Will Liverpool Finish In The Champions League Positions?

The 2020/21 Premier League season is 65 percent completed and Manchester City look nailed on to secure their fifth Premier League title. Defending champions Liverpool look a shell of their former selves and face the prospect of not even qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

Liverpool began their title defence strongly. Disregard the freak 7-2 defeat away at Aston Villa on the fourth game of the season and Jurgen Klopp’s men looked set to mount another title charge. Fast forward to Christmas and it is fair to say the wheels have fallen off the Reds.

The current Premier League betting odds from MyBookie suggest Liverpool will not even muster a fourth-place finish this term, therefore, missing out on the lucrative Champions League places. Klopp’s Reds are in freefall. They’ve lost more games in the four matches than they lost during their entire 2019/20 Premier League campaign!

A 68-game unbeaten home run ended at the hands of Burnley. Liverpool has gone on to lose their next three home games on the spin: 0-1 to Brighton, 1-4 to Manchester City, and 0-2 to Merseyside rival Everton. Liverpool last fell to four straight home defeats in December 2002.

Liverpool faces Thomas Tuchel’s resurgent Chelsea side on March 5 and it is difficult to see them getting anything out of that game as things stand right now.

Why Has Liverpool Been So Poor This Season?

Injuries have ravaged Liverpool’s squad, with the defence particularly hard hit. Talismanic defender Virgil van Dijk was ruled out for the season with a serious knee injury following a horrendous tackle from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford back on October 17. Any team in the world would miss van Dijk’s presence.

Possible van Dijk replacements also succumb to injury. Joe Gomez appears to be made of glass, while Joel Matip struggles to string more than a couple of games together.

Klopp doesn’t fancy £11.7 million summer signing Kostas Tsimikas as is evident by the Greek defender only making a solitary Premier League appearance so far. Turkish loan signing Ozan Kabak played in both the 3-1 away defeat at Leicester and the 0-2 home loss to Everton and picked up bookings in both fixtures. Ben Davies, a bizarre £2 million signing from Championship outfit Preston North End is yet to step on the pitch

Further up the pitch, Diogo Jota, a £41 million signing from Wolves, started his career like a house on fire. He hasn’t started a Premier League game since December 6 thanks to a knee injury.

Now club captain Jordan Henderson is ruled out with a groin injury. The midfield general had been playing in the heart of Liverpool’s makeshift defence.

Then there’s the issue of scoring goals consistently. Mo Salah has 17 goals in 22 league games, but Sadio Mane only has seven in 22 and Roberto Firmino six in 25 appearances. The injured Jota is the only other player to find the back of the net five times or more.

“Liverpool” by Getty is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Can Liverpool finish in the Top Four?

On current form, you have to say Liverpool will miss out on fourth place and the final Champions League spot. That said, on paper at least, Liverpool has a relatively easy run-in during the final games of the current campaign.

Liverpool faces Chelsea after the international break before a winnable fixture at home to Fulham follows. Potential banana skin fixtures away at Wolves and Arsenal are followed by the visit of Aston Villa and the trip to Leeds; Liverpool should be winning both those fixtures.

Their last six games, aside from Manchester United on May 1, are all against teams languishing in the 13th place and below. A Champions League spot isn’t quite out of reach yet, but something needs to change and change quickly.

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