Louis Van Gaal Slams Paul Merson for Suggesting Liverpool Should Prioritise Premier League
Former Manchester United and Barcelona manager Louis Van Gaal has urged Liverpool to ignore Paul Merson's suggestion that they should only prioritise the Premier League this season.
The Reds face Wolves in the third round of the FA Cup on Monday and will be looking to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat at Manchester City in mid-week which brought their twenty-match unbeaten run in the league to an end.
With Liverpool four points clear at the top of the Premier League, the club find themselves in a great position to win their first top-flight title in twenty-nine years.
Speaking on Gillette Soccer Saturday as quoted by joe.co.uk, Merson outlined what he believes the Reds should sacrifice in order to focus on securing a nineteenth top-division championship, revealing that: "The quicker they go out of these competitions [FA Cup, Champions League], the more of an unbelievable chance they have to win the Premier League.
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"Twenty-nine years now without the league, what an opportunity, you don't want to keep playing game after game after game.
"They've not got the biggest squad in the world. These chances do not come along too often, you win it one year, and the next you're blown away in 10 games.
"They've got to take that chance."
With the Reds still fighting on three fronts in the Champions League, FA Cup and the Premier League, Van Gaal had his say on Merson's comments, replying on Dutch television in typical fashion by saying: "This man (Merson) is not normal.
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"Liverpool shouldn't take his bad advice into consideration."
Despite their commanding position in the league, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will be keen to pursue another run in the Champions League after suffering defeat to Real Madrid in the final of Europe's biggest club competition last season.
The possibility of progressing into the latter rounds of the FA Cup will also be an attraction to the German manager who is still seeking a first major trophy at Anfield since taking over from Brendan Rodgers in 2015.
