Without a league defeat since the 14th December, Liverpool have now lost their last two games. Brendan Rodgers’ side’s phenomenal run had seen them harbour hopes of Champions League football again next year, and another crack at a competition they failed to convince in this season.
But the Champions League looks so far away just now, and the defeats that stopped the run were against the worst opponents possible – Manchester United and Arsenal are sitting in the Champions League so coveted by the Reds, and both those games were veritable ‘six-pointers’.
The saving grace this weekend for Liverpool is that both Southampton and Tottenham had poor results too, and neither could overtake Liverpool in fifth spot.
The issue now for Liverpool is to regroup in time for their FA Cup quarter-final replay at Ewood park against a Blackburn side who stifled the Reds at Anfield, and looked dangerous on the counter-attack with the power of Rudy Gestede causing untold problems for the Liverpool central defenders all game.
The FA Cup represents Liverpool’s only hope of silverware this season, but it has taken on extra significance in the wake of their Easter weekend. Defeat at Arsenal added to the defeat at home to Man United and out paid to their hopes of the Champions League, their unbeaten league run is gone, and momentum surely gone with it, and all the while Raheem Sterling has been hitting the headlines for his refusal to sign a lucrative new contract on the basis that he doesn’t think Liverpool is the place to be to win trophies.
Liverpool’s season is in danger of very much unravelling, and defeat on Wednesday night is as unthinkable as it would be devastating – relinquishing their last hope for glory to lower league opposition is unthinkable, and a third defeat in a row would be devastating.
But the effects could be felt further on than just this season.
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Momentum is a huge word in football, and Liverpool are a team who can vouch for that. Last season Liverpool came so close to winning the league after putting together an amazing run. It was their momentum that almost carried them over the line, they believed they could win every game and they almost did, but they came from too far back. They just couldn’t manage the amount of wins they needed.
But this time, if their momentum leaves them, it won’t just stop their charge up the table this season, but could have a knock-on effect next season too. Hull City put together a great run at the start of last season, and that’s what kept them safe. They did well in the FA Cup too, and brought themselves into Europe, but their poor run in the league at the end of last season may have cost them. They lost momentum, and got stuck in a rut. Throwing away a two-goal lead in a cup final won’t have helped, but that loss of momentum has stopped them from firing at the start of this season, and they crashed out of Europe and have struggled in the league.
For Liverpool, given the poor start, a loss of momentum would make it conceivable that Liverpool don’t even make the Europa League if Spurs and Southampton can put runs together, and Liverpool don’t make the cup final.
Not getting into Europe would be awful. It might not cost Rodgers his job – the board would surely be understanding following the tough start to the season and the sale of Suarez who the Reds struggled to replace. They would also be encouraged by the progress they’ve made since December, but is 7th place and no FA Cup acceptable? Such a scenario would leave Liverpool right back to where they started under Brendan Rodgers.
And then there’s the transfer market.
I still think that Liverpool invested well over the summer, and even though they’ve lost two games, they were against tough opposition. They can be forgiven for losing, but it’s just not the time of the season where you can afford to lose those games. Yet it was the poor start that gave the Reds too much to do, and the new signings hadn’t gelled.
They look to be gelling better now, and will next season, but if Brendan Rodgers harboured hopes of getting Raheem Sterling to sign a new deal and maybe to add to his squad in the summer, a lack of Champions League football could certainly scupper that.
After the Suarez sale, Liverpool accrued a significant windfall, and invested the money into the side, but without Champions League next season, will Rodgers have a similar kitty to reinvest? Even if he does, will top players want to come to a club not playing in the Champions League?
These are the perils lurking for Liverpool if they fail to regain their momentum before the end of the season. The Champions League may be gone, and they may still face the fallout of failing to qualify for that, but winning the FA Cup might ease the pain and persuade Sterling to stay.
They need to learn from the mistakes of Hull last season and really try to kick on at the end of the season. A bad start to the last two seasons has cost them dearly, and they can’t afford another one.
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