Liverpool might be in the Premier League title race for the first time since the 2013/14 season, but their former striker Stan Collymore can’t see them lifting the title.
In fact, he can’t even see the Reds finishing in the top two, despite them having the luxury of no European distractions after the turn of the year.
Liverpool can leapfrog Manchester City and move back up to second spot with victory over Stoke City tonight, but Collymore believes a third-place finish is the best possible outcome for Jürgen Klopp’s squad.
Liverpool finished third and fourth in Collymore’s two seasons there (photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
‘I still think third or fourth place will be the best they can hope for with Chelsea the favourites as we reach the turn and City, with the best squad, the only side who can beat them,’ Collymore writes in his column for the Daily Mirror.
‘But a top-four finish is definitely within Liverpool’s grasp and if they can achieve that then most Reds fans will be happy as it puts them back where they feel they belong in English football’s elite.’
Liverpool are the Premier League’s top scorers at the time of writing, but he former Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa striker – who scored 28 league goals in two seasons at Anfield – believes their defensive woes will hold them back.
Klopp’s team have conceded 20 goals in 17 games, the same number as Middlesbrough down in 15th, and Collymore suggests that the similarly defensively frail Man City have the funds for reinforcements that the Reds do not.
‘Defences win Premier Leagues and as it stands here at the back end of 2016, neither Liverpool nor City have a back four that can win them the title,’ he writes.
‘But City have the means for a quick, top-quality fix. Unfortunately Liverpool don’t.’
