With a 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League and only nine matches remaining, Liverpool are in a commanding position to complete the job and dethrone Manchester City as champions over the next couple of months.
However, after the double disappointment of Champions League elimination and Carabao Cup final woe against Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle respectively, with the Reds losing successive games for the first time this season, Arne Slot’s side will reconvene at the end of March with a point to prove.
As if the prospect of winning a 20th league title and answering some growing doubts which have emerged over the past week isn’t motivation enough, our next fixture is a Merseyside derby…and the last one in February was tempestuous, to say the least.
Collymore: Liverpool need to ‘buck up’ in April
In his latest column for CaughtOffside, Stan Collymore stated his belief that Liverpool won’t surrender their position at the Premier League summit, but he also warned that the Reds need to improve on recent performances if they’re to prevent any unnecessary jitters in the run-in to the season.
The former LFC striker wrote: “Any fan at the start of the season would have said that the Premier League is the most important competition for Liverpool – and while they could collapse and miss out on winning it, I really don’t think that will happen, even if they need to buck up their ideas as their performances in recent weeks have been poor.”
Liverpool have been reeling, but should still see the job through from here
Collymore is right to warn Liverpool that the job isn’t done yet and that their recent displays leave vast room for improvement.
The Reds were second best over the two legs against PSG and didn’t turn up for most of the Carabao Cup final. Even in their last Premier League match, they needed the shock of a Will Smallbone goal to jolt them into life and retrieve a half-time deficit at home to a Southampton side who’ve earned nine points since August.
If there’s a silver lining to being eliminated from every knockout competition at this stage of the campaign, it’s that Slot and his players can focus all of their efforts on seeing out the title race. After the Merseyside derby on 2 April, we have no more midweek matches for the rest of the season.
In theory, that should provide some respite for Liverpool after a relentless run of 30 matches in four months since the November international break, and the disappointment of the past 10 days should have the squad all the more determined to silence anyone who’s suggesting that they could yet throw away their 12-point lead.
As Collymore says, the Premier League is the one trophy which means the most to many Reds supporters; and if we see Virgil van Dijk raising it aloft in May, the frustration of missing out in every other tournament will well and truly subside.
