Liverpool have no hope of finishing in the Champions League spots if their Sunderland performance is repeated across the rest of the campaign, Reds expert David Lynch has warned.
Arne Slot had hoped that a return to Anfield would see the club pick up their second consecutive win, but the Black Cats held his side to a 1-1 stalemate on Wednesday.
The Reds often ceded possession in the first half, and their lax approach without the ball was compounded by their limited attacking intent, and they ended the night in eighth place with 22 points.
Lynch insisted that similar performances throughout the season would put top four at risk, when he told Sports Mole: "I don't fancy them to get Champions League football at all. The saving grace is that they're two points off fourth.
"The gap is not very big, and the teams that go for top four rather than the title have flaws - they drop points regularly - but the only reason Liverpool are even in this race is because they had a blistering start to the season.
"With the current performance levels, and these performance levels have been in place for a long time now, there's not a hope in hell that Liverpool will get in the top four."
Liverpool are only two points from fourth-placed Chelsea, but there is an argument that the Reds are the worst performing club in the top 10.
Can Arne Slot turn Liverpool's displays around and finish in the top four?
Slot has been criticised for much of the campaign, especially as he is yet to get the best from signings such as Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.
His inability to platform his forwards, coupled with the team routinely conceding chances, makes it difficult to see the club qualifying for the Champions League.
Speaking to Sports Mole, Lynch was doubtful that the Reds manager would be able to guide his team back into the top four, saying: "If they continue in this vein for the next 10, 15 games, they won't be anywhere near it in the end.
"It's impossible to see how Liverpool turn it around. The manager, to his credit, is trying things, he's trying different approaches - even yesterday they sat off Sunderland and gave them the ball - but it still hasn't worked.
"I do wonder what that means to him and how far Liverpool will allow him to take it before they feel they have to act. Do they have to let it get to a point where Champions League is completely gone or do they feel they want to act before that?"
Slot's contract is set to expire at the end of 2026-27, but it is hard to envisage the club offering him an extension given he has not yet addressed any of the team's fundamental weaknesses.
© Imago / Propaganda Photo
Was Liverpool's West Ham United win a false dawn?
Having beaten West Ham United 2-0 on Sunday, fans hoped that the team had turned a corner, but the Merseysiders' performance against Sunderland suggests that the side still have a number of issues to contend with.
The draw with Sunderland means Liverpool have failed to win four of their last five games, a period in which they lost on three occasions.
Lynch argued that the Reds' display against West Ham was not particularly strong in the first place, and that they are yet to show many signs of improvement, telling Sports Mole: "I would shy away from calling West Ham a false dawn because it wasn't a fantastic win.
"Against West Ham, they defended slightly better and they got the goals. That's great, but West Ham were pretty awful. Nobody was thinking that all of Liverpool's problems were solved, but it was just a potential building block towards better form.
"What you hoped was that Liverpool would take some confidence from West Ham at the very least and start to perform better but I don't think we saw that. Liverpool were dominant in certain aspects but only as much as Sunderland let them be."
Liverpool will play Leeds United on Saturday, but they are unlikely to take any points from their newly-promoted opponents if they are as poor on the weekend as they were against Sunderland.
> Click here to listen to the full discussion on Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Sunderland