Going into the midweek round of top-flight fixtures, the Reds sit sixth in the table, four points behind Chelsea directly above them and five points behind fourth-placed Manchester United.
With both players playing tonight, Arne Slot’s side could be even further off Champions League pace by the time they kick off away to Sunderland on Wednesday, where they face the only team with an unbeaten home record in the division.
Aldridge cannot see Liverpool finishing in the top four
John Aldridge believes a top-four finish could already be out of reach for Liverpool and even fifth place could be unlikely unless they go on a sustained winning run between now and May.
The former Reds striker said this Liverpool echofrom Ian Doyle: ‘Liverpool can forget finishing in the top four this season. For me, any realistic hope of that is now gone. Fortunately, fifth place appears to be enough to qualify for the Champions League, and that should now be the Premier League target for the Reds.
‘The only chance that will happen is if we start winning more games. We simply need to put together a series of consecutive wins to get closer to fifth place. The reality is that Liverpool are running out of games. There are only thirteen left in the Premier League, and that’s not many if you keep drawing games.’
Aldridge has begged Slot (whose job could depend on qualifying for the Champions League, according to some pundits) not to ignore the FA Cup, which now looks like the Reds’ most realistic prospect of a trophy this season, if they can get past Brighton in the fourth round on Saturday.
He said: “The title defense is long over and we need to stay in the FA Cup and the Champions League for as long as possible. We don’t want to be out of both cup competitions in April and just floundering around trying to finish sixth or seventh. That’s a bad thought.
‘Liverpool players have to keep going and have something to play for for as long as possible.
The FA Cup is not what it used to be, but it is still the FA Cup and Liverpool must respect the competition as an opportunity to win silverware.”
The top 4 is no further than Liverpool, but the winning run must start now
While it could be a tall order to finish in the top four, especially if Man United and Chelsea both win tonight, we would disagree with Aldridge’s claim that it is an insurmountable task for the Reds.
At this point in the 2020/21 season we were five points off fourth place (which is also the case as of this morning) and rallied to finish third, so it’s not incomprehensible that Slot’s team could embark on a similar resurgence in the spring.
However, the ex-LFC striker is right when he says a winning run needs to start as soon as possible so that the gap with the top four does not become a chasm in March. And he is also right to beg his former club not to ignore the FA Cup.
The defeat to Plymouth Argyle a year ago was painful, but during our run to the Premier League it was brushed aside as a temporary annoyance. We don’t have the same license to be so flippant about it this time.
It’s far too early to write off a top four finish, and Liverpool certainly can’t bet everything on winning the Champions League this season just to be in the league next season, but they certainly need that something tangible to fight for once the confrontation arrives after Easter.
For now, they just have to do what no one else in the Premier League has been able to do all season and come away from the Stadium of Light with three points, especially if the results don’t go their way tonight.
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