Jamie Carragher offers a brutally honest assessment of Liverpool’s ambitions

"Liverpool will not win the title this season."

There are still 31 Premier League games left to play this season, but Jamie Carragher doesn't think his former team will be champions next May. Liverpool have had a mixed start to the season. The opening few weeks went well as they beat Arsenal 4-0, qualified for the Champions League group stage and managed to keep hold of Philippe Coutinho. However, results in September were very disappointing. Jurgen Klopp's side won just one game last month - a 3-2 win over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium. They lost 5-0 to Manchester City, were knocked out of the League Cup by Leicester and failed to win a match in the Champions League. https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/910829748955336705 Liverpool return from the international break with Sadio Mane out injured for six weeks and face a game against Manchester United on Saturday afternoon at Anfield. Klopp's side are already seven points behind United in the table and will need a positive result to keep touch with the top two in the Premier League. However, Carragher reckons that, regardless of Saturday's result, Liverpool won't end a 28-year wait for a league title this season. "Liverpool will not win the title this season," Carragher writes in his new column for The Daily Telegraph.

"I am not sure when my old club will win it again. I certainly do not see it happening in the near future. I am not convinced Jurgen Klopp will ever be able to bring it back to Anfield."

https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/918778151001640960 The former Liverpool defender claims that his old club simply cannot match the spending power or the squads of United, Manchester City and Chelsea. "They have financial strength and a winning culture Liverpool do not currently possess," Carragher writes.

"For the last seven years FSG has tried to approach transfers in a studious way. It has yielded one League Cup. I think FSG are good owners, but to win the league their approach in the transfer market must be as robust as the big three, and I am not convinced they have the capacity to match them... When opportunities come along to push on in order to remain truly competitive at the top of the league – which tends to happen at Anfield once every five years – you have to grasp the nettle. Liverpool have not done so."

https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/918551621117804545 But Carragher also argues that Liverpool didn't adequately strengthen in the summer when they had qualified for the Champions League and finished ahead of United in the Premier League. According to the Sky Sports pundit, Liverpool failed to improve from a position of strength, and this also happened under former managers Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers. Klopp wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk last summer. The deal fell through, but Liverpool did not move for an alternative defensive target when it became apparent that Southampton were not prepared to sell Van Dijk. https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/916267305256054785 Carragher contrasts this approach with United and Jose Mourinho. The club missed out on top target Antoine Griezmann, but still spent £75m on Romelu Lukaku.

"This is a fundamental difference between the modern Liverpool and United: one club recognised its weakness and fixed it, and the other is beset by the same problems," he writes.

Carragher's column will definitely provide food for thought for Liverpool fans.