On The Ball | Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp needs to be creative to close gap to English Premier League rivals

The mood is buoyant around Anfield after Wednesday’s 3-0 victory away to Burnley. Liverpool’s top-four fate is in their own hands. Beat Crystal Palace on Sunday and Jurgen Klopp’s team will qualify for next season’s Uefa Champions League.

After a campaign that fell apart after Christmas, this feels like victory. The truth is that, in the space of five months, Liverpool have regressed four years. Defending the title and targeting European glory were the aims when the season began in September. Scrambling for fourth place in the Premier League is so 2017.

Beating Palace at Anfield might not be as straightforward as it looks. It is Roy Hodgson’s final game as a manager and emotions will be running high in the visiting side’s dressing-room. The 73-year-old would love nothing better than taking points from his least favourite former club. Hodgson was sacked by Liverpool a decade ago after a calamitous seven-month spell in charge. He is about as popular as Sir Alex Ferguson among Kopites and the antipathy is mutual.

The Palace players would also love to keep Klopp’s team out of next season’s Champions League. The levels of resentment about last month’s attempted Super League breakaway by the Premier League’s “Big Six” are still running high. If Liverpool want to play in European football’s most prestigious competition, Palace will make sure they have to earn the right.

Nevertheless, Klopp’s men should be too good for their opponents on Sunday. Any sense of satisfaction produced by finishing in the top four will be short-lived, though. Witnessing Manchester City and Chelsea contesting the Champions League final a week tomorrow gives a clear indication of how far behind their rivals Liverpool have fallen.