Liverpool: Forth or 5th

Liverpool’s incredulous rise from a dour position in the table to a mediocre position in the table has been met with much fanfare and positivity from all red corners. This may seem unusual to many outside the club, but for those who know their football, it means an awful lot.

Kenny Dalglish has injected some much demanded optimism in to the club and it seems that with players seemingly queuing outside Media Towers to give feel-good quotes, the vibe inside is just as upbeat.

Liverpool are now within breathing distance of 5th place and with only four games remaining, it may be too late. But I now worry that it’s too simplistic to think ‘that’s it, we’re going to be great next season’.

Tails are well and truly up, even Maxi Rodriquez is in the hat-trick club, but without throwing a damp blanket over it all, regardless of whether we finish 5th or 6th, Liverpool face a huge summer.

Hodgson’s chord was cut just in time, he could’ve pulled Liverpool over the edge of the cliff but the strong arm of The King has hauled us back in the right direction. Seemingly without doing little except changing the mood.

A crossroads looms large on the horizon now, and although I seem to say this every year, the very direction of the club over the next few years could be decided this summer. Comolli has been a man in the shadows since he arrived, which is a good thing, but I hope he’s earning his cash.

We have been linked a few times with St. Etienne players and sometimes I wonder whether it’s jobs for the boys or genuine insight.

As always with these things, time will tell and the best quality a football fan can have is patience.

It seems as though giving Dalglish the job, as is expected, in the summer, will be Liverpool playing their final hand: it’s win or bust. There are genuinely six top four contenders now, which is unprecedented in most leagues, and to be there each season we have to make the right decisions starting with the manager.

If Kenny Dalglish can’t turn us around? Who can? The fan momentum is currently there, the owners seem willing and the majority of the players are on board.

Liverpool don’t need a massive overhaul. Dead wood can be shipped off, but large parts of the squad should remain intact, just to add depth.

To truly throw our hat in the ring for the next five years and beyond, for both Champions League and Premier League contention, then Liverpool need real quality. It doesn’t have to be spectacular, but dependable.

At the moment, and it is hugely unfortunate, two of our most talented players are Agger and Aurelio and both players spend for too much time in the treatment room than on the pitch. While i think Aurelio should be let go in the summer, as was originally planned by Benitez, Agger should be retained.

But to get the best out of talented players who seem injury plagued, a team must have adept replacements. At the moment, Liverpool don’t have this. We have scrappers, fighters, and players with passion who throw themselves into tackles, but if we want to dominate teams, become the ‘Bastion of Invincibility’ as Shankly once dreamed, then our mission this summer should be to spend in the knowledge that Liverpool FC is only as strong as its weakest link.

@onlychrissevers