Arsenal fans better hope they don't make it, otherwise... #WengerIn
I am not sure yet about Liverpool.
Even if we make the 4th spot, we might miss after the qualifier. This is a skeleton of a squad with in-total 14/15 senior players - half of those are unfit/misfit & most are just not good enough for a top 4 club. If you go back to my earlier posts on EPL, this was exactly what I wrote - a decent starting XI with few fantastic individuals & a top quality manager, who'll win matches, but the squad is just not solid/thick enough for 38 matches marathon in EPL. On home & away basis, we have beaten (better head to head) Chelsea, Spurs, MCity, MU, Arsenal, Everton & Leicester; which indicates the quality of the team & the manager. But, this team just doesn't have enough steam to back that up against West Ham, Palace or Swansea very next week - same team in Spain, you would have seen us standing on 85 points by now.
In a season without Europe & our 3 rivals having a managerial change, those greedy Yanks made 2 profitable windows & trimed the squad to bare minimum, to reduce wage expenses. The performance you are watching is after we were out of both domestic cups by January where Klopp played 35 players, most of whom academy kids at QF level, just to keep his ultra thin squad standing till May. We are really lucky that Zlatan got injured, very unusual for him, otherwise MU by now would have been on equal points with us, with a game at hand. These are situations when a team strategy is decided by the Accountant of the Club, instead of Manager.
Personally, I am in a fix regarding CL qualification - if Klopp takes this team to CL, that's 75mn extra for those greedy, cunning Yanks & they'll know that their Manager can keep Liverpool in CL after making profits in transfer window (& reducing wage expenses) - they'll make more money out of Coutinho, Firminho & may be even Mane, if we can make it into top 4, instead of investing in squad.
On the other hand, if Liverpool makes the CL, there is a slim chance that Chinese or Arabs will give those Yank parasites enough profit to sell their "asset". These Yanks have established a strict wage cap, making money out of transfer market & they have increased salary of their manager for his lip service - he'll explain us why money can't buy players that fit his system, why makeshift is dynamic way & he'll keep us dreaming till February (after the January window is closed) with his persona & lectures - Anfield 'll be sold out & Yanks will keep making more money.
I don't want Liverpool to turn into another Chelsea, MCity or PSG, but there is a minimum requirement, if a club has any ambition. In one sense, I feel Leicester & PSG were robbed - Conte would have paid 25-35mn more for Kante & Luiz, simply because they make his starting XI strong - he is winning EPL at his 1st season, because of the less workload without Europe. In his 2ns season, Klopp could have done the same, instead of that 16mn profit, had those greedy Yanks spent just enough for a left back, a decent defensive midfielder, a world class winger & a No. 9 - even as ordinary as Defoe could have given the depth till May. They made profit & didn't spend a penny in January despite knowing that Mane & Matip will be out for ACN!!!!!
Deluded people see only 34mn spending for Mane, but don't see that, those Yanks have made 140mn in last 2 years only from 3 sales of Suarez, Sterling & Benteke - 3 of our best players. Our gross spending is mis-leading because of the sale of best players - in terms of net spending, LFC is one of the lowest in EPL during FSG era - for a club still among top 10 gross earners in world club football, despite missing CL 5 of the last 6 seasons. Previous set of Yanks were greedy & evil - present set are cunning as well.