Trent Alexander-Arnold thinks being in the Europa League is advantageous for Liverpool to challenge for the league title
Talk about being optimistic! New Liverpool vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold feels the Europa League participation would help the team’s chances of challenging for the league title this season.
The Reds go into this campaign with doubts lingering over whether they would return to the top four, let alone challenge Manchester City and Arsenal for the title.
Other teams in and around have done excellent business in the transfer market. Liverpool, on the other hand, have shipped a lot out and necessarily so, but haven’t recruited enough so far to fill us with any confidence.
But, Alexander-Arnold has different views and it is good to know that he is able to give a positive spin to things. Here’s what the 24-year-old said (quoted by Irish Independent):
“It [Europa League] gives a chance to focus on the Premier League a lot more. We respect the competitions we play and want to win them all but definitely going into the season, our aim is to win the Premier League.
“[The Europa League] gives us a good chance to focus on it. It’s not about coming second or third and building on that, we’re a team full of winners. We know what it takes, we have the culture and the manager to win.”
Having seen the additions Manchester United and Arsenal have made, not sure Liverpool have done enough in that regard to claim they can be the ones catching Manchester City come May.
But, as we all say, football is not played on paper. If Jurgen Klopp can somehow conjure this squad up for an almighty push while neglecting competitions like the Europa League, we might see them hit the 85-point mark at the most (18 better from last season). The bad news is that in the City-dominant era, even that is not enough to lift a league title.
So, while it is all good and rosy thinking about a title race or something, there needs to be a balance in mentality. We cannot be in a situation where cup competitions are sacrificed only to finish second or third in the league.
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Under a generational manager like Klopp, Liverpool should be winning trophies regardless of whether they are in the title race or not. The Europa League is, in our memory, is also the only major competition we have played in and not won under Klopp, losing the final in heartbreaking fashion to Sevilla in 2016.
