Brendan Rodgers glad to skip Europe with Liverpool

Brendan Rodgers thinks Liverpool's best chance of cracking the top four next season will come if they are "blessed" by not competing in Europe. The manager concedes closing the nine-point gap to fourth place is virtually impossible but even scraping into the Europa League involves a complicated scenario.

"It is a double-edged sword for us," he said. "The players and supporters want to be in Europe and as a manager it is a great test and I have really enjoyed the Europa League this year. But you could argue having one season out of Europe would give us an even greater chance of challenging for the top four next season."