To some extent, Liverpool’s fate this season is out of their hands. Their pursuit of a top four finish will be dictated largely by the actions of Leicester City, who can book the final Champions League place with a series of positive results from now until the end of the season.
If any game summed up Liverpool in 2020/21, it was Saturday’s draw with Newcastle. All of the classic Reds tropes were there – domination of the ball, chances created, lead taken, failure to kill off the game and then a late sucker punch to drop yet more points.
Given the monumental furore that greeted the despicable European Super League announcement on Sunday, Liverpool’s game 24 hours later against Leeds United was always likely to be something of a sideshow. The Reds were made to be something of a scapegoat for the whole charade, with Leeds’ ‘Earn It’ t-shirt stitch-up during the warm-up humiliating Jurgen Klopp – a man who has said on numerous occasions that he is vehemently against any kind of breakaway pact.
There were shades of 2019/20 vintage Liverpool in the 2-1 win over Aston Villa. It wasn’t pretty at times, but a mightily effective performance from the Reds was enough to see them grind out victory against a game Aston Villa side.
The season-long theme of one step forward, two steps back continued for Liverpool in the Bernabeu on Tuesday. They headed into the Champions League quarter-final first leg with Real Madrid in relatively positive fashion after a series of good results, however their shortcomings were exposed for all to see in a 1-3 defeat to the Galacticos.
It seems almost a lifetime ago when Liverpool last played a game. It was March 15, to be precise, when the Reds defeated Wolves courtesy of a Diogo Jota goal, and after success against RB Leipzig in the Champions League as well there was the tiniest slither of momentum being gathered in a season wholly lacking in it. And then along came the international break to spoil everything.
Not playing in the Premier League and not playing at Anfield. It’s a strange recipe for success, but once again Liverpool showed that their bizarre season can have its upsides with an excellent win over RBB Leipzig on Wednesday.
So, this is it then. The final hurrah of a wretched season comes in the Champions League, which ahs provided some sanctuary from an abysmal title defence while on domestic duty.
They say that home is where the heart is, but nothing could be further from the truth for Liverpool right now. They have suffered five straight defeats at Anfield, capped by the 0-1 reverse at the hands of Chelsea on Thursday evening.
Let’s be honest: amid the abject misery that has been Liverpool’s 2020/21 campaign, there have been occasional improvements that have proven, ultimately, to be false dawns. So whether the 2-0 win over Sheffield United on Sunday proves to be anything more than that we shall have to see, but there was a vitality and an intensity about the Reds that was born about by a handful of tactical tweaks from Jurgen Klopp.