According to Liverpool’s world-class right back, 5 wins out of 5 is how the lads want to finish out the season.

For a brief moment, it looked like Liverpool just might make a late charge for the last, coveted “Top 4” spot, thereby earning Champions League qualification. Then a couple of disappointing draws left the Merseyside club once again back in the pack, with their own fate out of their hands.

Realistically, Liverpool will have to win out in order to have a chance of finishing in the Top 4, and even then, other teams will have to slip up. It’s a challenge made all the more difficult because of the condensed schedule—thanks in part to the postponed Manchester United match—and the fact that the Reds have not won more than three matches on the trot all season.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, for one, thinks that this has to be the objective.

“Things have to go our way and it’s not really in our hands, but we need to put ourselves in a position where if other teams slip up then we’re ready to pounce,” Alexander-Arnold told the club’s official website.

“Looking at certain teams’ fixtures, you’d like to hope they’ll drop points around us and we’ll be ready to slip in there. But we can’t really rest on that, you’ve just got to go for it and hope that it works out.

“All we can do is try to get 15 points out of the five games, that’s what our objective is and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”

Winning all the remaining matches would give Liverpool 69 points, which aside from being “nice,” would give the Reds an outside chance of catching Chelsea or Leicester City.

It would also all but ensure that Liverpool would still end up in the Europa League, and not the Europa Conference League. And sorry, after this year I just can’t with this new ECL shite. This is not the fight we wanted to have to end the season, but it’s where we’ve ended up.

“Even though we probably haven’t come out of it the way we wanted to and we haven’t reached the objectives we wanted to,” Trent continued, “We’ve been able to realize we can get through to the other side if we work together, if we battle through it together as a team, as a unit. And we’ll become better.

“They’re the lessons we’ll learn for next year, that we can do anything together and as a team we’re a really good team.”

Liverpool still have the foundations for a world-class team, capable of competing for any and all silverware in a normal season. This season was not normal, to say the least. Hopefully the Reds can return to some form of normality next year, and get back to their winning ways.

And hopefully those winning ways start tonight against Southampton.

Gini’s agent went on a German podcast and asked the Bundesliga giants to give him a call.

We’re all familiar with Gini Wijnaldum’s contract situation at this point. He’s out of contract in the summer. Liverpool wants to resign him. He wants a bigger, longer contract than they’re willing to offer.

It’s been the same story for the entire year. Rumours abound that Barcelona would like to sign him on a free. Ronald Koeman, their current manager, coached the Dutch national team from 2018-20 and it’s not hard to imagine Wijnaldum would join up with his former manager’s outfit. However, this rumour has been around for many months and nothing has come of it.

Though a new story seems to break on the Wijnaldum contract front every few weeks, there’s been very little change in the actual narrative. But Humphry Nijman, the Dutchman’s agent, has given us something new to talk about!

Nijman recently went on the Meine Bayern-Woche podcast for Germany’s SPORT1 to talk about his client’s contract situation. It was there that he issued a plea to Bayern Munich to give him a call.

“Wijnaldum is a free transfer and keeps all options open,” said Nijman. “FC Bayern is a great club. If you are interested in him, please feel free to speak to us.”

That’s certainly one way to court the perennial Bundesliga champions. It’s hard to really know what to even make of an upcoming free agent’s representative stumping for his client on a podcast, but it does seem to point to there not being any real, solid offers on the table for Gini.

And, if there are no concrete offers on the table at the moment, it stands to reason that Wijnaldum playing somewhere other than Liverpool next season might not be a foregone conclusion.

Liverpool now know the punishments they’ll face from UEFA for their involvement in the attempted breakaway Super League.

Since the collapse of the enormously reviled European Super League, there have been rumblings about potential fines, bans from UEFA competitions, and other sanctions for the clubs that were involved.

Some of the powers that be have spoken of putting the ESL nonsense behind them and moving forward, rather than dwelling on how to punish those who were involved. However, most assumed the breakaway clubs would have to face repercussions of some sort, likely from their domestic Football Association and from UEFA.

The nine clubs who have backed out of the ESL (Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Atlético Madrid) have all agreed to rejoin the fold, and UEFA has now announced what will be required to do so. Here are a few of the highlights.

The requirements are heavy on statements and actions that will force the nine clubs to fully recommit to being a part of UEFA’s club competition system, including rejoining the European Club Association.

While the legal battle over the fact they seemingly signed contracts to join the SL in the first place could be messy, the clubs will have to do everything in their power to terminate any and all involvement in the Super League.

The nine clubs will all contribute to a 15 million Euro fund to benefit youth and grassroots football across Europe.

Starting in 2023-24, the nine clubs will be subject to the withholding of 5% of the revenues they are due to receive for their participation in UEFA club competitions for one season.

Finally, as a way to deter consideration of joining breakaway competitions in the future, the clubs have all agreed to have fines imposed if they seek to play in an unauthorized competition (€100 million) or if they breach any other commitment they have entered into in the Club Commitment Declaration (€50 million).

All told, the nine clubs who have backed out and recommitted to UEFA have gotten off fairly light, especially when ideas like a two-year European ban and hefty fines were being floated around. The reason for this was clear in UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin’s statement.

“I said at the UEFA Congress two weeks ago that it takes a strong organisation to admit making a mistake especially in these days of trial by social media. These clubs have done just that.

In accepting their commitments and willingness to repair the disruption they caused, UEFA wants to put this chapter behind it and move forward in a positive spirit.

The measures announced are significant, but none of the financial penalties will be retained by UEFA. They will all be reinvested into youth and grassroots football in local communities across Europe, including the UK.

These clubs recognised their mistakes quickly and have taken action to demonstrate their contrition and future commitment to European football. The same cannot be said for the clubs that remain involved in the so-called ‘Super League’ and UEFA will deal with those clubs subsequently.”

Čeferin is referring to Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Juventus, who have all refused to give up on their hopes of creating a Super League, and are even threatening to pursue all available legal avenues to prevent the nine from backing out.

It remains to be seen if and when they will give up on the foolish venture, but it sounds as though UEFA will not go nearly as easy on them as they have on the nine who admitted their mistake.

The Liverpool manager speaks with conditional support, recalling previous comments.

In his pre-match press conference ahead of his side’s match with Southampton at the weekend, manager Jürgen Klopp was asked to speak on the fan protest that caused Liverpool’s last match to be postponed.

Klopp spoke of his reaction as he and the team watched the scenes unfold outside Old Trafford last weekend.

“We saw a few pictures from Old Trafford, we watched a little bit of telly in that time to get an idea about what is going on there. That’s it.

“Am I surprised that these kind of things happen? No, I am an absolute believer in democracy, [it] means I’m happy that people want to tell their opinion, that’s completely fine.”

Klopp did reference his previous comments about pundits’ seeming to stoke the flames of resentment, which had been criticized as being “tone deaf” by the likes of Gary Linekar on Twitter — critiques which likely held more weight before the events at the weekend.

“But I know in situations like that it doesn’t happen too often that nobody gets hurt and that’s why I said a week before I think already, when all the pundits were going and asking for protests and stuff like this, that we all have to be careful and to calm down and to ask for the right things.

“I don’t know exactly what happened there but I heard some policemen got injured and these kind of things should not happen, for sure not. You should not break down the doors and stuff like this.

“To tell your opinion, to tell the world what you think about some things, is completely fine as long as it’s completely peaceful. And it was, as far as I know, not completely peaceful and then it is not right anymore.”

Klopp’s prescience in predicting what might happen if pundits continued fanning flames of resentment seems incredible, though there is no way to know how much of the events at Old Trafford can be attributed to pundits’ urging.

Speaking on how the postponement affects his side, Klopp is more negative, and clarifies that Liverpool were not consulted as part of the decision-making process:

“We were informed about the process but we had nothing to do with it really. Yes, of course, I feel sympathy – it’s not how it should be. But it’s not good for us as well, to be honest.

“I would have preferred to have played the game last week; now we have five games in the last two weeks, so that’s not really cool as well. But it is like it is, nothing to complain about or whatever, it is just the situation.”

Despite his sympathy for the fans’ cause, Klopp finds himself frustrated at the further fitness challenge the Reds must face at the close of the season. For their part, fans will hope the “break” created by the protest will help Liverpool regain their winning form.

LIVERPOOL VS. SOUTHAMPTON

| Saturday, May 8th |

Premier League | Anfield

8:15PM GMT/3:15PM EST

Though Southampton have been struggling recently (with two wins in their last five), they did manage a draw against Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester last time out despite playing with ten men, coming back from 0-1 down to equalize with a Ward-Prowse penalty on 61’. This mentality is what they’ll want to face Liverpool, who have played a game on repeat of late wherein they start strong, waste chances (managing a goal, usually, when they could have far more) before conceding in the second half.

Liverpool will hope their unexpected break has reset performances, and despite their draw last time out, Southampton might hope the same: in their subsequent three loses they managed to score only one goal, conceding six.

The Saints come into the final two weeks of the season in 15th on 37 points (level on points with Brighton in 14th), though they have a game in hand. While they’re not quite safe from the drop as it stands, their final four games are against Crystal Palace, Fulham, Leeds, and West Ham. Given the mix of quality, this match is not a must-win for Hassenhüttl’s men.

Daniel Ings, their leading scorer (11) remains out for another week, and Ryan Bertrand remains sidelines as well. Oriol Romeu is questionable, and will be assessed late on Friday.

Their attacking sharpness is therefore dented somewhat, though Liverpool will still have to worry about James Ward-Prowse’s set piece magic (7 goals, just one coming from open play), and Che Adams (7 goals scored) has been lively making things tick in the lead-up to goals. Adams will be one to target to stifle the Saints attack, and the Reds will need to be careful to avoid giving up free kicks in dangerous areas.

Projected Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)

Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Kabak, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Thiago; Salah, Firmino, Mané

This might be a chance to see Jürgen Klopp pick his strongest side without managing fitness concerns, as the Manchester United fan protest has given the Reds quite a lengthy breather. The midfield is one to watch: it has seemed as though Klopp has been managing Thiago’s minutes carefully (that he didn’t start either leg against Real Madrid is certainly interesting), but he should get the nod alongside Fabinho and a hopefully refreshed Gini Wijnaldum.

Of course, due to the rescheduling of the very Manchester United game that gave so many players — like Nat Phillips, who has returned to fitness — much-needed rest, Liverpool will now play five games in the last two weeks of the season. As such, the lineup against Southampton may be part of a time management plan aimed to help the side achieve maximum points over this tightly-scheduled period.

Per Klopp’s pre-match press conference, Jordan Henderson is “running outside,” but has not yet returned to full fitness after picking up a groin issue; there is no other new injury news.

Looking at Southampton’s 4-4-2 structure, Klopp notes that the side defend all “predictable” passes well, and press well in the midfield. As a result, his side must be “unpredictable,” “cheeky,” and “brave” to beat Hassenhüttl’s side. This sounds like a Thiago and Bobby Firmino job, but we could see Diogo Jota get some time, either in place of one of the standard front three or in addition, in the changed formation. Given the second half slump that’s happened lately, however, it might be good to have someone clinical off the bench.

Liverpool will aim to remain calm and take advantage of moments when their counter-press does not work out, all while being prepared to handle it when it does.

What the Managers Had to Say

Jurgen Klopp: “[Southampton are] a well-tuned machine, a pressing and counter-pressing machine, so that’s tricky. They are always very lively, it’s all set up in a specific way and everybody knows exactly what he has to do. I think it is a joy to watch Southampton games. Maybe they didn’t win often enough as well, that’s why they are in the position they are, but the football they play is at least always a very lively version of our wonderful game and I like that.”

Ralph Hasenhüttl: “They are still fighting for the Champions League – they have a small chance to go there still – so they have to win against us and we are playing to climb a few positions, so we must be as motivated as they are.”

The Officials

Referee: Kevin Friend Assistants: Simon Beck, Adrian Holmes Fourth official: Andy Madley VAR: Andre Marriner Assistant VAR: Andy Halliday

Kickoff is set for 8:15PM BST/3:15PM EST tomorrow, and television listings for the match can be found on LiveSoccerTV. In the meantime, we’ll be keeping you updated with all the buildup to the game, including team news as it’s released, our live matchday thread, and post-match recaps from The Liverpool Offside staff. If you want to join the discussion, sign up for an SB Nation account to have your say on the action as it happens.

The gaffer also gave updates on injuries ahead of the weekend game.

Ahead of Saturday’s Premier League game against Southampton, Jurgen Klopp provided comments on the team’s status in his presser, as well as his views on the events at Old Trafford last weekend.

On the fan protests at Old Trafford that delayed the Liverpool vs. Manchester United fixture:

“We saw a few pictures, watched a little bit of telly to get an idea of what’s going on. Was I surprised these kind of things happened? No, I’m an absolute believer in democracy. When the pundits were asking for protests, I said we need to be careful and calm down. I heard some policeman got injured and that should not happen.”

“To tell the world what you think, that’s completely fine, as long as it’s completely peaceful. As far as I can tell, it was not completely peaceful. After that, then it was not right any more.”

“I have sympathy for them but it’s not good for us either. I would have preferred to play the game last week. But nothing to complain about, it’s just the situation.”

On the team’s injury situation:

“Most of the time in my career I’ve not been the champion, I’ve learned a lot this season and the players too. The plan is that we use our new experience for the future.”

“The injury situation, nothing really new. We have a few bumps and bruises, so late decisions – we have to make late decisions in a few positions until tomorrow.

How is Hendo?

“Hendo, while I am sitting here Hendo is running outside, that’s what I can say. Nothing else. He was not in team training yet and that’s it pretty much.”

But Big Nat is okay?

“Yes, yes, the week helped him for sure. Absolutely. Yes, he was fit yesterday.”

Well, then up the Reds against Southampton!