Jurgen Klopp believes that if Liverpool win their remaining four games in the Premier League, they will have done enough to finish in the top four.
The Reds took a big step forward with a 2-0 win over Southampton on Saturday, with the three points proving timely after costly defeats for Leicester and Tottenham.
Chelsea moved ahead of Leicester into third with their 2-1 victory at Man City, and if West Ham fail to overcome Everton on Sunday, Liverpool will be in a stronger position as they aim for fourth.
They will have a game in hand over both Leicester and West Ham, with a trip to Man United to come on Thursday night – which still lands after two more fixtures for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side due to the postponement of last weekend’s fixture.
These circumstances favour Liverpool, in Klopp’s eyes, with the manager agreeing that 12 points should be enough to clinch a place in next season’s Champions League.
“Yes. If we do that, I think it will be enough,” he told Sky Sports.
?? "Yes I think it will be enough"
Jurgen Klopp believes if Liverpool win their remaining fixtures they will be in the top four at the end of the season pic.twitter.com/KDpMbrC4Bx
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 8, 2021
“But that’s a big if. We play Manchester United on Thursday.
“I know they play Tuesday and they play Sunday and they have a big schedule, but if you look at the squad they have, they can make changes, there’s no doubt about that.
“It’s of course not good for them to play three games in a week. It’s absolutely crazy, I really don’t understand that. But it’s how it is.
“All the other games, we will see. If West Brom is still fighting for the league, Burnley maybe as well, all these kinds of things.
“All the teams have their targets, and if they don’t have the targets any more because they reached them already, then they can play completely without pressure – and that’s not nice as well.
“We will have pressure. As long as we win, we will have pressure, because then we can reach something. If not, then not.”
Andy Robertson played the full 90 minutes for the 32nd time in the league this season on Saturday, with the left-back perfectly placed to assess Liverpool’s struggle throughout the domestic campaign.
But he too was boosted by results going the Reds’ way earlier in the day, telling Sky Sports that they “need to be there to capitalise.”
“I wouldn’t say the door’s closed. When the door has been opened, we’ve not walked through it,” he admitted.
“People have dropped points and we’ve dropped points as well, which when you’re in the chasing pack can’t really happen.
“So it’s out of our hands. If Leicester win all of their games then we can’t catch them – it’s as simple as that.
“But when they do slip up, like they did last night, and when Tottenham slip up like this morning, we need to be there to capitalise.
“Today we’ve done that, and we’ve not been good enough at that this season.
“In the last four games, if they do drop points we need to be ready to pounce. We can’t really have any more slip-ups.”
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