A sense of humour certainly helps when your team is doing as badly as Liverpool are at the moment, and that’s something Scousers are renowned for.
Without a home win in the last seven games – losing the last five – and without a goal from open play at Anfield in over 10 hours, these really are unprecedented times for Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp‘s champions find themselves seventh in the Premier League table after 27 games and should Tottenham and Aston Villa win their games in hand they’d be ninth.
Usually, that would mean avoiding the ignominy of the Europa League and a season without European football could be just the tonic for a squad who look completely and utterly mentally and physically fatigued.
But even that looks unlikely with UEFA introducing the third-tier competition called the UEFA Europa Conference League.
The English entrant into the Conference League would be the League Cup winners, but that’s being contested by Man City and Tottenham, meaning it goes to the next team in the league table who haven’t already qualified for Europe.
Should the FA Cup be won by a team that qualifies for the Champions League, which is likely, then it would be seventh place in the Premier League that goes into the Conference League.
The tournament itself is effectively a replacement for the former UEFA Cup Winners Cup, which was curtailed in 1999 – and the only trophy Liverpool have never won.
Fans have therefore been joking about trips to remove European destinations against teams you’ve never heard of from Albania and Moldova.
“How on earth are we going to fit that UEFA Europa Conference League on the Champions Wall?” wrote one.
“Trips to Malta and Andorra in the Europa Conference League? Bring it on,” said another.
https://twitter.com/rb_07ftboi/status/1367618846870372355?s=21
How on earth are we going to fit that UEFA Europa Conference League on the Champions Wall?
— Paul Anderson (@PaulAndo1987) March 4, 2021
Trips to Malta and Andorra in the Europa Conference League?
Bring it on.
— Laurie (@LFCLaurie) March 4, 2021
The Uefa Europa Conference League 2022 final is on May 25th. The stadium, in Albania, only holds 21,000.
— Matt Ladson (@mattladson) March 4, 2021
https://twitter.com/KeiferMacd/status/1367607839951355912
https://twitter.com/kopitesaint91/status/1367599456636518409
Virgil Van Dijk strutting around with the Europa Conference League trophy in 2022 after having beaten FC Milsami Orhai 1-0 (AET)
— Matt B (@LFCSpionKop) March 4, 2021
Been to the future and only had enough time to get just this screenshot pic.twitter.com/fkkjM7D6Yk
— Chris (@CM__LFC) March 2, 2021
Liverpool’s lowest ever Premier League finish was eighth, in 1994, 2012 and 2016. A similar finish this season would at least avoid the new competition.
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