Gary Neville: Liverpool slightly underachieved this season

Gary Neville believes Liverpool have “slightly underachieved” this season, as their hopes of finishing in the top four effectively ended at Chelsea.

The 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge on Super Sunday leaves Brendan Rodgers’ side six points behind Manchester United and needing an unlikely set of results to qualify for the Champions League for the second season in a row.

Sky Sports pundit Neville felt Liverpool were much stronger than expected last season when they finished second in the Premier League and went within a whisker of winning the title.

However, he feels summer signings such as Mario Balotelli, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren have struggled to make an impact and the rigours of European football have made things difficult for Rodgers this term.

 “It’s gone wrong in a number of different ways,” he told Sky Sports ahead of Sunday’s game.

“They started the season poorly. The players they brought in haven’t settled as quickly as they would have wanted.

“They had a big turnaround of players. They needed to boost the squad. They didn’t have enough players last season and it helped them not being in Europe. They were able to play the same 12 or 13 players all the time.

“They were never going to be able to do that this season with the Champions League and it’s found them out a little bit.

“They overachieved last season. Is this season about par or underachieving? It’s probably underachieving slightly because they would have expected more from the money they spent and the new signings.

“I think they would have wanted more performers from them and better performers from them.”