OPINION
The 2013/14 season is not one that Liverpool will remember favourably. In fact, it is a season that they would have wanted to delete from their minds permanently.
The Reds were in with an excellent chance of winning the Premier League title that year, but Steven Gerrard’s famous slip in a crunch clash with Chelsea all but dented their bid of winning the coveted silverware. To this day, it is still spoken about.
Fast forward to this season, and Liverpool have found themselves in a situation where they virtually have one hand on the Premier League trophy. So far, so good right? Well, not Paul Merson’s warning is anything to go by.
“The pressure is immense at this stage of the season because whoever makes a mistake now is going to be remembered forever,” he told Sky Sports.
“You miss a chance after 15 or 20 games then nobody remembers it, but everybody remembers Steven Gerrard slipping [in 2013/14 to dent Liverpool’s title chances]. You can’t tell me there weren’t mistakes before that in the season and people missing sitters to win matches.
“This is it and everybody remembers the mistakes. It’s The Run In, you are playing to win the Holy Grail of football, in my opinion, after 38 hard games. People don’t understand. They think these two teams are just going to breeze through every fixture – it doesn’t happen!
“A game like this against Southampton in November is a walk in the park for Liverpool. You’d say they would turn up and win. That isn’t the case now because of all the pressure.”
The last thing Liverpool fans need is for their team to repeat the same fate of the 2013/14 season. After this warning, they will surely be sweating buckets from now on.
Merson is right though, a few months ago, this pressure was not really present. They would have brushed the likes of Southampton aside with ease, but that will not be the case now. The Saints are facing a relegation battle of their own, so they will not bow down that easily.
Gerrard’s slip will forever be written into the supporters’ minds, there is no doubt about that. Perhaps that year, the pressure got too much for the team, and that is something that they must not let affect them again. They must take note of Merson here though, as any mistakes made will not be forgotten.
