It’s a simple question really, where will Liverpool finish this season?
It’s a cliché but we’ve got no cup games to distract us, even though in my opinion still being in the cups gives a team confidence and actually helps rather than hinders the league form, 2001 being a prime example. We’ve got 11 games left to play, that’s 33
points to play for.
We’ve played well for large parts of this season but we’ve also shown a real tendency to make mistakes that cost us goals and for that reason I’d say we’ve no chance of taking all 33 points available, in my opinion if we get 25 of them we will have done well.
We’re currently 10 points behind fourth place. If we manage to get 25 more points it will mean fourth place (currently Chelsea) need only 16 out of 33 to remain ahead of us. Looking at that I’d have to say realistically fourth place will be beyond us this season. Chelsea are quite unsettled at the moment, Arsenal seem to have plenty of dissenting supporters and Spurs could lose Gareth Bale in the summer leaving us one year into our project and in a decent place to challenge for a Champions League place next season, if all goes to plan and our improvement continues.
Fifth place and a Europa League spot is only 2 points closer to us than fourth so while I’m not totally writing that off I’d say it is highly unlikely we’ll finish that high.
Much more realistic is sixth place which at the moment is only 3 points above us, West Brom and Everton being the two sides we’d need to overtake. Sixth place is not an aim in itself but depending on who reaches the FA Cup final it could provide a route into Europe. I think we’d need two of Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea to meet in the final for the remaining Europa League spot to drop to sixth place in the league which may or may not happen but football is about doing your own job properly and not relying on others so if we got sixth place and a European slot then that’s a bonus, certainly not something to aim for.
What we can go for, however, is a minimum of 53 points. That’s not a random tally, we got 52 last season. We’re on 39 at the moment so 5 wins in our last remaining 11 fixtures would see us improve on last season’s total, which is a start.
I, like many Liverpool fans I know, am counting last summer as almost year zero, a turning point, a fresh start from nothing, the beginning of a revolution, whatever you want to call it. Getting more points than last season would be a solid start to the new era. Last season we finished eighth on 52 points, this season if we could finish sixth on 60 points or above it would represent progress.
Liverpool Football Club does not exist to finish sixth, but over recent seasons we haven’t been competing as high as we have been, closing that gap won’t happen overnight, it’s a journey of many steps and it has to begin somewhere.
Would I be happy with Liverpool finishing sixth? Not really. Would I accept that Liverpool finishing sixth with 60+ points is a sign we’re moving in the right direction? Absolutely.
This talk is very depressing were on a run at the moment where we seem to either win and win well or fail all together new ideas new mentality will take time but realistically how long away from champions league before Suarez agger reina even possibly gerrard say can't wait any more?
ReplyDeleteNice piece! But truth be told, few season ago wit Macherano and Alonzo LFC were close 2 winning their 2nd CL in 3yrs, subsequently Torres was introduce n we were much closer 2 d league (2nd place) bt d allure of trophy-regularly winnig teams n d impatience of d players came 2 fold. My point; IMPATIENCE, MONEY and TROPHIES will always b a stumbling block 2 progress!
ReplyDeleteThanks! You're dead right players get impatient, it's sometimes easy to forget though that despite being very well paid they only tend to be at the peak of their careers for a few years which is very different to any other job. That's why they often leave a project part way through to join one that is nearer to completion. Alonso left us to join an exciting Real Madrid project when we were in a great position, Torres and Mascherano left when we were a mess and you can't really blame any of them for moving on.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, progress will always be hard as clubs at a more advanced stage than yourselves will try to pick off your better players, it's always been like this but maybe the financial fair play rules will slow this down a little. Man City can't pay us £45 million for Suarez if they aren't earning it in the first place, making it in theory easier for teams to keep hold of the top talent.
Money often finds a way around rules!we shouldn't rely on if man city are allowed to bid crazy sums for our best players way happens if the maximum they can bid is say 15mil and he says he wants to play champs league we wouldnt be able to force there bid up could work both ways!we should do our very best as a club to compete in all ares of the club
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