Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson feels that the club are a match for any top team in the Premier League.

The club was recently involved in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham at Anfield. The result makes some significant changes at the top of the table, as Spurs are challenging for the title. Liverpool were expected to crumble in this game especially because they had the midweek Europa League match with Borussia Dortmund on their minds. This was not the case, as Liverpool had enough chances over the course of 90 minutes to win the game against Spurs.

Only a second-half goal from Harry Kane did enough to prevent Spurs from losing this match. They have provided a major impetus for Leicester City to extend their lead to 7 points if they win on Sunday. The gap between the two teams was five points going into the match. Philippe Coutinho Philippe Coutinho has been one of the best players for Liverpool in a disappointing campaign and he once again proved this aspect by scoring the opening goal in the 51st minute. Kane has been the Premier League’s top scorer in the last few weeks and he came up with an equaliser 12 minutes later.

The match was an even encounter with both teams having a fair share of the spoils.”It was a good game of football. Spurs are a very good team and we saw that but we did well and created some good chances.If we had been a bit more clinical we could have got the three points but in the end a draw was a fair result. I said earlier in the season that a lack of consistency has been our biggest downfall.We’ve produced some top-class performances in certain games and got some great results but in others we haven’t been at that level and we’ve paid the price,” said Henderson.

Liverpool have had the upper hand over the top teams ever since Jurgen Klopp was appointed as the manager of the club.

However, the Borussia Dortmund manager failed to come up with something special when his team failed to produce the goods against Manchester United. The Red Devils were able to claim a narrow 1-0 win at Anfield. The two teams were coming on the back of their own struggles in several departments. While Liverpool were struggling to achieve any sort of consistency in the game, United have been extremely poor in attack.

However, United were able to claim something out of a tight contest with Wayne Rooney scoring the only goal of the match. The former Evertonian coming up with a goal only added to the insult for the home supporters. Klopp’s team did have some good opportunities in the 90 minutes. The German was especially critical of the team’s failure to take their chances that came the way. Brazilian Roberto Firmino came to the club only in the summer and has scored only three goals in 16 appearances. His lack of confidence was evident when he missed a glorious opportunity to equalise in the dying moments of the game. Liverpool have now had just one win in the last five matches.

“I feel really bad. It’s a derby and in a derby you only have one job to do and that is to win to have any chance of being satisfied after the game.If United were to talk about their performance, they would say it’s not that good but they won so they are really happy. We played better but we feel really frustrated because of the result.The performance and a lot of things we did today were really good. Creating chances was good, finishing was not,” said Klopp.

A large section of people in England might be criticizing Raheem Sterling for not showing any loyalty to Liverpool and being rigid on a transfer, but, John Terry has a slightly different view.

Terry believes Sterling is well within his rights to aspire to be a part of a big club and he does not deserve all the flak that is coming his way.

It’s not about money for Sterling at the moment. The reports say that the Reds are ready to make him stay with a lucrative deal, but, the striker is said not to be looking to extend his spell at Merseyside.

He wants to have a different challenge in his hands now.
One of the two topmost clubs going around in World Football, Manchester City and Real Madrid, are believed to be amongst those which desire Sterling’s services.

City has even placed bids a couple of times, but, the Liverpool management is no mood to start holding talks on Sterling’s transfer.

They are trying to somehow persuade the player to negotiate with the club as far as a new deal is concerned.
But, as it looks from outside at this point in time, it’s quite tough for Liverpool to hang onto Sterling.

Liverpool has already lost a key man in Luis Suarez in the recent times which has weakened them to a very large extent.

Now, Sterling’s departure is not something that they need.
They already have had a disappointing season, the 2014-15 and it would not leave them in a great shape going into the next one having lost Sterling.

It would be a very interesting next couple of weeks for the fans of Liverpool.

All eyes would be on Brendan Rodgers and the other decision makers at the club.

Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal has tried to work the mind games by suggesting that Liverpool have been successful in 2015 largely because they have copied the system used by the Dutchman at United in the early part of the campaign.

Van Gaal was extremely persistent about using a 3-5-2 formation at United in the first few months of the season even though it did not appear to work well. He has since reverted to the usual four at the back system with Wayne Rooney back playing as a centre forward. This has been a major reason behind their impressive form in 2015.
Liverpool have also been one of the top teams this year.

Both teams will be coming up against each other at Anfield this weekend, but Liverpool are the undefeated team in 2015. Van Gaal has tried to take an advantage even before the players head onto the pitch by suggesting that Brendan Rodgers has copied this system. After struggling in the early part of the season, Liverpool have undergone a remarkable transformation since the 3-0 defeat against United at Old Trafford. Since then, Liverpool have been playing with three at the back, although this is not the first time Rodgers has done so since becoming a Liverpool boss.

“At that time [we beat them 3-0 in December], they were under their level in the league. That was the surprise, with the players they have, but now you can see they have a very good team, even if they were not so good in the first half against Swansea.We played very well in our last game. This time Liverpool are playing at home and Manchester United have a bad record at Anfield, so it will be difficult, but I like Liverpool’s players and they more or less play my system,” said Van Gaal.

Liverpool star Raheem Sterling reckons that the club could have beaten Chelsea on any other day with the number of chances that they created in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final at Anfield. Chelsea had earlier taken a 2-1 victory against Liverpool in front of their own supporters in the league, but they were unable to repeat their success on Tuesday. Liverpool were the dominant force throughout the 90 minutes and they created numerous opportunities.

Sterling came up with the equaliser after Chelsea had taken the lead through Eden Hazard’s penalty. The penalty also produced the only shot on target from the visitors, while Liverpool tested Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on several occasions.

Unsurprisingly, the Belgian goalkeeper was given the man of the match award. He made stunning saves during the course of 90 minutes and it included the stoppage of a breath-taking effort from Adam Lallana.

The second leg will be at Stamford Bridge next week and Chelsea are expected to pose much of a threat in front of their own supporters. After going through a period of poor form in the last few weeks,Sterling appears to be the main man once again. Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers said thatSterling is now refreshed and ready to take on the mantle of leading Liverpool.

“Obviously we were disappointed to be 1-0 down going into the break.But the lads stuck in there really well and played some great football at times.

We kept the ball really well and exploited the space. We could have gone on and won the game.But it’s not the worst result – we’ll go into next week’s game fully focused, knowing we can win there. Hopefully we’ll play our best and try to get the result. We have to play our normal game,” said Sterling.

Glen Johnson believes that because of the fact that Liverpool is playing in Europe this season, their performance has suffered.

According to Johnson, the Reds have been playing twice every week which is putting a lot of pressure on the body of the players. The manager has not been able to put a fresh squad on the pitch all the time unlike the previous season.

When asked why Liverpool hasn’t had a good start in the English top division, Johnson said, “I think the workload is the main reason. The no. of games that we are playing, it takes its toll both on the mind as well as on the body. The players are bound to get tired mentally and physically. There have been injuries as well. So, it’s a little bit tough this time around.”

“Last year, all we had to worry about was the Premiership. The schedule was not that tight. Most of the times, we had fresh legs in the starting XI and that made a huge difference.”

When asked if the team has started to plan for the Champions League home game versus the Spanish club Real Madrid, Johnson said, “No, not yet. We have to go to Loftus Road and that’s what we are thinking about at the moment.

There is no point getting too far ahead of ourselves. Once we get three points in that away game, then, that Champions League game will be on our agenda. For us, it’s as important to do well in the Premiership as in Europe.”
The Reds have just 10 points in 7 games in the Premier League and they are at the 9th position at present. They have won 3 games, have lost 3 and have drawn one.

After arriving to Liverpool with a transfer fee of €16 million, the Italian striker Mario Balotelli has finally managed to score his 2nd official goal in a competitive match for the Premier League club as he found the back of the net during a League Cup match against Swansea City which helped Liverpool in snatching a narrow 2-1 victory.
Ever since making his move to Anfield, Balotelli has been a constant subject of criticism as he came to the Premier League club for a hefty price tag but after making over 6 league appearances, the Italian forward still has not managed to score a single Premier League goal. This is one of the main reasons on why Liverpool decided to splash out €16 million to sign him, in order to help fill the void that was left by Luis Suarez and help the club in their charge for the top spots of the top tier English league.
The Liverpool defender Kolo Toure believes that the recent goal that Mario Balotelli managed to score against Swansea City in the League Cup will be a big boost of confidence for the Italian attacker and from here on out it will be the spark that he needs to kick start his career with his new club.
“For strikers, goals are like food. Mario needs to feed himself by scoring goals. Now he’s got that one he will do that now, definitely.
“Getting that goal will be fantastic for his confidence. He is a great player; he has just been lacking goals. We all know he’s a top player. I always tell him ‘you need to get out there and show you are one of the best players in the world’.
“He is one of the best. He has just been missing goals but they will come now.” Kolo Toure said as he supports and is optimistic about Mario Balotelli and his future at Liverpool.
Mario Balotelli came off of the bench and entered the pitch at the 79th minute and managed to make a quick impact for Liverpool as he scored only a few minutes later which was just what Liverpool needed to claim a crucial victory over Swansea City.

Fabio Borini was manager Brendan Rodgers’ first signing as the Liverpool manager after he arrived at the club for just over £ 10 million, but the Italian has found it difficult to get regular first-team football. This has largely been because of the impressive partnership between Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez. In order to continue with his development, Liverpool decided to loan Borini to Sunderland last season. The forward played a crucial role in helping Black Cats stay in the Premier League. Unsurprisingly, Sunderland manager Gus Poyet wanted to make the signing permanent and the club agreed a £ 14 million fee with Liverpool for the transfer of Borini.

The transfer, though, has been dragging on for the last few weeks with Poyet threatening on several occasions to pull out of the deal. It was understood that Borini was not keen on a move and wanted to fight for his place at Liverpool. Borini’s importance at the club was pushed further behind after they spend Mario Balotelli from AC Milan for £ 16 million. Borini finds himself behind Sturridge, Balotelli, and Ricki Lambert in the pecking order, but despite this, the forward resisted any lure to join Sunderland on transfer deadline day.

Following the completion of the transfer deadline day, Borini stated that he is happy to stay at Liverpool and fight for his place. “Finally the madness is finished! I protected the MAN and the player that I am today … taking all the responsibility of the situation and for people who didn’t want it. And I’m VERY happy with myself to have taken such an important decision,” said the striker on his Twitter account. QPR also came in with a late offer to sign the striker, but the 23-year-old reportedly demanded wages of around £ 90,000 per week and the move fell off.

Real Madrid will offer a massive £ 80 million as they look to secure the signing of Uruguayan international striker Luis Suarez from Liverpool.

The Spanish giants will also offer the player a basic weekly pay package of nearly £ 350,000 with the hope that it will be enough to lure one of the hottest properties in world football at the moment to join the star studded Real lineup.
The ten time European Cup winners believe the Merseyside giants will be ready to business if the offer is close enough to their valuation of the player and preparing to break the bank to secure the signing of the Uruguayan, who finished tied with Real Madrid and Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo a the top scorer in the Europe.

Barcelona is also reportedly keen on adding Suarez to their ranks but Real believe they have the financial clout to blow their arch rivals out of the water.

Liverpool will be hoping this mother of all transfer tussles between the two Spanish giants will push the price of the Uruguayan up to stratospheric amounts and the reigning European champions believe their offer will not only ensure that the Reds sell the player, their weekly wage offer will also ensure that Barcelona will have to look elsewhere to boost their strike force.

The Premier League runners up held on to a hard bargain last season as they rejected an offer of £ 40,000,001 for the player from Arsenal and the player signed a new contract with the club just a few months back.

But now, he has made it clear to his friends that he wants a new challenge and will quit Liverpool for either of the two Spanish giants if they come in with a decent offer with Barcelona being his favored destination.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says that the fear of failure has brought him to this position where he is in with a chance of winning the first league title for the club in more than two decades. Rodgers started out as the manager of the youth team at Chelsea before taking up a full-time role at Reading in 2009. However, he did not last long at the championship outfit as he was sacked just seven months into the job. Rodgers reveals that this setback hurt him a lot and then he decided not to go down the same route again.

Since then, success has followed Rodgers continuously wherever he has been. The incredible job he did at Swansea has led to the Liverpool job. After two years of struggles at Anfield, he is now finally getting the rewards of assembling a great team, which is playing to his style of football. Liverpool managed a 4-0 win over Tottenham, who were considered as the favourites for the top four positions ahead of the Merseyside club at the start of the season. However, the fact that Liverpool are now challenging for the title is a measure of the distance the Reds have come this campaign under the management of Rodgers.

“People say what’s your success? The word for me is failure. How you succeed is how you deal with failure. Whatever way you dress it up something hasn’t worked. For the first time in my life I felt I had failed at Reading. I probably read the script wrong, thinking I had three years and instead I had 20 games. I could either disappear and become an academy director, where I’d been for 14 years, or show character and perseverance and go again,” said the Liverpool manager, who said that the title was now a strong reality.