A lot has been made of Liverpool’s recent dip in form with the team looking a shadow of the side that we saw last year. Liverpool lost key personnel most notably in the form of Alonso with his replacement Aquilani yet to take the field in a Liverpool shirt.

Key players Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard have both missed games this season and the lack of suitable back up players for Liverpool seems to be evident at the moment. It is obviously not going to be easy to replace players of this quality like for like because the reality is that players of that quality are not that easy to find, not very cheap and wouldn’t sit on the sidelines as a back up. However the lack of depth in the squad does appear to be hurting them at the moment.

We are only in October and Liverpool have already lost more games that they did last season but the reality is that all of the top teams look like dropping points this season which will open the league up a bit more and means that the early defeats suffered by Liverpool may in fact not prove to be fatal.

This though obviously assumes that Liverpool can stop the slide, with a match against Manchester United not exactly being the game you would have wished for when your top players are potentially missing and the side is lacking confidence.

At the moment Liverpool are not completely out of the title race although it will certainly be an uphill struggle for them but with the rise of Spurs and Manchester City is it possible that Liverpool could miss out on finishing in the top 4?

Looking at the form of Liverpool last year it would have been unthinkable that this could be a consideration but at the moment they look vulnerable and if Man City and Spurs can maintain their momentum, which is must be said has not been proved yet, Liverpool could be fighting for a Europa league spot instead of a Champions League spot.

Personally I think that Liverpool will get their act together and will most likely get the 4th spot as I don’t see Spurs having the staying power and if Man City lose any key players to injury they too could be short but what do you guys think?

Written by Danny Watson a Sports writer who also blogs about football kits.