Obviously the minimum is to have CL status next season and also for me you can never call a season without a trophy at Liverpool a good one (especially in times when Liverpool is in good times as a club, has stability and can compete/win).
Let’s say it would be the minimum acceptable.
Hopefully we are among 5 in the league when it ends, one way or another and we really try to give City a game when we face them in the FA Cup. Approach that game pragmatically.
In the CL I didn’t see us going far anyway. We’re not out yet so of course you give your all and you hope. But I’d be highly, highly surprised if we go far.
Despite how bad we’ve been, which by the sounds of most of you, means that we ought to be at the bottom of the table, we’re 6th, only on goal difference. If not for slipping up against Wolves we could be 3rd right now.
And yet somehow we’l only scrape 5th? It’s really curious how some of you seem to think.
I suppose we feel we should be placed higher with the players we have, and our gloom is more to do with the lack of direction in the team shape and tactics, which isn’t helped by some very poor individual performances, that then seem to be rewarded by starting the next game.
The final part of the season we are playing teams which are going for CL places or could finish above us.
Mixed with a couple of bogey teams (away to Brighton where we have only won at their ground twice in 5 years, and Palace who have already beaten us 3x this season).
|15 Mar 2026|Liverpool vs Tottenham|
|21 Mar 2026|Brighton vs Liverpool|*
|11 Apr 2026|Liverpool vs Fulham|
|19 Apr 2026|Everton vs Liverpool|*
|25 Apr 2026|Liverpool vs Crystal Palace|*
|2 May 2026|Manchester United vs Liverpool|*
|9 May 2026|Liverpool vs Chelsea|*
|17 May 2026|Aston Villa vs Liverpool|*
|24 May 2026|Liverpool vs Brentford|*
From the remaining fixtures I anticipate we will lose 2 or 3, and draw 2 or 3.
If you’re a believer in the notion that the league table as the season progresses matters, then you’ll see that whatever buffer we might have had from the good start has long since been lost, and that really, the teams around us are simply not that good that we’re in that desperate jeopardy even if things don’t pick up.
I suppose my being so relaxed is a combination of the confidence that our competitors are quite shit too, and that really, our only obstacle is ourselves. If we can pull together for the last 10 games it should be fairly relaxed. It’s hardly that different from 2020-21 or 2022-23.
Teams who are in those positions aren’t shit. Us and them. We all come from different perspectives though and context over season expectations can be different.
It’s certainly not over yet, but also, it’s not like I can be relaxed over whether we’ll make it. It’s very tight, there are games between those teams near the end and it could go right to the wire.
I don’t even see us getting top 5 now. Early KO at Brighton on Saturday after playing on Wednesday night, these players will be blowing out of their arses after 25 minutes. Away games against Villa, Everton and Man U. Tough homes against Chelsea, Brentford, Fulham and Palace. Just can’t see it now.
City will put us out the FA Cup and we’re not getting past PSG even if we go through on Wednesday.
Load of shite.
We arent good enough to be competing in the champions league, whatever our hopes are for next season, we are a shambles. We can still cling to the hope, that somehow, we’ll be in shape for next seasons competition, but genuinely, at the moment we’ve no right to be projecting ourselves amongst Europe’s elite. We’re borrowing heavily from our recent past, and the last 12 months, might be proven the worst of the last 20yrs.
Ive no expectations until we see a systemic improvement.
You might be describing why a new manager, assuming we have one lined up, won’t want to be coming in until the summer.
Say it is Alonso. The case for bringing him in now is so he can get a head start on running the rule over his squad, because of a World Cup interrupted summer. Several are saying that sort of thing, and it does make some sort of sense.
But now let’s factor in the new manager’s wishes.
My guess is he would not want to get caught up in the circumstances your post describes, as that will just hinder his own start at the club. He would surely rather take the reins in summer, when he can chart his own course with the squad at his disposal. It would be a fresh start and much cleaner for the new man, by not getting entangled in this mess of a season.
You could argue this though that let’s say we do make it through to the QF’s minimum? Then that would mean the current squad have had Champions League experience together of winning 7 out of a total 12 matches. Many more teams out there have already done worse.
It of course means nothing going forward though if we do not finish in 5th place. The priority now is absolutely finishing in at least 5th. Every league game becomes a final.
Once the transfer window opens, so many players will be open ears to offers from LFC, especially if it means they get to play in the biggest competition.
The tricky thing will be that the new manager would have to convince them that they are about to replace some of the biggest legends our club has ever seen. That will take big balls from new players coming in … I really hope they get this right
