Hurt Will Teach Liverpool Important Lessons

With 2nd placed Manchester City’s 4-nil victory over Aston Villa on Wednesday evening seeing them slip ahead of Liverpool into 1st, the 2012 champions put one hand on the Premier League trophy.

Despite holding out for 63 minutes, Villa never once looked like taking anything more than a lucky point but that didn’t stop Reds across the globe from hoping. As Eden Dzeko’s first goal crossed the line though, it will have been like a punch to the gut as fate all but confirmed City as 2014 Premier League champions and Liverpool boss, Brendan Rodgers, believes that the young side will learn lessons from this season’s mistakes and come back stronger next year.

Speaking today, Rodgers said “To be successful you have to be able to lose,” said Rodgers. “If you look over the years the great winners have been teams and individuals who have lost and gone on to become champions again.

“For us we have made great strides this season and there is still another game to go.

“If anyone had told us in August we would be top going into the last week of the season we would’ve taken it.”

There is no doubt that the manager speaks for everybody that, 12 months ago, we’d have happily taken the club’s current position but that doesn’t remove the galling feeling that the club have let the league slip out of their grasp.

With one game remaining of this Premier League season, the club’s final position will be confirmed by 5pm on Sunday and while many will be hoping for one final, sweet twist in the tale of this season’s race for the title, many will have made their peace that next year will see a concerted – and expected – title challenge with a much stronger squad and Champions League football.