Is Liverpool in danger of falling behind their rivals?

Sports move quickly and nobody knows that better than Liverpool.

Under a year ago, the club was battling it out in four competitions and was two games away from footballing immortality.

However, Manchester City’s 3-2 win over Aston Villa on the final day of the season coupled with Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League Final destroyed the dream for Reds’ fans across the globe.

This season, Liverpool have been meandering in midtable, is out of both domestic cup competitions, and is on the brink of a Champions League knockout after a 5-2 defeat to Madrid in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

It’s been quite the fall from grace so the question must be asked, Is Liverpool in danger of falling behind their rivals?

Lack of investment

Most of Liverpool’s big spending has come on the back of money they’ve generated from sales.

The £65 million spent on Darwin Núñez was largely subsidised by the summer sales of Sadio Mané, Takumi Minamino, and Neco Williams.

That simply won’t do when competing with financial powerhouses like Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and more recently, Newcastle United.

While the model of buying players through money received through sales has worked for the last five years, it certainly isn’t sustainable should you want your club to continue fighting for the highest honours possible.

That’s a major reason why most fans were happy to hear rumours of Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owners, wanting to sell up – they’ve since said they are looking for partial investment, rather than a full sale – a statement that had deflated the ideas of new owners for fans.

Extreme loyalty to players

This perhaps has been the biggest criticism of Jürgen Klopp since becoming Liverpool manager in 2015.

Players like Jordan Henderson and James Milner who are past their best, remain on the side despite their obvious decline.

It’s no coincidence that the recent benching of Henderson and the inclusion of Stefan Bajčetić has caused an improvement in Liverpool’s form.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is quite the opposite when he thinks a player is no longer invested in the project or cannot offer what he requires on the pitch, he will get rid of them.

You only have to look back two months ago for an example when he allowed João Cancelo to leave on loan to Bayern Munich.

Klopp must become more ruthless in his approach if he wants Liverpool to continue to progress and not be handicapped by players who are just not up to it anymore.

Liverpool obviously have the quality to compete for the biggest trophies but these two factors, should they continue to be an issue, will no doubt cause Liverpool to fall behind their rivals.