Liverpool Football Club will kick off Saturday evening's Barclays Premier League match at Southampton in need of just two more victories from their remaining eleven matches to surpass last season's points total of 61. Although Brendan Rodgers walked into the Anfield hotseat twenty one months ago with some question marks over his credentials, being the genuine choice of Fenway Sports Group was always going to mean that Rodgers would be in a much stronger position than Roy Hodgson (who was inherited from the disgraceful previous American Owners) and Kop favourite Kenny Dalglish, whom Rodgers succeeded.
Although Liverpool finished the 2012/13 season in seventh place, the Reds' average league position over the previous three seasons had also averaged seventh place. The 2012/13 campaign did see the disappointments of domestic cup exits at the hands of Rodgers' former club Swansea City, as well as lower league Oldham Althletic. But more crucially, the campaign also saw the Reds cut the gap to the top four by five points from the previous campaign under Dalglish.
When I was travelling on the train to Liverpool's opening match of this season against Stoke, I expressed my hope to a fellow supporter that we would be in the mix for a top four position come the final few games of the season, and that our points total would break through the 70 point barrier. It would be so easy now to get carried away and say that nothing less than a top three or top four position would do. Against a backdrop that the Reds can now break through the 70 point barrier by winning less than half of their remaining games, missing out on Champions League qualification this season may prove to be a missed opportunity.
Going beyond the statistical talk of points tallies increasing year on year, the football enjoyed by the Anfield faithful has at times been a delight during the current campaign. In the SAS, Liverpool have arguably the most feared partnership in the league. They can clearly play together. From a personal point of view, being at Anfield this season to see both Suarez's four goal haul against Norwich and Sturridge's double strike in the space of a couple of minutes against the Toffees, has been a top top feeling.
Prior to Rodgers' signing of Sturridge, Suarez was at times carrying a struggling team. That said, there can be little doubt Rodgers is now getting more out of the iconic Uruguayan, in part due to the acquisition of Sturridge. Having not delivered at Man City or Chelsea, Sturridge was viewed in some quarters to be a big gamble. It is surely right now that with that gamble reaping dividends, and with only a little over a year remaining on his current contract, Fenway Sports Group must surely recognise that Rodgers has to be rewarded himself?
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