Liverpool’s poor start to the season is down to ‘a dark cloud hanging over Anfield’ according to John Toshack, a former Reds star.
Brendan Rodgers side lost 1-0 to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night and has now won just six of their 16 games in all competitions.
Toshack, who played for the Merseyside club for eight years, believes his old side are struggling for form because they have not yet recovered from narrowly missing out on the Premier League title last term.
Rodgers’ men lost 2-0 at home to Chelsea on April 27 before throwing away a three-goal lead at Crystal Palace to draw 3-3 with the Eagles just over a week later.
Liverpool are not exactly having it all their own way at the moment. After the highs of last season they are certainly experiencing a dip this campaign.
The departure of Luis Suarez and the injury to Daniel Sturridge has certainly not helped – while the club’s summer signings have not exactly lived up to expectations.
But if they were hoping things would soon get easier they were wrong. This weekend they take on the title favourites and league leaders Chelsea.
Jose Mourinho’s men are flying at the top of the table and will hope to dispatch of NK Maribor with ease this evening in order to focus on taking down Liverpool at the weekend.
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The early kick-off on Saturday sees Liverpool welcome Chelsea to Anfield once again, where last season their title hopes seemingly fell through, with ‘that’ slip from Steven Gerrard.
Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet has made it clear that Chelsea are in Liverpool’s sights Saturday.
But, speaking after a narrow defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night, Mignolet had words of warning for Jose Mourinho side.
And he seemed to insist that Liverpool would not amend their playing style to suit Chelsea’s current status:
“We’re Liverpool Football Club, so if we’re playing at home we always have to go for the three points and we’ll make sure we’re prepared for that.
“There are still plenty of positives to take from the Real Madrid game and we’ve got another big game to look forward to at the weekend against Chelsea. I think a lot of the boys will take confidence from today and we’ll make sure we are ready for when Chelsea arrive on Saturday.”
On current form there should be only one winner this weekend. But if Mignolet and others perform to their very best, Liverpool know they can beat Chelsea this weekend.
Liverpool’s Kolo Toure has also been speaking following his heroics for Liverpool against Real Madrid.
The Liverpool defender had a fine performance against Madrid on Tuesday.
Although, the Ivory Coast defender has come under plenty of criticism during his time at Anfield but against the reigning European champions he was a cut above.
Real may have won the match 1-0 but Cristiano Ronaldo barely got a sniff against the Ivorian and it has led to widespread praise for the 33-year-old.
Kolo Toure has since spoken about his performance in an interview with the Liverpool Echo and it is fair to say he was happy with the experience.
“I have missed games like this,” Toure said. “I play with my heart and I’m ready to fight for my club. I know we lost but I am very happy because we played a really good game.”
After a run of four successive Premier League wins against Chelsea, Liverpool has not won in four against the Blues (D2 L2).
Eden Hazard has scored in two of his three Barclays Premier League appearances against Liverpool.
@AnthonyNlebem
Anthony Nlebem
