Gary Neville: If Liverpool want to win the league, they should lose to Bayern Munich
Gary Neville has told Liverpool that they will stand a better chance of winning the title this season if they get knocked out of the Champions League as soon as possible.
Jurgen Klopp’s side dropped to second place over the weekend after being held to a 0-0 draw by Everton in the Merseyside derby.
They travel to Bavaria to face German champions Bayern Munich a week on Wednesday in the second leg of their last-16 clash, after the first leg finished goalless.
Neville believes that Liverpool could benefit from being eliminated at this stage in order to keep their players fresh during the run-in, with Manchester City currently one point ahead of them in the table.
"Getting points on the board is a big advantage,” he said on the Gary Neville podcast.
“I always thought that if Liverpool could win the league this season then they'd need a clean fixture list.
"I'm going to say it: go out against Bayern Munich. That sounds like madness.
"Of course, you'd never play to lose a game, but it will be in Liverpool's favour if they have a clean run as they can get everyone fresh. City have got a couple of FA Cup games, where Liverpool could go five or six points in front. That's tough to pull back in the closing weeks.
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"This title race is still 50-50."
Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.
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