Our Liverpool fans in the Transfer Tavern have had an up and down season so far and this was summed up with the fantastic champion-like win against Man City, only to be followed by the crushing defeat at the hands of Swansea the week after in January.

Jurgen Klopp has brought some of the most exciting and exhilarating football Anfield has seen for a long time, especially this season, but this is often counterbalanced with poor defensive displays. All this was largely prior to Virgil Van Dijk’s £75m arrival from Southampton, which our Reds in the pool room will be hoping should pay off more next season.

For Klopp, this season is more about building for next – where a lot of our regulars believe that they could be title contenders, given the right recruitment in the summer. Indeed, some of the play really has been that promising over the course of this campaign.

Liverpool are on the cusp of securing Champions League football next year and are going well in the competition this campaign so far after reaching the quarter-finals, where they will come up against a certain Pep Guardiola and his City slickers. With that in mind, our landlord has been taking a look at what TWO fixtures could define the Reds season as a successful campaign…

Chelsea (A)

In Liverpool’s final away game of the season, they face rivals Chelsea and the places for next season’s Champions League could still be up for grabs. IF the Blues pull their socks up in the final months of the season, things could get rather nervy indeed. Liverpool should have the top-four wrapped up by then, but the need to capture the three points off the Blues in order to finish in the top-four in the May date could be massive.

This is depending on Liverpool not having a Klopp moment and self-destructing before then, but going off the overall season so far, many of the regulars feel that the fight for the top four will go down to the wire.

UCL: Man City

Over the Premier League two legs this season, it’s a draw in terms of wins. However, in the knockout atmosphere of the Champions League – anything can happen.

Both teams will start to smell the final and a tough game against fellow English opposition is always a belter for our regulars to watch on the big screen in the pub. Klopp will want to push past City in order to lay a marker down for next season and knocking the soon to be Premier League champions out of the cup would be very satisfying indeed.