Rush the Kop takes a look at the exciting week ahead for Liverpool football club
After a very unusual but much needed break, Liverpool football club and fans alike faces their toughest challenge yet for this season. In a nutshell, both games are must win fixtures.
We start this demanding week with a home fixture against FC Augsburg on Thursday night. After a fair but disappointing 0-0 result away from home, we take the second leg to Anfield. Both teams had an equal amount of opportunities, but both came up short, prepping us for what seems to be a mouth-watering second leg at Anfield. It’s a worrying feeling knowing Liverpool have been woeful at home and haven’t been able to take games away from visiting opposition. Our away form has been better this season, but we always go into a home game expecting a win to advance into the next round or to collect all three points in a league fixture.
We expected much from a fully fit front line, but little came from the three big names that started. The Europa League fixture was only the second time that Daniel Sturridge, Phillipe Courtino and Roberto Firmino have started together since the arrival of the latter. This is something all fans have been waiting for since the start of the season, but we were left frustrated with a poor start to the newly formed RPD (Roberto, Phillipe and Daniel) partnership.
During the game many fans and pundits all raised the question about why Sturridge played such a half heart game and wanted him to be substituted. Many expected him to put in a 110%, but he was far from being the sharp and deadly figure in front of goal that we all know him to be. IMO, Klopp started and played Sturridge for the first 60 minutes of the game to get some much-needed game time before we went into the big final against Sturridge’s old employers this Sunday coming – Man City. He needs to build up the confidence, as his been getting a lot of stick from all the fans. Let’s just be grateful our best striker is back and ready to go!
Yes our manager would have loved to come home with an away victory on Thursday night, but things don’t always go as planned. We would have been able to rest some key players from our starting eleven for Sunday’s Final. Now Klopp has some vital decisions to be made regarding who starts Thursday and who starts Sunday. Who knows, we could be well rested seeing that Liverpool had no action this weekend past in the FA cup fixtures that took place. Maybe our strongest eleven is able to start both games fresh, but this depends a lot on Thursday night’s Europa league result. We need to push to finish the game in normal time and try our best not to go into extra time. Maybe the manager will be brave enough and use a number of youngsters in this fixture again. Hopefully we can take this game away from them in the early stages of the first half and play a less pressing game and rest those key players and still come away with a good result.
After the final leg of the round of 32 we head over to Wembley, somewhere Liverpool has come short a couple of times in the past few seasons. Our last cup success was under the king, Kenny Dalglish. After the results of this weekend past and the two weeks before that, Man City looks in all types of hot water. Think it’s safe for me to say, Liverpool come into this game as favourites. Current form from the last two weeks or so, Man City have failed to win a single fixture, losing 3-1 to Leicester City, a loss to Spurs (2-1) and most recently a mammoth loss to Chelsea 5-1 in the FA cup. What a bad run of games to say the least!
Liverpool’s last three games are nothing to write home about, but we’ve received more joy out of them than Man City. A loss to West Ham (by a narrow margin) in our last FA Cup fixture, a massive 0-6 away victory against a frail Aston Villa and a stalemate draw to Augsburg 0-0. This will be a big test for the manager and players this week, as they will be playing to both add value to their name and cement their spot in the team for remainder of the fixtures for this season, or will they be added to the list of possible departures in the summer. Klopp’s decision making regarding team selection and so on is pivotal to the upcoming week. If he gets it right on Thursday, then Sunday should be nothing more than formalities. Liverpool will come good no doubt!
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I hope all Liverpool supporters are as excited as I am for this intense week ahead of us and that we stand behind our team while we await cup success in the midst of a very heart breaking season. Hoping both matches bring us outstanding football from all teams involved and let’s hope Thursday night’s match up is the start to a great week for Liverpool football club. Let’s bring home some silverware!