Michael Owen believes Liverpool’s next five Premier League games will be pivotal in determining whether the Reds finishing the campaign in the top four or not.
Jurgen Klopp’s side defeated Wolves 2-0 at Anfield last night to reduce the gap between themselves and fourth placed Spurs to six points with a game in hand still to play on Antonio Conte’s side.
We host Manchester United on Sunday and then following our league trip to Bournemouth and Champions League clash with Real Madrid in Spain, we face Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in quick succession at the beginning of April.
“If they’re no further away from the top four after that run of fixtures, then they’ll do it. I’m convinced of it,” Owen told premierleague.com (via Rousing The Kop).
“I mean that is defining, they could be out of it after those. If they go on a poor run in that they could be 10, 12 points adrift with eight games to go or something – it’ll all be over. If they’re still within three, four, five points of the top four after those fixtures, then they’ll do it.”
We have some seriously difficult games on the horizon but we’ve had a lot of success against our top four rivals in recent seasons.
We understand that our performances so far this term haven’t been upto the usual high standards we’ve set previously but these are the type of fixtures that Klopp’s squad should be up for the most.
Having the chance to derail Manchester City’s and Arsenal’s title charge while being able to pile further misery on Graham Potter and co should be enough motivation on its own while we also need results if we’re to achieve a top four finish.
There is hope that Luis Diaz should be back amongst the squad later this month meaning he could play a pivotal role for the club as we enter a vital part of our campaign.