Last season, after matchday 23, Liverpool was leader of the Premier, with 16 points more than the second, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, and the ‘reds’ also had a pending match. On that day, Jürgen Klopp’s team beat United 2-0. Liverpool had been thrown into their first league in 30 years, since 1990, which they won on June 25. Today the situation of the English champion is radically different: he is 4th, 10 points behind the leader City (against whom he lost 1-4 on Sunday). Jürgen Klopp faces a very different roadmap.
In addition, Liverpool are eliminated from the FA Cup and the League Cup. Except for a miracle in the Premier, he is ahead of the Champions League, in whose round of 16 he faces Julian Nagelsmann’s Leipzig, 2nd in the Bundesliga. The first leg, on February 16 at the Puskas in Budapest (cannot be held at the Red Buill Arena in Leipzig due to sanitary regulations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
What remains for Liverpool in Premier
Everything indicates that, at 10 points as it is from a City that also has a pending game, Liverpool’s fight will be not only to try the almost miracle of revalidating the title but, first of all, to stop the crisis in which it has entered in 2021 and make sure not to be left out of the next Champions League. Looking at the Premier calendar, Liverpool must visit Leicester this Saturday. On February 20 he will host Everton in the Merseyside derby. On March 20, to Chelsea. On April 3, Arsenal will be waiting for Klopp’s men. On May 1 they visit United. And on May 23, closing of the Premier 2020-21 at Anfield against Crystal Palace.
Champions, next stop, Budapest
Fighting for what would be the seventh Champions League in its history is Liverpool’s great challenge, of course apart from, if it remains without revalidating the Premier, to secure its place in the next edition of the king Euro tournament at club level. But the round of 16 draw was not kind to the ‘reds’, given that their rival is Julian Nagelsmann’s Leipzig, Bayern’s shooting guard in the Bundesliga, 9 points behind leaders Bayern. Klopp faces his compatriots.
Without FA Cup and without League Cup
The English cups are not for Klopp at least for the moment. Under his command, Liverpool have never won the FA Cup, the League Cup, or the Community Shield. Manchester United, 2nd in the Premier League, 5 points behind leaders City (which has a pending match), eliminated the ‘reds’ in the round of 32 of this FA Cup (3-2). And Arsenal left him out in the second round of the League Cup on penalties (4-5 after a 0-0).