Should Aiming For 4th Really Be The Extent Of Our Ambition?

FOR many teams that are capable of finishing in the top halve of the table, their main objective for an upcoming campaign seems to be to get that elusive 4th spot. For a team of Liverpool’s stature then, I’m afraid that in my opinion, nobody associated with the club could class finishing 4th a success.

Yes it would be a vast improvement since finishing 2nd in the 2008-9 campaign but certainly not enough to be deemed a successful one.

I would much prefer to win a League Cup or FA Cup and finish 8th. After all finishing 4th does not get put onto your official honours list.

In 25 years you will not be remembered for finishing 4th in your league campaign. However, you will be remembered for collecting one of the domestic trophies. Ask any fan in the country who has a strong knowledge and history of the game and they will be able to tell you the winners of the FA Cup and League Cup respectively for any given season since they followed football. Ask the same fan what club finished 4th during the same period and I guarantee you they will struggle.

As like every other fan, I crave success, and there is nobody reading this piece who wants to see our great club pitting themselves against Europe’s elite more than me. However we are Liverpool Football Club and 4th should never be our objective as to a successful season. Seeing our players splashed on the back pages of tabloids stating that 4th would be a successful campaign makes me, along with every great legend of our club, cringe ever so slightly.

Of course people will argue that 4th is a successful campaign and give reasons such as the guarantee of Champions League football playing a major part in attracting the biggest stars to their club. Ask Spurs fans if finishing 4th guarantee’s that!! We all know the answer. It may well be a freak occurrence as to why Spurs are not competing in the Champions League this season, but given the strength of all Premiership clubs, there is no reason as to why this scenario will not be reproduced on numerous occasions in the future.

At this current period that we find our club in, I think our main objective should be to take each game as it comes, try our utmost to earn three points each weekend, and with this the table will take care of itself.

After the first two performances I am more than confident that this campaign will be a good one. The West Bromwich Albion game on the opening day was not a true reflection of where we are at. Despite throwing 3 points away last week against Champions Manchester City, we can all take the positives out of our performance. Yaya Toure’s comment about it being his most difficult game since competing in the English game is a testament to the performance and character that was shown by the Reds.

If we manage to keep playing to these standards then there is no reason as to why we can’t finish 4th this term. This will certainly give us the platform to build on and hopefully see the successful times return to Anfield sooner rather than later.

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