John Aldridge has weighed in on the title race and claimed that Liverpool’s meetings with Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Southampton should be considered the biggest potential banana skins.
The Merseysiders are set to face Manchester City at the Etihad in April in a potential title decider, with only a point separating the two sides in the Premier League.
“Harry Kane’s performance as they beat Manchester City at the Etihad last month confirmed that could be a tricky game for Liverpool, but the bigger threats lie away from Anfield,” the former striker wrote for Independent.ie.
“We saw Manchester City dropping points at Crystal Palace earlier this month and Liverpool have three away matches on their schedule that could be tricky.
“Newcastle have been one of the form teams in the Premier League over the last couple of months and St James’ Park will be rocking when Klopp’s side comes to town on April 30th.
“The 12.30 lunchtime kick-off in that game is also an issue, as players struggle to be at their best in that early morning slot and we know Klopp doesn’t like matches at that time.
“On top of that, Liverpool may have played a Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich a few days before and you don’t know how players will react to a tough trip to Tyneside straight after.
“The other two games I’m looking at with concern is Southampton away, where Liverpool have often struggled and then, intriguingly, Aston Villa away.”
Jurgen Klopp’s men have already secured one trophy in the League Cup earlier in the campaign, with the Reds having set their sights firmly on the remaining silverware up for grabs.
It’ll be a more than challenging month of football for us in April with two Champions League quarter-final clashes to consider alongside an FA Cup semi-final meeting with the league leaders.
Aldridge is, of course, correct to highlight the importance of us staying on top of our game beyond the visit to Manchester.
Indeed, it would be painful beyond measure to see the club drop points in one of our remaining league fixtures – particularly if we manage to secure a positive result at the Etihad.
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