s@int wrote:Liverpool started the season convinced they could end their 20-year wait for the title.
But former player Nigel Spackman has warned the Red Army that they’ll once again be fighting a losing battle.
Spackman knows what it takes to win the title for the Anfield giants, having been part of the brilliant 1987-88 side, with John Barnes and Peter Beardsley, that marched to glory.
With Rafa Benitez’s boys only just failing to pip Manchester United to top spot last season, hopes were high that this year Steven Gerrard and Co could emulate the great Liverpool sides of the late 1980s.
But after an awful start, which has seen them lose two of their first four games, Spackman has warned it could get even worse.
“Crisis is a very strong word, but I do think Liverpool have problems,” Spackman, in Dubai as guest pundit for Orbit Showtime, told 7DAYS.
“Going into the season they’d have been thinking now’s a great chance to win the Premier League for the first time in 20 years.
“But If they had lost the game against Bolton (on Saturday) they would have found themselves nine points off the top, and that, even at this early stage of the season, is an awful lot to make up.”
Having already lost as many games this season as they did throughout the whole of last year’s campaign, Spackman says the club had better revise the scope of its ambition.
“At the moment Liverpool are stuttering along and that’s not good enough to challenge for the title.
“The club have to be really careful that the likes of Man City and Spurs don’t put a run together. Arsenal are capable of doing that as well. The main thing for me now is that Liverpool must ensure they get into next year’s Champions League.” As anti-climaxes go this season could be right up there with the arrival at Anfield of misfit midfielder Lucas, Andrea Dossena and Ryan Babel. And Spackman is in no doubt who should take the blame.
He said:
“The buck stops with the manager - he’s had a lot of money to spend and the club are going backwards.
“Having let Xabi Alonso go they lack creativity in the middle of the park, and the balance within the team and squad just isn’t there at the moment. If Torres got injured, how do you change it around? Do you play Kuyt up front or move Babel there?
“There’s a lack of direction at the club and the strength-in-depth isn’t good enough to challenge for the title.” LINK