James backs Liverpool to finish on top

Former England keeper David James reckons his old club Liverpool will be number one come the end of the Premier League season.

In Dublin yesterday playing his part between the sticks in a David Ginola ‘Penalty Masterclass’ for Setanta Sports, James didn’t hesitate when asked to predict his final table for 2015.

“Top three — Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City,” he said. “Fourth place to be contested by Arsenal and Manchester United.”

James takes issue with the popular view that Liverpool will struggle to replicate last season’s second-place finish without the goals of player of the year Luis Suarez.

“I think the loss of Suarez could be of benefit to Liverpool,” he proposed. “He’s a great talent when he’s available, a tremendously good player, but Liverpool were so attack-orientated and let in too many goals that they required Suarez’s talents, arguably, to get them into the position they did. Without him, without that reliance on one individual, they have to be more team-orientated and arguably more defensive to some degree.

“As they showed at the start of last season, Liverpool can play without Suarez. To finish second was good, better than anticipated, but I think there’s room for improvement. Certainly defensively. They’ve got to go back to being a side that’s difficult to score against and you know they’re going to nick at least one probably every game. And 1-0 is enough to win you a game, isn’t it?

“Being more defensive on occasion might be going against the grain somewhat with Brendan Rodgers. His managerial history will dictate that his teams score loads of goals but also concede loads of goals so somewhere something’s got to change. But I fancy Liverpool. The trajectory is upwards and if last season was second then there’s only one place to go. And that’s first.”

James also believes it’s not too late for Ireland’s current No 1, Millwall’s David Forde, to make it to the Premier League. James, who was with Forde for a spell at West Ham — where the former remembers him as “a young, cheeky, funny lad” — reckons the Galwegian has matured as a man and a goalkeeper and, from his own experience, points out that advancing age is much less of a barrier for a netminder than for an outfield player.

“I spent most of my time in the Premier League,” he recalled. “My move to Portsmouth [came] at 36. And a much as I love my football and wanted to get better, you kind of think at 36 you’ve missed the boat, especially when Steve McClaren is ringing you and saying you’re no longer wanted for England. So psychologically the trajectory was downward.

“But, once I got into the environment, my performances went up and I felt better at 36 than at 26. Fordey, at 34, if he takes the opportunity and gives it everything and he has the capacity to change, he’s still got many years.

“It doesn’t take long. That’s the mad thing: one or two very good seasons and you get the chance to move or ideally you win promotion and happy days.”