Very outside chance of Champions League in 16-17. Question is...

Which route to qualification is more achievable for Liverpool?

Top 4? or
Winning the Europa League?

Firstly, I don't think we're anywhere near good enough to achieve either of those things yet.

BUT...

The league - we are (when you take GD into account) effectively 7 points outside the top four and have 11 games left.
We are a potential 7 games away from winning the Europa League.

I still think that the Europa League should be our main focus.  I don't think we are going to be anywhere near consistent enough in the League over 11 games - I reckon we would need about 9 wins to have any hope.

But the Europa League is two legs to the final.  Possible we can be average in one leg and decent in the other and still get through.

Look at the last two games against Man City as an example.

What do you think? Which basket should we be throwing our eggs into?

Europa League.

Far too inconsistent to be throwing all out eggs in the league basket.

9 wins in 11 is just not possible right now.

As for the Europa, I'm not confident at all with beating Utd. I can picture a 1-1 draw at anfield and then 0-0 at Old Trafford, we don't score there. I feel like we never score against them.

My season would be made up if we beat the Scum in the Europa and finish above them in the league.

Either way ... it could mean we reach our objective.

It will be tight but we could get 4th.


Even if we got CL  we would need serious summer  squad additions to have any chance to go anywhere in it .

At least I couldn't see Jürgen fielding the ressies against Real Madrid .   

Just as a quick question, is there any chance of us getting Europa qualification through being runners up of the league cup?

My eggs are in both baskets for now, but things could change by weekend, if Palace take anything off us.

I honestly think given the quality left in the competition, we have more chance of the top four than winning the Europa League. However, I doubt we'll do either because we'd need to put a run together and we've been incapable of that all season so there's no suggestion we can start now, unfortunately.

We will finish just high enough in the league to get a Europa spot next season and not win the Europa league. Since city won league cup and Arsenal will win FA cup, that will be 7th. I see our highest possible finish to be 5th if we can get ahead of United.

Europa is the better opportunity simply because it's in our hands to win. We could go on a good run in the league and if City, Utd or whoever does the same we'd still end up outside the top four. But if we have a decent run of games in the Europa it's ours to lose. Reckon losing the final on Sunday will spur the team on to other cup success rather than dishearten them.

Not saying we're likely winners, but we're definitely in the running and definitely more likely to qualify for the CL through the Europa than the league.

What do you think? Which basket should we be throwing our eggs into?

Both I guess and I hope we do.

That said; I reckon that there'll be absolutely no pressure, placed on Jürgen, by the investors, to do either.

That, of course, can work to our favour - paradoxically our lads seem to perform better with no pressure to win.

The [Premier] League is pure, unadulterated, pish this season with the top team only averaging 2.02 ppg - [the season we were runner-up all of the top four averaged above that]. It really was there for the taking but even tho' 'we' fu**ed that up; any even half decent run could see us in with a shout for a top 4.

It might be 'famous last words' but I honestly doubt that our young, inexperienced lads can hold their nerve under the pressure of one off Cup games (right through the comp) so my 50p would be on a higher league finish.

First thing I thought of reading JD's headline was consistency, I'm guessing the Europa is the best chance we have realistically, league form is miles off consistent enough, however, that's not to say we can't go on a winning streak by taking confidence from the citeh battering,

Palace are up next and we all know how difficult it can be winning at theirs, we owe them big style as we do Scumchester,
I'd like to think after the midweek performance we can finish the season in style,  I'm edging my bets for now,  it's possible we can make an assault on both fronts so I'll wait until after the weekend, then decide.


YNWA

I'd think finishing top 4 is still achievable as teams above us will continue to drop points while we're only 7 points off the top 4 and not 17 with 11 more games to go and a massive 33 points to fight for. We have to remain as consistent as we could from now on and win as many games as possible and let others drop points. We are our own worst enemy, if we had been more consistent we could possibly be in 3rd or 4th spot at the moment. We can't continue to win 1 game against top opposition and next start to draw and loose to average opponents. In all honesty, the Europa league is tougher to win as the remaining teams are no mugs, they're very competitive and as good if not better than us at the moment. Well, that's just a personal opinion.

I hope Klopp will start to be brutal and tell the lads that there are 11 more games to go and make known to them very clearly that who stays and who goes at the end of the season depends on their performance in the last 11 games.

It's too finely balanced either way to prioritise one or the other for me.

I've been saying from the start that we have made a mistake in trying to implement the philosophy rather than concentrating on picking up points in the league. It's a freak season when all our rivals are going through transition.

For me it entirely rests now on how we handle Sturridge and Benteke.

If we can maximise our use of them it would be preferable to win the Europa but more practical to target the league IMHO.

The Europa League.

The issue with finishing fourth at this point isn't necessarily the points difference but the number of teams between us and fourth.

Not only would we need to substantially outperform one of the current top four but we'd also need to get ahead of West Ham and United even Stoke and Chelsea are closing on us.

Get past the mancs then concentrate on the Europa. Fail against the mancs and we have no option but to concentrate on the League.

I have a hunch (feeling) that we will win the Europa or at least reach the final.

I have a similar feeling that we will struggle to finish 6th in the league.

Worry is if we do qualify for the CL is are we ready for it this time?

It's not a worry for me.

You can only get ready for it by learning to play alongside the league schedule. Even if we crash and burn the experience will be valuable for the next season.

I don't think we're out of the running for top4 just yet. Game in hand. Good win vs City. Palace next, who are on a bad run. If we can get 4 or 5 wins down, don't see why we can't have a REAL push for top4.  But think we need to win 5 out of next 6 at least. Otherwise, forget it.

In saying that, I'd prioritise the Europa. It's a trophy, we've got this far, and also there is a CL place for the winner - though for me, the Silverware is the attraction. Want to see us lift a trophy

We'll have a better idea Thursday night depending on how we play against Palace this weekend and United in the first leg.

Which route to qualification is more achievable for Liverpool?

Top 4? or
Winning the Europa League?

Firstly, I don't think we're anywhere near good enough to achieve either of those things yet.

BUT...

The league - we are (when you take GD into account) effectively 7 points outside the top four and have 11 games left.
We are a potential 7 games away from winning the Europa League.

I still think that the Europa League should be our main focus.  I don't think we are going to be anywhere near consistent enough in the League over 11 games - I reckon we would need about 9 wins to have any hope.

But the Europa League is two legs to the final.  Possible we can be average in one leg and decent in the other and still get through.

Look at the last two games against Man City as an example.

What do you think? Which basket should we be throwing our eggs into?

I'm greedy and would try both to give us the best shot but that of course defeats the object of the post.

We're on level footing the Europa League where we're handicapped in the League so in terms of chance you would have to say the EL, 2 games against United is like 2 games in the league and as you say we can afford a draw or even a small loss in one and probably still be good enough where in the league I think 9 wins sounds about right, 68 points or thereabouts is very low for a top 4 but this season has been freakish.

The bookies have us between 9-1 and 11-1 for the EL and between 8-1 and 10-1 for a top 4 place so they're finding it tough to call.

I think we'll go through against United and with that in mind I'd go for the EL, it's a European Trophy also and that is why we're in the game to win trophies.

I think its safe to say that Leicester & Spurs have secured their CL places. Well done to both, incredible achievements.

That means we are fighting for the two places with Arsenal, City, United and West Ham. Even though Stoke are above us currently Im not including that shower of sh*t bags.

Presuming we win our game in hand (which is the derby so no guarantees at all) then we are still 7 points behind Arsenal and 6 behind City presuming they win their game in hand V Newcastle. We will be 3 points behind United and 2 behind West Ham.

We would need to be extremely consistent and win 9 or 10 of our remaining 11 games and ask City and Arsenal to both lose 4, maybe 5 of theirs. Lets be honest, that isn't going to happen.

Our best hope is of course the Europa League. Get past the mancs and I fancy us to win it.

Go for Europa League but do your utmost in the league as well. Eighth in the league is a massacre.

We have to do our best in both the competitions because we haven't shown ourselves to be good enough to achieve CL through either of the routes so let's do our best and let's hope that we get there one way or other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g69gUOzWAew

In all honesty I think we have next to no chance whatsoever of getting into the top four from we now are. there are simply too many points to make up, too many teams to make them up on, and because we only play the game in one way we always run the risk of a freak bad result if somebody works us out and counters. We might find this at the weekend, I shouldn't think Dann or Delaney will be playing it around at the back too much, they'll be launching it and Palace will be doing everything in their power to up the physicality of the game. Sometimes we overcome that approach, but I'm afraid the fact that often we don't is the reason we are behind the worst Man Utd team I've seen since the days of Ron Atkinson.

No, IMHO the league is gone in terms of a top four challenge (and "new players"/injuries or not, that isn't very good in all honesty). If we hold things together I think we'll finish seventh, behind Leicester, Spurs, Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal and West Ham. I do think we'll get above Stoke, but if we suffer a blip we may end up not doing it and even getting passed by the likes of Everton and Southampton.

The Europa league given it's actually a cup is different, you never know. The draw has been kind to us so far, and if we can get past the Mancs (which I ink we will) then we have a chance. There are thoug some good teams left in, and IMHO we are going to need plenty of luck to go far in it.