Liverpool Football Club had a disappointing end to the 2014/15 season. They wouldn’t secure a second season in the Champions League, they wouldn’t win a trophy and if anything their squad seemed to go backwards even after they spent hard cash on bringing in new faces.

This summer is going to be one of the biggest in Liverpool’s history.

Manager Brendan Rodgers will stay on, even though speculation remains over his long term future at the club. Many observers believe he has one year left to prove he can still succeed at Liverpool.

A few new names have already arrived in the form of James Milner, Adam Bogdan and Danny Ings. Divock Origi will finally join the Reds after his year long loan at Lille, following his £10m transfer last summer. More will surely follow, with the Reds faithful hoping for some world-class recruitments to come in and bolster the ailing squad.

First team stars; Raheem Sterling and Martin Skrtel have been linked with moves away. Sterling seems desperate to leave Liverpool with Manchester City supposedly leading the race for his signature. While Slovak defender Skrtel is waiting out for a better deal from the club’s board or he too might seek a switch away from Merseyside this pre-season.

Legendary captain Steven Gerrard has already departed and moved to MLS side LA Galaxy this off season. Filling his boots could prove to be a near impossible task, just look what happened when Luis Suarez left last term.

Rodgers will also be on the lookout to offload much of the deadwood that currently fills his squad.

A lot of Liverpool’s problems in their last campaign stemmed from a really poor start to the season. New squad players struggled to make an impact, Rodgers struggled to realise his system wasn’t working, Daniel Sturridge was injured and the Champions league proved to be a massive distraction.

So it’s going to be a huge summer for Rodgers and Liverpool.

Today was marked with the English Premier League announcing next seasons fixtures.

If Brendan Rodgers had been hoping for an easy start to the season, he would be in for a big disappoint.

Here are Liverpool FC’s opening fourteen fixtures:

August

8 – Stoke City (A)
15 – Bournemouth (H)
22 – Arsenal (A)
29 – West Ham United (H)

September

12 – Manchester United (A)
19 – Norwich City (H)
26 – Aston Villa (H)

October

3 – Everton (A)
17 – Tottenham Hotspur (A)
24 – Southampton (H)
31 – Chelsea (A)

November

7 – Crystal Palace (H)
21 – Manchester City (A)
28 – Swansea City (H)

As you can see Liverpool’s first fixture is an away match against Stoke City. The Reds don’t have too many fond memories of the Britannia Stadium, especially the last time they visited!

The 6-1 drubbing Liverpool were handed out in the last game of last season still pains the Liverpool fans. The team that day looked to be on holiday mode and their display seemed to sum up their end of season form.

You also can’t help but notice that in each of the first four opening months to the season Liverpool face an away day to each of last terms ‘Top Four’ sides. That includes a Halloween trip to league champs Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Lose all four of them and it could be curtains for Rodgers before the Christmas period starts. The shadows of Carlo Ancelotti and Jurgen Klopp will loom large over Brendan’s office at Melwood.

While the home games look decent for the Merseyside club, they also have to contend with tough away trips against Everton and Tottenham in October.

Rodgers could see this challenge as the ideal one to get his players focused. Get a few valuable away wins during the opening months of the season and that could give the whole club a feel good factor and momentum to build from.

Also by starting off with a tough fixture list that gives Liverpool a modest run-in at the end of the season, which could be valuable if Liverpool are still in the race for Champions League places.

Let’s face it, in the Premier League, teams are always going to get a tricky run of fixtures. Liverpool may not have chosen this tough start but it will be a great indicator for the board and the supporters to see if Brendan Rodgers has managed to revitalised his managerial regime at Anfield!

Posted on June 17th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article