Miserable FC Basel draw confirms second-tier European status for the term…
Granted – this is some serious straw clutching, but having now dropped into the Europa League, we may as well use it to our advantage…
1) Our best chance of qualifying for the Champions League…
For the first time, winning the Europa League grants automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League.
With our shoddy Premier League form, and the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United (to name but a few) already ahead of us in the table – finishing in the top four is going to be very difficult.
While we’re all praying for a mid-season revival and a proper push for these places, clinching the Europa League might be a more attainable way of achieving Champions League football in 2015/16.
2) We could face Everton in Europe…
The chances of us ever facing the Bitters in the Champions League is slim, partly because of the difficulty we face in qualifying for its later rounds, but almost entirely because they find it virtually impossible to even get into the Group Stages.
However, they’ve qualified from their Europa League group, and provided we both get through our Round of 32 match, we could be drawn together in the Round of 16.
The thought of a two-legged European Merseyside derby is simply mouthwatering.
3) More chances to blood Emre Can, Lazar Markovic, Suso and our other talented youngsters…
If we’d have finished fourth in the Champions League group, we’d only have League Cup and FA Cup fixtures to complement our top flight matches – meaning some members of the squad would have barely featured.
With minimum two more European games on the cards, Brendan Rodgers could give some much needed game-time to the likes of Suso, Emre Can, and Lazar Markovic (although the latter will face a ban due to his petty red card versus FC Basel…)
Rodgers’ first season in charge was characterised by his willingness to field youngsters, and in Raheem Sterling in particular, it worked absolute wonders.
It’d be fantastic if the Europa League enabled a few more fringe players to flourish.
4) Genuine chance of a trophy…
As of Wednesday afternoon, Liverpool are the bookies’ favourites to win the Europa League.
Any competition is worth winning, especially one in which we have such a rich history – last collecting the trophy in 2001 under Gerard Houllier.
Of course, whichever of Manchester City or Roma finish 3rd in their group could take the favourites tag from us, but we’d still be one of the higher profile sides in the competition regardless.
Rodgers hasn’t won a trophy with us yet, and it could offer an excellent chance to get the monkey off his back.
5) More chances to fix our defence and rediscover our footballing philosophy…
Hopefully by February when the Europa League comes around, we’ll be playing the free-flowing attacking football that led us so close to Premier League glory in 2013/14.
However, performances this season have unfortunately suggested that any chance of success might have to be ‘ground out’ rather than waltzed to.
If we really are still in the mire in two months’ time – the more matches to discover our best team, increase tactical awareness and boost confidence, the better.
