The bubble has finally burst, after a glorious spell of winning 5 games in a row and looking like sure shots for a top 4 place, Liverpool have now lost back to back games against their rivals for a Champions League place, what is worse is that they have been outplayed in both the games and now sit a massive 8 points behind the 4th placed team, Manchester United with only 7 games for the season to end.
Brendan Rodgers was expecting his team to come out with at least a win in these two games, but that has not materialized and now Liverpool are looking down the barrel of another season where they will not have Champions League football, unless a miracle happens, Istanbul proportions even
Can they make it into the top 4?
Liverpool have 7 games to go and the toughest fixture would be the one against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, barring that, they have 6 winnable fixtures if they play to their potential. The will miss Gerrard, Skrtel and Can for a game or two in between as they serve various suspensions and before they even play in their next fixture in the Premier League, they have to take on Blackburn in the FA Cup.
That is their chance of redeeming a poor, poor season and maybe winning a trophy can stick some paper over the cracks that have appeared throughout the season. 18 points from their 6 games would ensure that Liverpool finish the season on 72 points and with Manchester United still to face Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea, you never know what could happen.
Expecting United to drop points is the only hope that Liverpool have but the fact of the matter is United have grown from strength to strength in the second half of the season as well and do not look like they want to give up their top 4 spot. A return to the Champions League is the least the Red Devils expected and this is just what Louis Van Gaal seems to be giving to them. In fact, Manchester United might also be able to defeat a few of their rivals as stated earlier which would make it all the more difficult for Liverpool to get back into the top 4.
Liverpool do have a young squad and this would be a learning experience for the Reds, hopefully next season they can come back stronger and could do a repeat of the season they had last year but to ensure that they not only need to be playing the best of football, they really need to have a look at their attack which has not been anywhere close to the amazing attack they had last season. Fix the attack and who knows where they might end up next season, this season? They should just concentrate on the FA Cup.