Crucial four days ahead for Anfield gaffer Rodgers

Liverpool’s season hinges on what happens in the next four days.

This afternoon, at Crystal Palace, they will attempt to put their Premier League challenge back on track.

There has already been an acceptance around Anfield that the title is gone for yet another year. The focus is now solely on finishing in the top four.

On Wednesday, they travel to Bulgaria to play Ludogorets in the Champions League. They need to bring a result back with them, then beat Basel at home to scrape through to the knock-out stages in second place.

On paper taking six points from these two fixtures looks as straightforward as it’s possible to be at the elite level of the game.

Ludogorets are Champions League novices and were fully expected to be the whipping boys of the group. But they’ve beaten Basel, who beat Liverpool, and were very close to taking a draw from Anfield.

Today’s trip to Palace will hold painful memories. Everybody says that they lost the title to Manchester City last season because of Steven Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea.

That’s not true. The following game they were 3-0 up at Selhurst Park in the 79th minute and then shipped three goals in nine minutes to sacrifice two points. The game was a microcosm of Liverpool’s season. Sensational in attack, abysmal in defence.

They lost the title by the two points they dropped in South London. But even with those points, goal difference would have scuppered their dreams. They matched City in the goals for column but conceded 50 times.

In an ideal world, the only tweak Rodgers would have made over the summer would have been to buy a rock solid centre-back and perhaps an experienced full-back.

Then came Suarez’s World Cup bite, suspension and transfer to Barcelona. With £65m deposited in the bank and the extra fixtures of the Champions League to deal with, Rodgers took the option of squad strengthening, rather than attempting to replace the 31 goals scored by the Uruguayan with a similar superstar striker.

He added Mario Balotelli for what seemed a cut-price £16m and Southampton’s Rickie Lambert for £4m. But buying the Italian was always going to be a high-risk strategy whatever the fee. He has never been a prolific scorer and he’s also been a poor substitute for Suarez in terms of work-rate.

Lambert seemed to be living the dream, coming home to Anfield at 32, after years of wandering through the divisions. But Rodgers has barely used him. The former Southampton man must be thinking games only last five minutes.

Of course, it might have worked out differently had Daniel Sturridge not picked up three separate training ground injuries, restricting him to just three starts and one goal. But injuries happen and a manager has to handle them. Rodgers must take some of the blame for not being able to get a single League goal out of Balotelli, Lambert and number-three striker Fabio Borini.

The Northern Irishman has done an excellent job in his two years at the club. Last season’s second place after the previous season’s seventh was one of the great managerial achievements.

But managers will always be judged on their signings and you have to say the Liverpool’s summer recruitment drive doesn’t look too clever. Eight players were signed for £117m young £10m Belgian Divock Origi was allowed to stay on loan at Lille in the sort of spree reminiscent of Tottenham’s spending of the Gareth Bale money.

Apart from the misfiring strikers, £45m was paid to Southampton for defender Dejan Lovren and midfielder Adam Lallana. Lovren was supposed to be the leader missing since Jamie Carragher’s retirement, but there’s no evidence of that so far. Lallana started the season with an injury and is still finding his feet. Lazar Markovic, who cost £20m, has been even more disappointing than Balotelli, while £10m Emre Can and £12m Alberto Moreno could never have been expected to take the team forward.

But most significantly, the zip and zing that was Liverpool’s hallmark last season has gone. That habit of cutting opponents to pieces in the opening half hour has been lost. And while the goal threat has disappeared, all the defensive frailties have remained.

So this week is Brendan Rodgers’ big test. Winning these two games won’t in themselves rescue Liverpool’s season. But losing them might destroy it.