Sammy Lee has said that Liverpool are still capable of ‘changing the narrative’ around what has been a hithero dreadul season for them.
The Reds’ Premier League title defence was realistically over by November and they face a battle just to finish inside the top five, and they also require victory against Galatasaray at Anfield tomorrow night to remain in the Champions League.
However, with Arne Slot’s side still involved in that competition and the FA Cup (in which they’ll face Manchester City in the quarter-finals), they still have a chance of ending the campaign with two trophies, thus making it a third successive year with silverware to enjoy.
Speaking on The Football Historian Podcast, Lee claimed that Liverpool would need to have at least one trophy in the cabinet by the season’s end in order for 2025/26 to be regarded as a success.
He said: “We’re defined by winning trophies. We won the league last year and it’s always difficult to win back-to-back titles in any sport, because a target is on your back. I know [Manchester] City have done it, but it’s always difficult.
“I think, if we can win the two trophies, it can certainly change the narrative around the football club at the moment. For me, that’s why tomorrow is so crucial. If we beat Galatasaray, we go through. It could possibly be our best chance of qualifying for the Champions League by winning it.
“We can do that. We can certainly beat Manchester City. Imagine you beat City and you get to the FA Cup final and you win that. I certainly think, for Liverpool Football Club, winning silverware is what we’re all about, and I think that’d be a very good season.”
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What happens in Liverpool’s next three games could go a long way towards either setting them up for an exciting run-in to the campaign, or compounding the miserable mood which is enveloping the club.
If the Reds can get Galatasaray and Man City in the respective knockout competitions and go into the international break off a Premier League win at Brighton, it’d leave them in a happier place by early April.
Conversely, if they exit the Champions League and FA Cup and fall to defeat at the Amex Stadium on Saturday, the pressure which has already descended on Slot will intensify even further after the clocks go forward.
A Wembley triumph at May would give Liverpool fans a day out to cherish, although FSG would almost certainly prefer a top-five finish in the Premier League in order to benefit from the riches provided by participating in Europe’s flagship club competition.
If the Reds can go on to taste Champions League glory in Budapest in two months’ time, the domestic woes of this season will be practically forgotten, just like in 1981 and 2005 when fifth-placed finishes were more than compensated for by lifting the European Cup.
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