Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has said that Liverpool deserve “real credit” for their third-place finish this season.
Neville was left in shock live on Sky as he learned of Liverpool’s final position in the Premier League table.
When shown the final standings, Neville exclaimed: “Have they finished third? How’s that happened?!”
He continued by saying it was an amazing achievement for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Neville said: ” It is (an amazing achievement). I know I was joking then but honestly.
“Losing van Dijk, it had a massive impact on Liverpool but it also had a massive impact on City.
“They knew Liverpool couldn’t come back from it and they knew once Liverpool were out that that was it really. There was no one else that was equipped to compete with them.
“So for Liverpool to come back from six home defeats on the bounce, wow.
“To come back the way they have, you have to give them real credit.”
Neville is right – third place is a remarkable achievement
Under normal circumstances, the champions coming in third the next season would be a major disappointment.
But Liverpool’s 2020/21 season was anything but normal. We all know about the frankly unbelievable amount of injuries they have had to deal with.
The injuries meant that the players that were fit had to play an insane amount of football. Their form suffered, but they still pulled through.
If you told any Kopite last summer that Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams would be the Reds’ two most-used centre-backs this season, they would have bitten your hand off for third place.
The title seemed out of reach in February. Top four became the aim.
Even that seemed out of reach in April. So to come back and finish third is a huge credit to the team.
The win against Manchester United was the big one. That was the biggest hurdle at the tail-end of the season and they jumped it in style.
Alisson’s last-minute winner against West Brom can now go down in history. It would have been a memorable moment, yes, but if nothing came of it in the aftermath, it would have been a big disappointment.
They then showed their quality in the last two games to easily dispatch Burnley and Crystal Palace.
It looked like the famous mentality monsters of season’s gone by were no more, but those Reds proved that they still have the bottle to match any team on earth in the last few games.
When the staunchly pro-Manchester United Gary Neville is saying it, it has to be true.
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