Comfortable Europa League Draw Gives Liverpool Chance to Test Squad Depth
After drawing Rubin Kazan, Bordeaux and FC Sion in the Europa League group stage, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers can look to the possibility of testing his squad's depth in light of a comfortable fixture schedule in Europe's second tier.
The Reds (Pot 2) were drawn in Group B along with Russian side Kazan (Pot 1), Ligue 1 hopefuls Bordeaux (Pot 3) and Swiss minnows Sion (Pot 4).
Kicking off their European campaign next month with a trip to Bordeaux in mid-September, as revealed by the Liverpool Echo's James Pearce, Rodgers will now be looking to plan for another European campaign.
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With a vast squad at his disposal in 2015/16, Rodgers could look to utilise a rotational approach to this season's competition.
Rubin Kazan, Bordeaux and FC Sion
Unlike league rivals Tottenham Hotspur, the Reds' draw represents a fairly comfortable European jaunt.
Spurs were drawn in Group J along with Belgian giants Anderlecht, Ligue 1 outfit AS Monaco and Azerbaijani side FK Qarabag, and Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe summarised the Lilywhites' woes following the draw:
"Given Tottenham Hotspur are miles off finishing in the Premier League top four, the Europa League is their only feasible route to Champions League football next year. But after drawing Anderlecht, Monaco and Qarabag, even reaching the knockout stages of this competition could be a stretch.
Qarabag is just under 3,000 miles away and will require a 12-hour round trip of flights, Monaco are a stronger side and Anderlecht are a tough cookie—as Arsenal found out last season.
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By contrast, Kazan, Bordeaux and Sion should give Rodgers hope of a straightforward route to the knockout stages of this season's second-tier European tournament.
Liverpool's Pot 1 opponent, Kazan, finished fifth in last season's Russian Premier League, with their involvement in the Europa League the result of great fortune—according to Tom Sheen of the Independent, Rinat Bilyaletdinov's side gained access to the tournament following financial fair play restrictions to rivals Dynamo Moscow.
Bilyaletdinov can call upon his son Diniyar, the former Everton winger, as he looks to vanquish his Merseyside opposition, but Kazan's squad is short of the depth of Group J equivalents Anderlecht, who boast the likes of Youri Tielemans, Dennis Praet and Steven Defour within their ranks.
Similarly, Bordeaux's squad depth is dismal compared to that of Spurs' Pot 3 opponents Monaco, who finished three places and eight points above Bordeaux in 2014/15's Ligue 1.
Monaco's squad is littered with top-level European talents such as Joao Moutinho, Bernardo Silva, Stephan El Shaarawy and new signings Fabio Coentrao and Rony Lopes (the latter's transfer confirmed on Friday by Manchester City).
Bordeaux's hopes will rest with Henri Saivet and Clement Chantome—far from the level of Silva and Moutinho.
Sion do represent tougher competition than Qarabag on paper, but the 12-hour round trip to Baku is even longer than that which the Reds must travel to take on Kazan, and with Mauricio Pochettino's squad decidedly thinner than Rodgers', this will prove a tough challenge to a side with similar ambitions.
While Rodgers will likely stress how Kazan, Bordeaux and Sion will represent a tough challenge for his Liverpool side, this draw offers him the possibility of some welcome squad rotation.
A Second-String XI?
"No player is guaranteed to play every single game, we aim to do well in all competitions and cope with them all," Rodgers told reporters after stopping off in Queensland as part of Liverpool's pre-season tour of the Far East and Australia, according to This is Anfield.
"We could have a separate team for the Europa League and it won’t be detrimental. It’s certainly something we'd consider."
Raising the possibility of deploying a second-string side throughout the Europa League competition, Rodgers noted the strength in depth that his squad possesses this season following another busy summer of transfer business.
One such player is 23-year-old striker Danny Ings, who is yet to make his debut for the Reds after moving to Merseyside from Burnley. Speaking ahead of Liverpool's clash with Bournemouth earlier in August, Rodgers acknowledged Ings' peripheral role, as reported by This is Anfield.
"For all the players that I’ve explained and recognised that between now and the end of the month it could be difficult [with one game a week]," he said. "After international break the games come thick and fast."
After Saturday's home clash with West Ham United, Rodgers will break from his squad and look to plan for a busy schedule in September and beyond, with the Reds' first Europa League fixture coming on September 17, away to Bordeaux.
Ings, Adam Bogdan, Divock Origi, Tiago Ilori, Mamadou Sakho, Alberto Moreno, Lucas Leiva, Jordan Rossiter and Joao Carlos Teixeira will all be hopeful of an extended run in Europe, and their quality suggests Liverpool could contend with Kazan, Bordeaux and Sion with squad players in the starting lineup.
A Europa League selection of Bogdan, Nathaniel Clyne, Ilori, Sakho, Moreno, Lucas, Rossiter, James Milner, Teixeira, Ings and Origi would offer enough of a challenge for the trips to Switzerland and France at least.
The industry and professionalism of Clyne and Milner—regular first-team players under Rodgers this season—would complement the energy and desire of those lesser-spotted Reds.
Rodgers is clearly entertaining this option, but is it the right approach in a competition that now offers a much-coveted Champions League spot to its winner?
Route to the Champions League
"Our main aim is to ride back into the top four, and we’re very keen to win a trophy this year," Rodgers continued to explain to reporters in Australia.
The pervading objectives of Liverpool's campaign are a top-four finish and a trophy in one of the domestic competitions—either the FA Cup or the League Cup—as midfielder Adam Lallana further fuelled in conversation with Sky Sports earlier in August.
"The aim for all of us this year is to win a trophy and try to get back in the top four," he said, before later adding that the prospect of a return to the Champions League, via a top-four finish, is motivating Rodgers' squad in 2015/16.
"We’d love to get back in the top four," he continued. "We had a taste of it last year and unfortunately we got knocked out in the group stages, so we want to be back in there. We feel we’ve got a good squad to compete."
Typically, offering a more grounded approach was former Manchester City midfielder Milner, who told the Liverpool Echo's Ian Doyle in July that "it’s hard for every team in the Premier League to get in the top four—it is so hard to win just one game."
Though Milner continued to suggest that "everything is there for us to be successful," his assertion that finishing in the Premier League's top four is a considerable challenge should ring true for Rodgers.
His side have started well this season, but do they have the vitality and sheer power of the likes of City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United?
A top-four finish is far from guaranteed, and the manager's glossing-over of the importance of the Europa League is worrying.
As Sevilla manager Unai Emery will attest, the virtues of taking the Europa League seriously are vast.
Sevilla were drawn in the toughest group of this season's Champions League, Group D, along with City, Juventus and Borussia Monchengladbach, but Emery will likely be relishing the prospect of facing up to Europe's elite—all thanks to success in the 2014/15 Europa League final, with last season's competition the first to offer a place in the Champions League to its victor.
Liverpool should be striving to challenge alongside the likes of Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. The joys of European competition are ultimately found in pitting yourself against the best sides in the continent.
Rodgers would be wise to consider the Europa League as his most straightforward route to Champions League qualification.
A comfortable draw alongside Kazan, Bordeaux and Sion throws up a quandary for the manager as he brings his side into the Europa League: It could be his route to the Champions League, or a mere squad exercise with a keener focus on a top-four finish in the Premier League.
It is another difficult tactical decision for Rodgers.
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