainly in Europe the way they were demolishing teams."

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