Sam Allardyce believes Liverpool are showing same fear they did under Brendan Rodgers

News
By published

Liverpool are afraid of winning the league this season just as they were under Brendan Rodgers, according to Sam Allardyce.

Jurgen Klopp

The former Everton boss believes the Reds must overcome a huge mental hurdle to secure their first ever Premier League title, after they fell to second place with a 0-0 draw in the Merseyside derby on Sunday.

Allardyce believes the late-season jitters are reminiscent of the 2013/14 campaign under Rodgers, when Liverpool blew a five-point lead at the top with three games remaining to finish behind Manchester City.

“The pressure is enormous,” he told talkSPORT. 

“Liverpool have only lost one game this season, and it looks to me like the fear of winning the league is as it was with Brendan [Rodgers] a few years ago.

“That is the big hurdle Klopp certainly faces – ‘how do I mentally get my team over the line to try and win the league?'

“We thought they’d overcome those jitters in midweek when they won 5-0 [against Watford], but there were one or two moments yesterday where you thought they were going to win the game – but clinically they weren’t good enough.

“It looks like a little bit of fear to me.”

Alasdair Mackenzie

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.