Danny Murphy has tipped Liverpool to finish in the final Champions League spot this season with the Reds experiencing a slow start to the new campaign.
The Merseysiders have won just two of their opening eight Premier League games but did pick up a much-needed three points in Europe’s premier competition on Wednesday night.
The 7-1 thrashing of Glasgow Rangers provides a much-needed confidence boost as Jurgen Klopp’s side prepare for the visit of Manchester City to Anfield this weekend.
Liverpool find themselves 14 points behind league leaders Arsenal at the moment, albeit with a game in hand, and although ex-Red Murphy has admitted he’s ‘concerned’ by the club’s performances in recent weeks, he expects them to finish in the top four.
“Liverpool will finish 4th I think,” Murphy told Fair Betting Sites (via Liverpool Echo). “On Klopp, he can’t change his philosophy and his way of managing that’s given so much success overnight. For me, it’s just about being on top of players, reinforcing the messages and making sure they’re training at a high level because performances don’t improve unless your training is at it.
“There’s a lot of honest players in that squad to look at themselves, and I’m concerned, but I’m not worried. The cream always rises to the top.”
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There’s no denying that finishing fourth would be viewed as somewhat of a disappointing season, but we certainly have the ability to secure some silverware in the three other competitions we will compete in.
We came agonisingly close to completing a glorious quadruple last term only to fall short at the final hurdle and there have been suggestions that the players are feeling some sort of a ‘hangover’ from the previous campaign.
If we were to miss out on the top four completely and therefore fail to qualify for the Champions League then that would be seriously damaging to our hopes of strengthening the squad at the end of the season.
Jude Bellingham, the teenage midfielder that is reportedly Liverpool’s top transfer target, will want to be playing on the biggest of stages so it’s imperative that we can offer him that.
It must be remembered, however, that we are only eight games into the new season and there is a long way to go.
We’re confident that the lads will soon find themselves higher up the table and there’s no better way to kickstart our campaign than with a huge three points against City on Sunday.