Jurgen Klopp had an Anfield afternoon to forget on Sunday (Picture: Getty Images)
Gary Neville believes Jurgen Klopp has pulled off a ‘monumental achievement’ as Liverpool compete for the Premier League title this season, but believes they are the ‘scruffy one of the three’ contenders.
The Reds had a nightmare few days last week as they were beaten 3-0 at home by Atalanta in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final and then downed 1-0 at Anfield in the Premier League by Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Staying in Europe looks a huge task and now they are lagging behind Manchester City by two points with six games to play in the Premier League.
Clearly the title race is not over, but given how reliable the champions have been in recent years, they are not clear favourites to lift the Premier League trophy yet again.
Despite the disappointment on Merseyside, Neville believes Klopp has worked wonders in his last season with the Reds as they looked highly unlikely to be challenging for the title at the start of the season.
It had been a summer of upheaval at Anfield, with a number of experienced players leaving and Klopp having to build a new midfield while missing out on some key transfer targets.
Neville certainly didn’t expect the Reds to have performed as well as they have done in the league and has praised Klopp for what he has achieved, not too surprised that they now find themselves behind Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table.
‘If you said that Liverpool would be two points off Manchester City with five or six games left to go, I’d be like “no chance”,’ Neville told Sky Sports.
Eberechi Eze scored the only goal of the game as the Eagles stunned Anfield (Picture: Getty Images)
‘This is a monumental achievement I think for Jurgen Klopp, for them to be where they are. I said it before the international break and a few Liverpool fans had a go at me, but I felt like they were hanging on. I just felt like they were hanging on for dear life with emotion, with it being Klopp’s last season.
‘I still think Jurgen Klopp is getting the very best out of this Liverpool team and this Liverpool squad – and what we are now seeing is probably what they are, and they have overachieved to this point.
‘I think Arsenal have looked really smooth in the last couple of months and City have started to look really smooth as they always do. Whereas with Liverpool, you felt they were always the scruffy one of the three, yet they were hanging in there, calling upon the emotion of the Anfield crowd and Jurgen Klopp’s last season.’
Curtis Jones was one of a string of Liverpool stars to miss good chances on Sunday (Picture: Getty Images)
Klopp was extremely disappointed with how his side played in the first half against the Eagles on Sunday, but felt that if they can repeat their second half performance then the title race is still on.
‘The answer is pretty easy. If we play like in the first half, why should we win the league? If we play like in the second half, we can win football games,’ he said.
‘If we can win football games, then we will see how many we win and then we will see. We have to be around when the other guys struggle, if they struggle. That’s how it is.’
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