Say what you will, but I would not turn my nose up at the Europa League. At the start of the season I was one of many Liverpool fans who felt that being in European football’s second string; in its lesser ‘league’ competition, was an insult. I admit it: I was being a snob. I felt a) that we were too good for it and b) if we were to have a chance of qualifying for the Champions League again, we were going to need to get rid of this minor distraction.
Well, after almost a dozen games in this year’s Europa League, we’re still in it. Despite all our best efforts (i.e. not once playing anything close to our strongest first 11), the Champions League’s poor relation is still with us; like a length of stray toilet paper that sticks to your shoe at the most inopportune time, we just haven’t been able to shake it off. We are standing 90 minutes away from the next round though and I think that now is the time for us all (fans and club alike) to start treating the competition for what it is: our only chance of silverware left during the current season.
Sure, monetarily it isn’t great – the club can earn around £5 million for playing through from the qualifying rounds to the final (while you can get £3.9 million alone simply for reaching the Champions’ League group stage). But in an era where players claim ‘I’m only requesting a move from club A to club B as they stand a greater chance of winning trophies’, a 4th ‘Uefa Cup’ would go a long way to proving that we’re still capable of winning major trophies after a few years of famine, whilst at the same time galvanizing the current squad and reminding them what it feels like to win.
Qualification for the Champions League is still our goal and it is certainly an attainable one. As I’ve said many times this season, there are no outstanding teams in this league; anybody can beat anybody this season, just ask Tottenham about that, after succumbing to Blackpool on Tuesday, much like we have twice this season. In an entirely financial sense, we need it next season, both for the prize money and to help lure top players over the summer. But silverware is ultimately the key to a successful season, and to call this anything other than a failure, we need to be challenging for it, so what better way for Kenny to end his ‘temporary’ stewardship than to finish with a bang; a very large, silver one.
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Benitez prioritized the Europa League after Christmas last season and we only finished 7th, the Europa League is not a trophy of note. Fourth place in the Premiership is achievable with 72 points but staying in the Europa League playing away on Thursday nights and then coming back and playing a crucial Premier League game at 1.30 on a Sunday afternoon is a recipe for disaster. If one looks at the remaining fixtures of Tottenham,Man City and Chelsea, there are definite games where they are likely to drop points. Tottenham’s attitude to the Premiership at the moment in light of their 1-0 win in Milan can be seen in the way their strong line-up at Blackpool lost 3-1. Man City are still not convincing and Mancini can be ultra negative in his tactics, they still rely too much on Teves. Chelsea are playing Man Utd next Tuesday, if they lose that will put them 15 points behind Utd, it would likely then be the case that like Liverpool in 2005 that Chelsea would put all their eggs in their pursuit of winning the Champions League. Spurs got fourth place last year with 73 points, so Liverpool finishing on 72 points would put the club in with a real chance.