Quite frankly I'm of the opinion that you should always be aiming to win anything you play in. I hope Rodgers was whispering in their ears from the start of the season that a title was not out of reach, that they could do the impossible. We are Liverpool, and we aim to win every single match, that is what we want, so we are therefore title challengers at the beginning of every season. Yes, we drop off, it becomes impossible, but that should always be the goal. 100% wins. No draws, no losses. Nobody is so much better than us that we can't beat them. We are top of the league, tell the lads to just keep winning.
Does this create pressure? Yes. But if you want to be the best, you have to learn how to play under pressure. United are brilliant at going out and delivering under pressure. Better we find out now who can deliver under pressure in our team, or at least, let them learn how to deal with the pressure, than to just accept defeat.
Because that is what 2nd place is to me. Defeat. 2nd place should be nothing to a competitive sportsman with ambition. Ignore commercial and financial aspects, that is nothing to do with a player.
Just keep winning.