LIVERPOOL’S poor form since the turn of the year has posed a question that no Reds fan wants to consider. What if Liverpool finished fifth?
After a spirited performance against league leaders Chelsea last week, Liverpool fans were heading into the Saturday’s visit to Hull with a renewed sense of optimism.
After all, Sadio Mane was back in the starting 11 for the first time since January 2, alongside the Brazilian duo of Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino. Adam Lallana started in the deeper midfield role that we all wanted to see. It wasn’t to be, though. Liverpool failed to deliver and Jürgen Klopp’s side returned home still in search of their first league victory of 2017.
To make matters worse, the chasing pack of clubs outside the top four all picked up maximum points, with Manchester City’s win seeing Liverpool drop into fifth place and Manchester United closing the gap to one point with their victory over Leicester.
The reality of Liverpool finishing outside the top four wasn’t conceivable a few months ago as Liverpool downed Everton, slammed four past Stoke and grafted out a 1-0 win over Pep Guardiola’s City side to make it four Premier League wins in a row. But, football is a cruel game and you don’t need me to remind you of Liverpool’s never-ending January nightmare, which has now spilled into February causing Klopp to urge his players to “wake up”.
We need to put things into context. Last season Liverpool finished with 60 points and after 24 games were eighth with only 34 points on the board. Right now, Liverpool are fifth with 46 points to their name.
The view of this squad and league position has been somewhat distorted due to the phenomenal run that saw Liverpool emerge as mid-season title contenders. At the start of the season most Reds fans would be satisfied with being in the hunt for a Champions League spot and unbeaten against all the sides above them in the table by February. It’s possible to argue that Liverpool were slightly ahead of schedule in the early winter months and now find themselves in a place where many believe they should be.
One thing that is for certain, Liverpool are crying out for consistency. In the last five seasons the Redmen have finished eighth, seventh, second, sixth, and eighth. As much as we hate to admit it, except for that anomaly in 2013-14, those finishes hardly resemble a team banging on the door of Europe’s elite. To get that much needed consistency Liverpool have to qualify for the Champions League, not just this year but every year.
If the season ended today the Reds would find themselves without Champions League football and back on the dreaded Thursday-Sunday Europa League shift next season. A year in the Europa League would no doubt see the likes of Ben Woodburn and Ovie Ejaria get some much needed first team experience, but that would be of little benefit to the club in terms of short term success — and likely no closer to what we all want.
Even as I write this, I can’t comprehend not hearing the famous Champions League music inside the packed atmospheric red cauldron that only Anfield can produce. But why is that? Liverpool have only finished in the top four once this decade, and it turned out to be a total waste of time. Brendan Rodgers played a heavily rotated team in the Santiago Bernabéu against a Real Madrid side, that at the time were the champions of Europe. Despite what Arsene Wenger believes, fourth place is not a trophy to shout about, mainly because it isn’t a trophy.
It could be argued that with our current squad a year in the Champions League could be a season too early, even if we were once crowned champions of Europe with the likes of Djimi Traore and Josemi in the squad. Maybe this current crop wouldn’t be immediately ready for it, but with a few additions and the right mentality this Liverpool squad can go far in either European competition. It will always be a Liverpool fan’s mentality to aim high no matter the club’s standing in world football.
The recent poor spell has raised familiar questions about Liverpool’s lack of depth, the same questions which date back to the inception of the Premier League. A lack of Champions League football undoubtedly reduces Liverpool’s pulling power in the transfer market, but it’s nothing to do with money. With the television deals pulling in more money each year, mixed with the positive net spend from last summer and lack of January activity, Liverpool should have the funds to reinvest in the summer. However, it’s not in FSG’s — or even Klopp’s — plan to invest heavily in the transfer market, so it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see minimal summer business regardless of where Liverpool finish.
Klopp backs himself and his coaching team to get the best out of players on the training pitch. I don’t think the targets they have in mind now will change the team greatly, if at all, even if Liverpool don’t make it into the Champions League.
Will Liverpool not being in Europe’s top club competition alter a player’s decision to come to Merseyside? History suggests it may well do. Too many times in recent years Liverpool have been beaten to a signature with the likes of Spurs and Chelsea muscling in and completed deals. Is that a pitfall of not qualifying for the Champions League or the powers that be refusing to stump up the premiums that top players command? Whichever it is, the best players want to play in the best competitions.
It’s fair to argue that spending isn’t always the answer. Just look at how much United spent last summer and they’re still only in sixth. While it’s true that Liverpool can’t compete with the financial punching power of the likes of Chelsea and United, the plights of both those clubs in years gone by shows that spending doesn’t guarantee immediate success — and Liverpool’s problems can’t be solved in one summer spending spree.
The early season form helped Klopp because it made us, the fans, dream. The doubters were turning to believers and everything looked promising. Reality has hit Liverpool hard over the past few weeks but I still think all is not lost. The Reds are in a good place and if you look at the bigger picture Liverpool are still on track to achieve big things under the German.
With renewed focus from the squad and fans alike there can still be a positive end to the season. It’s not over yet. If my experience of watching Liverpool has taught me anything it’s that we rarely win anything the easy way. There’s always a bump in the road, a spanner in the works, there’s plenty of metaphors out there just pick the one you like and run with it.
Liverpool always find ways to bounce back when the chips are down. In the coming weeks we’ll really see what this team and the manager is made of. Better days are coming. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. Klopp is building something, something powerful, full of energy, passion and vigour.
Finishing fifth could be classed as progression. Albeit slow, but progress all the same.
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We won’t finish fifth. That’s idiotic. We will finish 7th or 8th (as per usual). This is the level our team was/is/will be until we get someone who understands scouting and buying with decent offers and salaries in keeping with top class players of today. Nevermind though we can always take pride in selling our Academy lads off to keep FSG happily in the black.
Can’t you just make a point/points minus the ‘idiotic’ nonsense? Liverpool are fifth now. It’s not ‘idiotic’.
“It’s not over yet. If my experience of watching Liverpool has taught me anything it’s that we rarely win anything the easy way” f.cking nailed it.
“However, it’s not in FSG’s — or even Klopp’s — plan to invest heavily in the transfer market, so it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see minimal summer business regardless of where Liverpool finish.”. Man, I hope that’s not true.
If that is true then we are in no way gonna be able to handle the rigours of loads of matches across Europe midweek AND league matches at the weekend.
Something will suffer.
We have long periods off now between matches. We have everyone back and fit. If we can’t finish top 4 with no Europe and no cup games left, then this squad is a lot worse than Klopp thought.
If we come 5th it will be failure. No Europe this season gave us a clear advantage over most our top 4 rivals. Chelsea have shown how to take advantage of it.
The last month has seen hopes disappear. Top 4 is achievable but there’s been nothing to suggest that we can break out of this turn against more defensive teams. Confidence is gone and we could be solidly in 6th by the time our form returns. Jurgen cannot keep polishing players who have ceilings well below the necessary levels. At best it’s worthy. At worst it’s patronising. The fans aren’t stupid. Jurgen cannot turn water into wine much that FSG would love it.
Having a year off European football somehow seemed like a result end of last season. But bollocks to that now. We’ve wasted any advantage that can be gained from resting. We need European football. It’s quite clear from our performances against the ‘top’ teams this season we would walk away with a 6th champions league title.
To be fair I didn’t mind old Brenden but playing a weekend team against Madrid was a fucking travesty. Only problem is everyone else seems to be on the up when we’ve been poor of late. Hope it’ll change and we’ll get in that top four. Champions league football is more entertaining than fucking Hull.
Let me lay out what happens if Liverpool finish fifth: Finish 5th –> no major investments in depth of squad during summer (and possibly quality depth like Sturridge leaving) –> squad too shallow to cope with demands of Europa league and premier league –> finish 6th-8th.
I think January has proved that this is not a squad that is equipped to play more than one game a week. If LFC DOES qualify for the Champions League then I think it’s pretty obvious that the club will need to invest significantly in the first team to add depth. Obviously losing Suarez after the ’13-’14 season played a big part in how poorly the next season went, but it also exposed how shallow the squad was. I guess my point is that if LFC finishes fifth, then the club/FSG/Klopp still needs to invest as much as they would if they were in the CL, otherwise LFC will take a step back (once again) next season.
I disagree fifth would be progress. Not in the context of the first half of the season. Not in the context of “Klopp the world class manager”. The entire reason most fans wanted him was the belief he’d do better than Rodgers. Finishing fifth in his second season would be a failure within that context. Furthermore, it would be the seventh year of eight we had failed to finish in the Champions League under FSG and their position would become untenable with fans.
Whether Klopp wants to or not, someone at Liverpool has to stand up and be counted and say this Squad is not good enough to achieve success and players must be bought. If that means Klopp becomes a continental style coach, having practically no say in who comes in, so be it, so long as who does have the say knows what they’re doing.
If klopp is made to become a continental manager who has no say in who we buy then we may as well just pack it all in now and get rid of the fells. His whole ethos and his previous successes have been built on him being able to choose exactly the type of player he needs for his system. Managers are different, just like players, they’ve all got their strengths and weaknesses, and by telling klopp he can’t buy who he wants and just throw money at big names that may not fit out style of play then you’re nullifying one of his biggest strengths.
Also, if we do try and play that game of ‘let’s go buy some big names’, the likes of Chelsea and Man City will beat us to it because they will offer bigger wages. People can go on about FSG all they like, that’s how it is. Only insanely rich sugar daddies can compete with insanely rich sugar daddies and there arnt loads in the world. Our best bet, without a doubt, is trying to build a team. With quality, yes, but also one where the manager gets exactly what he wants in each position (mane, Gini & matip so far haven’t been bad have they? 3 of our more important players already) so his ratio has been pretty decent so far already.
That’s a very English view to take. If that was the case English clubs would dominate Europe but the fact is we don’t. Neither method is the correct method and both methods work equally well depending upon the circumstances. All I’m suggesting is that the squad needs more than one or two of the ‘next Messi’. It needs genuine, experienced talent. You even had Lallana this week saying in an interview how only Milner has experience in the squad at winning. If achieving this means the new DoF has full decision making powers on who is signed then so be it.
As for affordability, we’re the ninth richest club in the world and an average yearly net outlay of £19 million on players. Having made a profit last year, and the increase in TV money hitting, I think we can afford to splash the cash a little if done in a sensible way. We don’t need squad players, we need players who can genuinely challenge for a place in the first team and potentially push what we have to the bench. Going out and signing five more nineteen year olds won’t win us the title. Going out and signing five experienced, world class talented players may well do.
Minimal summer business to come? Like others have said, I hope you are wrong about that. And I think you will be. Think Klopp said recently that he has learnt a lot about his players now, which I think means he has realised that some of them just aren’t of the requisite standard to step into the first team. At least I bloody well hope that’s what he meant.
Also to echo the sentiments of others, 5th place is not progress. Or if it is, it is very slight progress and just not worth having. We do not have the money of the top teams, we are not based in London (obviously, but this is a major pull for a lot of players), so we do really need Champions League football to give ourselves a chance to land some decent talents.
I just hope Klopp and his team have identified at least 3 or 4 targets for every position they want to fill this summer. Not just one bloke and then if we don’t get him it’s ah well we don’t want to compromise so we’ll stick with what we’ve got.
Alright mate. I hope I’m wrong too, but I just can’t see it.
Let me clarify the 5th finish and progress statement, what I mean is its minimal progress, purely based on league position and points at the end of the season a 5th place finish would be small progress. Also look at the first half of the season (and hopefully we end in the same form) that in itself is progress. Admittedly, no one wants fifth, but we’ve got no divine right to be top 4.
I agree that he will have his targets in mind, but whether we get them in or not is a whole other debate.
Cheers for the comment.
Jonny, interesting points but personally it would be a disaster for Jurgen not to achieve top 4. We had No Europe this year. Kids/reserves in most League Cup and FA Cup games. Squad strong enoug to beat Ch, Ars, MC and better than mu and Spurs in those games.
Btw you were saying ” I don’t think the targets they have in mind now will change the team greatly, if at all, even if Liverpool don’t make it into the Champions League.”
Who are these targets?
Why would they not change the team greatly?
Why would Klopp target players that would not change the team greatly?
Hi Peter, apologies for the slow reply. I take your point, but based on where we’ve finished in recent years I don’t think it could be called a disaster. However it would be a missed opportunity based on the points you’ve raised.
As for the transfer debate I meant the targets they have in mind wont change greatly, regardless of where we finished. Of course they will look to improve the squad, I just think the players that will be targeted wont be any different whether we finish in the top four or not.
Realistically speaking… LFC should finish 6th. Even though Everton is playing better football. The aim must be to finish above them now. Chelsea, Spurs, AFC, Man City & Man U all stumbled in the 1st half but the quality is coming thru now. LFC can’t compete with them unfortunately.
Only realised when I got to the end it wasn’t John Gibbons
There’s a new Gibbo in town, but there’s only one John Gibbons.
If Liverpool finish 5th then there should be street parties and pyro because currently they look like finishing well off the pace in 7th or 8th
The old fashioned Liverpool’s response to a bad patch / drop in form would have been to go more defensive, play a couple of bore draws out if necessary. Then maybe a couple of 1-0’s where you snatch a late winner or get a pen or something. The attack would play itself back into form and at least you werent losing (and losing momentum) We dont have the defensive capabilities to do that now. Not sure how we now suddenly revert to our previous good form without such a stabilising period. I think if we can sort our defence and keeper next season we will do much better, but 5th or below from here will feel like failure to me. Hopefully Jurgen will have learnt a lot about his team from this period.
Klopp took 3 years to win BVB a title, but by then they had become a force! look where he left them?! tuchel is just polishing off Klopp’s squad.
Good things come to those who are patient enough.
Rome will be built in 2 more years.