A tough midweek League Cup quarter-final tie away to Bournemouth and a Super Sunday clash at home to Arsenal this week could ultimately make or break Liverpool’s season and Brendan Rodgers’ time at Anfield.
After a disastrous week for club and manager with elimination from the Champions League and a humiliating 3-0 defeat against fierce rivals Manchester United, the Northern Irishman is in need of morale-boosting wins as pressure continues to mount of his position at the club.
Exit from the cup and anything but a win against rivals Arsenal may prove to be the end of Rodgers’ tenure at the club, with many Liverpool fans frustration starting to grow as they have seen the club drop down the Premier League table and fall further behind the pace of clubs hoping to make the top four.
Defeat at Old Trafford marked Liverpool’s worst start to a campaign and lowest points tally after 16 league matches in 50 years. To make matters worse, Liverpool started without an out-and-out striker, while strikers Rickie Lambert and the returning Mario Balotelli were on the bench. Liverpool did however, create a few clear chances, only to be thwarted on several occasions by United keeper David De Gea, who was rightly awarded man of the match after producing several fine saves. The Red Devils were clinical on the day and condemned Liverpool to their seventh league defeat.
Many Liverpool fans are trying to figure out just what is going wrong this season, although many know the loss of Luis Suarez, the lengthiness of Sturridge’s injury and trying to mould several new signings into the team have been the main issues. Some fans have started to turn the blame towards the manager, questioning his tactics and team selections. Only the most optimistic Reds fans believed they would be able to replicate anything close to last season’s campaign, especially with midweek Champions League matches to contend with. There will also be many fans that believe Rodgers is the right man to steer Liverpool out of trouble and push them forward in the future, but the sale of Luis Suarez, over £100m spent on new players that haven’t made a great impact at the club as of yet and poor performances on the pitch may cost him his job sooner rather than later.
League Cup
The Capital One Cup is currently Liverpool’s best chance for silverware, but they will be in for a tough test on Wednesday night against a Bournemouth side sitting marginally on top of the Championship and on a 12-match unbeaten run. They also knocked Premier League outfit West Brom out of the competition in the last round, while Liverpool needed two late goals to see off Swansea.
As this represents a great chance for Liverpool to make it through to the next round, Brendan Rodgers has to be bold and go with his strongest possible team for the cup tie and not think ahead to the huge clash against Arsenal on Sunday.
League form
Defeat to Manchester United left Liverpool 11th in the table, 10 points behind their North East Rivals and seven points adrift of West Ham in the final Champions League spot. It’s been a contrast in fortunes for the club compared to last season, where they found themselves sitting second in the league with 16 games into the league campaign, but are now 12 points worse off and have lost four more games after the same amount of games this season. Fortunately Arsenal and Tottenham have also stumbled somewhat in the league, so a win on Sunday would move them level on points with Tottenham if they fail to win and two points behind Arsenal. If Liverpool are to get their league campaign on track, then they must beat one of their main rivals for the European places.
Rumours
Rodgers has denied rumours of a rift in the team and admits spirits are “very strong” in the camp. Reports have also surfaced that current Ajax boss Frank de Boer would consider a move to Anfield if approached according to his brother Ronald.
Brendan Rodgers will be hoping that the performances and results over the hectic Christmas period will improve and the pressure will ease on his position, but December may prove to be a defining month for the Liverpool boss.