THE Champions League is the place to be and I totally agree with Brendan Rodgers’ admission that missing out on the Europa League could prove to be a blessing for Liverpool.

The priority next season has to be a top-four finish and getting back into Europe’s elite. Not playing in the Europa League gives us a better chance of achieving that.

The Europa League hasn’t quite caught the imagination – it doesn’t come close to the Champions League in terms of prestige and financial rewards.

Look at Tottenham and Chelsea who played in the quarter-finals last night. They are competing for a top four spot with Arsenal who had the advantage of not playing in midweek. That is bound to help Arsene Wenger’s side.

Chelsea have played 58 games already this season and you need a big squad to cope with that kind of schedule. Liverpool don’t have that and the extra workload of Europa League games place a real strain on a manager’s resources.

With six games to go, it looks increasingly likely that we won’t be in Europe next season. The draw against West Ham was one of those frustrating afternoons.

Defensively, West Ham were well organised. It was always going to take something special to break them down and Luis Suarez had a very quiet day.

I fully expect Liverpool to take out their frustration on Reading tomorrow. The Royals seem to be preparing themselves for life in the Championship.

If they thought they had a chance of staying up they would have kept faith with Brian McDermott.

They turned to Nigel Adkins as they believe he’s the man to take them back up. Adkins will develop them into an attacking side for next season. His Southampton side scored a lot of goals and proved that’s the way to get out of the Championship.

Reading have lost seven straight league games and that’s no surprise to me as defensively they’re weak. You know you’ll get plenty of chances and Liverpool will have far too much firepower for them.