Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville believes that Liverpool still have a good chance of securing a top-four finish this season.

The former Manchester United defender claims that the return of key players from injury could help them produce a good run of form between now and May:

“Everyone has talked about their form, their poor defending but they have missed players. You put Van Dijk in that team, Jota on the bench along with Diaz potentially coming back, Firmino as well then it’s a completely different story. All of a sudden when you look at that league table it doesn’t look like they’re out of that reckoning for the top four.”

“I never thought they were out of it. I think at this moment in time Newcastle are having a little blip they’ve only won one in six and if they were to win that game on Saturday against Newcastle they’d be in a very strong position. They’d feel very confident and be difficult to stop.”

Jurgen Klopp’s side secured a morale-boosting win in the Merseyside derby against Everton on Monday night and the result means they are now nine points off the top four.

While Arsenal, Manchester City and United are very much out of reach, Newcastle (as Neville mentions) are not in the best of form currently and, with the Reds heading to St James’ Park this weekend, they could close the gap to just six with a victory.

Considering Klopp’s men also have a game in hand, things could look a lot different in terms of Champions League qualification come Saturday evening.

Liverpool’s away form is a massive issue, though and, if they are to finish the campaign strongly, that is something that will have to be addressed, hopefully starting with three points against the Magpies.