After a year of absence from European competitions, Liverpool once again find themselves in the Europa under the leadership of Brendan Rodgers, who has been handed two major assignments as manager of Liverpool Football Club i.e. Improve attacking play and Achieve better results in the league.
Thanks to the 1-0 win away at Hearts in the first leg and a 1-1 draw against Hearts at Anfield, Liverpool have secured a place in the Europa League Group Stages. The Europa League has often been regarded as, and is in fact, the lesser version of the Champions League, and often English clubs are guilty of snubbing the competition to focus on the Premier League.
Liverpool are set to face the likes of Anzhi Makhachkala, Udinese and BSC Young Boys in one of the toughest groups in this year’s competition.
The top priority for the new coach remains to reach the top-four position and a berth in Champions League. That however, doesn’t mean that Liverpool should in any case neglect the importance of other competitions. Unilateral focus on the EPL is not required.
Liverpool, though short on personnel at the moment, certainly have enough depth in the squad to put sincere efforts into winning at least one other competition whilst concentrating on the League. With this in mind, I think the Reds would be wise to chase the Europa League in 2012/13.
The Europa, as I said before is not as prestigious as the Champions League, it however is a European competition nonetheless. So often it has been regarded as the poor sister of Champions League, with the second tier clubs competing in it. However things are changing and the view that the Europa League is a second-class competition is growing more outdated with each passing year.
Over the years, bigger clubs in Europe have slipped into the Europa and this year is no different. Some of football’s most exciting clubs like Tottenham, Napoli, Lyon, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Inter Milan, all have previously been part of the CL bandwagon and are just as big clubs as the teams participating in CL this season, will be part of Europa this season.
There is a pretty formidable line up of clubs and the Europa boasts of some of the most exciting players this season. Names like Gareth Bale, Marek Hamsik, Edinson Cavani, Andre Schurrle, Samuel Eto’o, Antonio Di Natale, Lars Bender, Falcao, Fernando Llorente, Iker Muniain and Cristian Maggio – some already regarded as world class, while a lot of them are en route to stamping their names alongside the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Robin Van Persie etc.
Exciting clubs and exciting players all around, add Liverpool and Luis Suarez, Nuri Sahin, Steven Gerrard, Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Fabio Borini to that list, and things do not look so “second tier” anymore. The Champions League will always cast a shadow over the Europa but that doesn’t mean that this trophy is anything to turn your nose at.
The Europa is not as renowned worldwide as the Champions League is but it surely has a formidable following and some of the best football is exhibited here, not to forget the great goals and individual performances.
Financially way inferior than the CL, the Europa does not generate a huge amount of money for the clubs; however for a club like Liverpool it’s a great opportunity to rebuild on the prestige that they have lost in past couple of seasons. A year of absence from any European Competition means at present, Liverpool suffers from a weakened international brand. Liverpool have a rich history and are still respected as a club worldwide. However, a recent run of results have shown that clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are considered to be bigger clubs now.
So often it has happened, as we have seen from the recent transfer activities, that the best players in the world want to play for the best teams. Thus, Liverpool often finds it rather difficult to secure the top talent internationally. In addition, they end up paying inexorably over the odds as well. If Liverpool were to assert their stature as one of the top English teams, then not only do they need to concentrate on top four finish but also make sure that they do well in the Europa League.
And now the summer transfer window has been shut, and with the kind of business that we did, the squad looks far from complete. With so many departures and few coming in as replacements, Rodgers will surely need to bring in a few quality players in the January transfer window, and progressing to the knockout stages would do a world of good for the Reds. Progression to the knockout stages would mean that Liverpool for one would not have to overpay for players like they did in the past and also it’d be easier for them to approach top talents all across Europe.
Playing in the Europa also means that Liverpool will get the essential learning opportunity in adapting to the new tactics. The Reds look set to use 4-3-3 as their main formation, which is a distinctly “European” formation and used by top European sides, bar English teams. Liverpool are still in the process of transformation and the best way possible to find their feet in this new system is to travel across the continent, seeing and using tiki-taka elsewhere. The Reds are still new to this system and it will take a while to fully adapt to it and seeing its effectiveness will be instructive for this class of Reds. The Europa not only offers them a greater number of games but also the chance to compete against the best in Europe.
The tournament is not a top tier competition, however it still carries a certain prestige. Prestige equates to pride, which leads to self-confidence. Liverpool hasn’t been full of self confidence in recent years and for them every bit counts. Confidence is often the difference between a successful strike and an endless barrage of hit crossbars.
In my opinion, playing in the Champions League is much more illustrious than the Europa League, however rather than being just another team competing in the Elite tournament, it’d be much better for any team to make an honest attempt to win the Europa. A trophy is a trophy and the Reds should go all out to win it.
Thanks a lot for reading. Comments and suggestions are always welcomed. You can find me on Twitter @LEONGUI7E
