Former England international John Barnes has blamed a “dip in form” for Liverpool’s failure to end their English Premier League title drought despite coming very close in the just-concluded season.
John Barnes
The reds were top of the table and in control of their title destiny until three weeks to the end of the season when they lost 2-0 at home to Chelsea, followed by a 3-3 draw away to Crystal Palace which all but ended their challenge and handed the initiative to eventual champions Manchester City.
“We didn’t lose the title to Chelsea, neither did we lose it at Crystal Palace as many people have suggested,” said Barnes while talking to journalists at the Liverpool Academy as part of the 2014 Standard Chartered Road to Anfield tournament programmes. “We lost the title to a dip in form at a very crucial period of the season,” argued the Liverpool legend.
“If you look at the whole season, you will observe that Liverpool played at a very level for a very long time. While Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal suffered dips in form at various times earlier in the season, Liverpool kept going at a high level, sometimes even performing beyond our expectations.
“It’s very rare to find a football team going through an entire season like that without suffering a dip, so I had that fear all along that our dip would come. Honestly, I was praying against it, but when it eventually came, it was too late for us recover.
“At one stage, we won 11 straight games and it would have been amazing if we had kept that run till the very end to become champions. It would have been a truly amazing achievement, but our boys have nothing to be ashamed of.
“I’m sure we’ll be competing again for the title next season. I just hope our dip will come much earlier so that we can have enough time to recover like Manchester City this season.”
