Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard insists a top-four place remains within their reach and the next two months are likely to decide whether they qualify for the UEFA Champions League this season. A 2-2 draw against Manchester City, for the second time this season a defensive mistake costing them victory against the champions, provided hope for the remainder of the campaign.
And although Liverpool are still nine points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, but Gerrard is optimistic that gap can be reduced.
“It’s certainly up there with our best performance of the season,” Gerrard said. “We can take a lot of belief from the way we’ve performed against Arsenal (also 2-2 last Wednesday) and Manchester City. We need to build on this and I’m feeling really confident about our ability to move up the table.
“We might not have got the results we wanted against the top sides but every time we have certainly matched them if not bettered them in games. We just need to try to cut out our mistakes and turn those draws into wins.
“No disrespect to the sides we’ve got coming up but if we keep playing like that then we can certainly put in a challenge for fourth place. If we perform like that we will pick up a lot of points between now and the end of the season.”
Over the last four seasons, the team that have finished fourth in the Premier League has gotten 72, 70, 68, 69 points. So it will probably take about 70 points to once again grab that final Champions League place.
With 13 games left Liverpool have 36 points. That means they need 34 points from their remaining games. That is a mighty big ask, especially considering that Liverpool have Spurs, Chelsea and Everton at home and Newcastle away.
If Brendan Rodgers’s side can win 11 out of their last 13 games they deserve Champions League football, it is just that Liverpool have yet to show anything near that sort of consistency under Brendan Rodgers this season/
