Liverpool legend Steve McManaman says that manager Jurgen Klopp can have no excuses with regard to meeting the objective of finishing in the top four.

Qualification for the Champions League remains is the most important priority for Liverpool. At the start of January, the club was seen as the main challenges for Chelsea, who were on a 13 game winning run that had just come to an end. Since then, a run of just one league victory has seen the team slip outside the top four and almost certainly out of the title race. Liverpool are 11 points behind Chelsea having played the same number of games.

Manager Jurgen Klopp also made the mistake of fielding youngsters for the cup competitions – EFL Cup and FA Cup. This has had a catastrophic effect on the team since they were dumped out of the competition in the early stages. Klopp recently admitted that his mistakes when it comes to team selection in the cup competitions.

However, it has come a little too late with the team starring only at the Premier League games from now till the end of the season. This certainly gives Liverpool an advantage, but they have to grab the advantage with a push for the top four places.

McManaman says that finishing outside the top four would be nothing less than a disaster for Liverpool. “If they finish fourth then it will be considered a success.If they finish fifth, sixth, seventh or even eighth like they did last year, it will be a bit of a disaster because they went out of the two cup competitions in January and they went out rather meekly.People are gambling on the Champions League. There’s no excuses now. There’s one game a week, they’ve got 15 days since their last game until their next game,” said McManaman.