Source: Telegraph
Liverpool have six games to save their season
Real Madrid v LiverpoolKick-off: Wed Feb 25, 7.45pm; Santiago Bernabeu, MadridTV: Sky Sports 2, Sky Sports HD1Radio: BBC Radio Five Live [LNB]"It is the most important period of our season," Benitez laughed in his press conference last week. "Just like it was in December, or before that." The inference is clear: when you're chasing titles, every game is just as important as the last one. [LNB]Their failure to take advantage against Mark Hughes' side means Liverpool's next six games will define their season. They may even define their future. [LNB]Sandwiched between two dates with Real Madrid in the Champions League, now Benitez's best chance of winning his first trophy since 2006, is a trip to Middlesbrough and then the visit of Sunderland. [LNB]Aston Villa travel to Anfield on March 22 for a game that will go a long way to deciding both sides' final league positions, but before that is the date that even Benitez, not prone to hyperbole, has earmarked as Liverpool's last chance saloon – Old Trafford, 12.45pm, March 14. [LNB]But when Benitez admitted yesterday beating the champions-elect is his side's only way back into the title race, it suggested he has not been paying attention. Liverpool's record against the Big Four is outstanding – three wins and one draw in four games. The Spaniard has finally worked his European magic against his domestic rivals. [LNB]Instead, the sides that have cost Liverpool their best chance of a title since 1990 are rather more ordinary. Stoke, West Ham, Fulham, Hull, Manchester City. Five home draws, 10 simple points dropped. [LNB]Even if Liverpool do, somehow, beat a United side churning out result after result in 19 days' time, it will be wasted if they do not overcome Middlesbrough and Sunderland. [LNB]If they do so, and take that form into the rest of the campaign, they will certainly finish at least a creditable second. Although the raised expectations of November and December will cast a shadow of failure on that achievement, it would be more than most fans would have expected at the start of the campaign. [LNB]If more points are dropped, both Villa and, more likely, a rejuvenated Chelsea could catch them. United would be out of reach, perhaps a dozen points ahead, an 18th league title to, once and for all, end Anfield's superiority complex sewn up with games to spare. [LNB]The first scenario, swatting aside the lesser sides and keeping a semblance of pressure on United, would make this a season of great progress. Benitez's contract negotiations would surely be resolved to his taste. [LNB]The latter would make it another campaign of inertia. The doubts over Benitez's ability to take Liverpool to the top would grow. The Spaniard, his list of demands ever-growing for his new deal, would be playing a very dangerous game indeed. [LNB]
