Why Liverpool's inability to beat big teams will cost them the Premier League title

Can Brendan Rodgers set up Liverpool to beat top 4 teams?

Liverpool has had a tremendous season so far with striker Luis Suarez in red hot form. They find themselves fifth in the table and are pushing for continental qualifications this season and have talked about even pushing for the league. Rodgers remains optimistic, saying: “There’s no reason why we can’t be challenging. The most important thing for us is that we’re in the conversation.” This shows how serious Liverpool is for their title ambitions this season. They were even on top of the table but slipped down to fifth place post Christmas.

The reason for slipping down to fifth was back-to-back fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea. No doubt they were away fixtures but nonetheless Liverpool lost them and it begs the question: can Liverpool really win the EPL title?

Liverpool has played brilliant football this season with and without their star striker Luis Suarez. They have thrashed weaker opposition with margins of 2 goals and more and have created a fearsome reputation about themselves. But if you analyse Liverpool’s matches against the other teams in the top 5, you will see that Liverpool have managed only 1 point out of a possible 12 against Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Everton. This is something really worrying and has to be taken care of by manager Brendan Rodgers.

Leaders Arsenal have 5 out of a possible 12 against the other top 4 teams, while Chelsea have picked up 7 out of 12 points. Second placed Manchester City have picked 9 points out of a possible 12 and Merseyside rivals Everton have picked 5 out of 12 points.

TEAM	POINTS AGAINST TOP 4 TEAMS	RESULTS
Manchester City	9	Everton (W), Chelsea (L), Arsenal (W), Liverpool (W)
Chelsea	7	Everton (L), City (W), Arsenal (D), Liverpool (W)
Arsenal	5	Everton (D), City (L), Chelsea (D), Liverpool (W)
Everton	5	Chelsea (W), City(L), Arsenal(D), Liverpool (D)
Liverpool	1	Everton (D), City(L), Arsenal(L), Chelsea(L)

All these teams have records better than Liverpool against top 4 sides. When you count improving teams like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs in the fray for the top 4, things are going to be more difficult for Brendan Rodgers and his Liverpool side. It is true that Liverpool have beat both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in the League, but that was when they were both undergoing managerial changes. Both sides are now picking up points and are looking to claw their way back into the top 4.

The fact that Liverpool was top on Christmas and now they find themselves fifth shows how close the EPL is this year, and any slip ups could change your position by a landslide. Liverpool has already dropped 11 points against the top 4 teams. This is unacceptable for a team who is chasing the league or even looking for a finish in the top 4. If Liverpool could have picked 4 more points against the top 4 like leaders Arsenal then they surely would be sitting on the peak of the EPL table.

Luis Suarez seems to fail to find the net in these big games as he has net only 1 goal against the top four (scored in the Merseyside derby). Liverpool did manage to score against the top 4 sides (except Arsenal), but the number of goals doesn’t seem to be enough.

Also, relying too much on Luis Suarez for goals will not help Liverpool if somewhere down the line the Uruguayan gets injured. Liverpool has scored 44 goals in all, with the Uruguayan having his hand in 24 of them by scoring 19 and assisting 5. This shows he has more than 50% share in his goals for Liverpool and it would deeply impact their campaign if something did happen to Luis Suarez.

In short, Liverpool needs to pick themselves up from these back-to-back defeats, start scoring goals without the help of Suarez and pick up points against the top four if they want to win the title.