Liverpool make life hard on themselves

IT’S hardly surprising the team that provides more thrills and spills than the rest of the league combined wouldn’t or couldn’t do the simple thing. It makes much more sense that they would leave it all hang out, leave it go down to the wire.

Having looked odds on to retain a top four place a month ago, Liverpool have squandered chance after chance to make certain of it. So much so that they face into this weekend staring down the barrel of a do or die proposition.

It’s possible that Chelsea or Tottenham might mess up in the meantime, but it looks far more likely that Liverpool will have to beat Brighton on Sunday afternoon to secure a Champions League berth for next season.

So far so Liverpool. We shouldn’t be too harsh though. Jürgen Klopp has had to fight a war on two fronts this past month or so and do so with an increasingly thin squad. Matip, Lallana, Can, Chamberlain, Gomez and Clyne have all be injured at some point in the last three months and most of them still are.

As a result Liverpool have looked ever increasingly leggy. Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah have looked shattered ever since the second half of the second leg against Roma. Of the front three only Sadio Mané looks to have the energy levels required at the moment and this Liverpool side is all about energy.

If they drop their levels they don’t look half the side they can be. As worrying as that looks right now – and as damaging as it’s been in the short term on their Premier League prospects – it should hearten the Liverpool faithful ahead of the Brighton and Madrid clashes.

With seven days to prepare for the visit to Brighton they should come through okay and with thirteen days after that to the Champions League final they should be capable of giving a proper account of themselves when it matters most. Roll on Kiev.