Liverpool will be in a “very strong position” to get into the top four if they beat Newcastle United at the weekend, according to Gary Neville.
The Reds produced a much-improved performance against Everton in the Merseyside derby on Monday night with goals from Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo giving them a 2-0 win over their city rivals.
That result puts them nine points behind fourth-placed Newcastle, who they play on Saturday at St James’ Park, and Jurgen Klopp’s side have a game in hand on their opponents.
And Neville is convinced that Liverpool can still make the top four if they beat Newcastle at the weekend and insists that Klopp’s men could be “difficult to stop” if they get on a run.
Neville told Sky Sports: “Everyone has talked about their form, their poor defending but they have missed players.
“You put Van Dijk in that team, Jota on the bench along with Diaz potentially coming back, Firmino as well then it’s a completely different story.
“All of a sudden when you look at that league table it doesn’t look like they’re out of that reckoning for the top four.
“I never thought they were out of it. I think at this moment in time Newcastle are having a little blip they’ve only won one in six and if they were to win that game on Saturday against Newcastle they’d be in a very strong position. They’d feel very confident and be difficult to stop.
“The reason I’ve gone easy on Liverpool in the last few weeks is these players have been here for five years and built up so much credibility and trust in respect of how they’ve performed.
“I’m not saying they can dip to the standards they have it’s obviously quite unacceptable to themselves let alone what we’re watching and what we’ve seen.
“The reality is they will come again this season and will go on a run if they can the players into the team.”
Klopp insisted after the victory over Everton that Liverpool “needed this game, we needed this performance” as they look to push up the Premier League table.
When asked how he felt after the match, Klopp replied: “Relieved – that’s it, that’s the main feeling since the final whistle.
“I’m happy with the performance. It was necessary that we played the game we wanted to play and not the game Everton wanted to play.
“You cannot avoid it all the time but they didn’t have an extremely high number of set-pieces. With the all aggression you have to show, you have to make sure you don’t overdo it…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…