Liverpool have problem in Champions League battle and Arne Slot must know it

Liverpool still need one more victory to secure Champions League qualification after disappointing Premier League draw with Chelsea on Saturday

At the start of the season, a top-four finish was required to gain Champions League qualification. Then fifth place would be sufficient. And now there’s a possibility that sixth will do the trick.

Liverpool, though, can’t be reliant on the ifs and buts of other teams. After an underwhelming defence of their Premier League crown, the Reds still require one more victory from their remaining two games to be absolutely certain of retaining their berth at Europe’s top table.

Arne Slot’s side currently stand fourth and are at fifth-placed Aston Villa on Friday night before finishing the campaign at home to Brentford on Sunday week.

So, can Liverpool finally get the job done and gain the one victory required to leave them not reliant on the failings of others? Our ECHO writers gaze into their crystal balls…

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Paul Gorst

It’s been a long old season for everyone connected to Liverpool. From the players and the coaching staff to the fans; everyone just wants that final whistle to sound.

It seems a long time ago now since that transfer window closed with the Reds top of the league as defending champions having just beaten Arsenal before clinching a club-record deal for £125m Alexander Isak.

The cracks started to show in late September before turning into yawning chasms and the Reds are now limping home in the race for the Champions League.

With an Aston Villa side with a Europa League final to come next week out of sorts themselves, Liverpool must try and somehow take advantage at Villa Park on Friday night.

That, though, is easier said than done given both Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea have been able to claim draws in recent weeks despite arriving at Anfield as the collective butt of the joke in the Premier League at the time.

Liverpool don’t really want to have to go into their final game of the season relying on anything because it’s likely to be an end-of-season feel on the terraces with supporters determined to give Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah the send-offs they so richly deserve.

Slot’s side will be playing Champions League football next season but they aren’t going to achieve it with a flourish. The next two games will be tough watches, no doubt.

Ian Doyle

There are now 12 days until the Premier League season ends and it cannot come soon enough. Forget Liverpool for a moment – the whole thing has been an abomination which points to why football as a sport is heading for serious trouble unless they address the growing numerous issues that will push supporters away, as it appears it already is doing at the overbloated, overpriced World Cup that is on the horizon.

All of that, though, is not the concern of Slot right now, nor Reds supporters. They just want to get Champions League qualification secured so they can instantly forget the last nine months ever happened.

But the performance of Liverpool during the last two absolutely dreadful games against Manchester United and Chelsea hardly smacks of a team capable of winning a match right now.

Villa Park on Friday night will be party central given it’s the Midlanders’ last home game of the season and they’ll want to give their players a rousing send-off ahead of the Europa League final the following week. If the prospect of playing in the showpiece is a distraction, it will only be a positive one for Villa.

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And with the Anfield crowd presently having no patience for pretty much anything, emotions that will already be running high given the farewells for Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson (and possibly more) will probably be too much for the Liverpool players to handle.

Slot’s side won’t win either of those two games. But the reality is they probably won’t have to. I’d imagine Manchester City will beat Bournemouth and then Villa, leaving the Reds needing just a point in one of their last two games to seal the deal.

Do it on Friday and the likelihood is Liverpool, for all their failings this term, will finish fourth. That scenario seems a fitting end to the worst Premier League season in history.

Mark Jones

Just as a VAR decision following a load of nonsense from a corner was the most fitting way to effectively decide the title, so a whole load of uncertainty and confusion is the best way to end this Liverpool season.

Nothing has come without its caveats all campaign, and so it is that the Reds arrive into the final fortnight with still more questions than answers.

There is a way to definitively end that all of course: beat Aston Villa. But can they do that? Well, of course, it’s complicated.

With Villa no doubt casting one eye and a significant portion of the other one towards Istanbul and the Europa League final next Wednesday, Friday’s clash at Villa Park could quite literally be anything. A joyous, dominant send-off for the hosts, or a meek, disjointed display for their squad players as seen in the recent defeat to Tottenham which seems to have basically kept Spurs up.

If Liverpool can start fast and get ahead then they could grind Villa down to a point where they don’t want to know. But then of course that was what was supposed to happen against a Chelsea side with an FA Cup final coming up.

Given Liverpool’s tendency to offer to encouragement to anyone and everyone they face then goals look a given, probably at both ends.

Liverpool’s main hope could be that the game becomes mad enough so that Villa ultimately decide it isn’t worth risking themselves too much ahead of Istanbul. If that happens then an uneasy, albeit satisfying win can be achieved.