Even 4th Place Won't Save Liverpool If Dortmund Don't Win On Saturday.. Here's Why

Victory against West Ham on Saturday means Liverpool now need one more win against Middlesbrough on the final day to seal a top four finish, but The Reds have also now found

 themselves needing a little bit of help from Jurgen Klopp's former club.

Liverpool however might have to settle for fourth place at best if Manchester City who have a game in hand pick up at least four points from their last two fixtures against West Brom (H) and Watford (A), Manchester City have a slightly better goal difference and this would surely count. While the fans of Liverpool might bask in the Euphoria of making the top four on Saturday if they manage to overcome Middlesbrough, the bitter taste of a Champions league playoff remains, but who will it be against?

Should Liverpool finish fourth there will be a playoff round involving 10 teams, at the end of the two legged tie the successful teams will move on to the Champions league while the remaining five will have to settle for the Europa League.

The clubs that make up the play off include
- Fourth placed teams in England,Spain and Germany
- Third in Italy and Portugal
- Five teams that come through the third qualifying round.

Five of the teams will be seeded to play against the 'lesser' teams and this is to prevent the 'big teams' playing each other. The seedings are based on the UEFA coefficients of these clubs and with Liverpool not doing so well in Europe recently there is every possibility they wouldn't be seeded, and will have to play a tough team in the play offs.

Here are the Coefficents

1. Borrussia Dortmund 124.899
2. Sevilla 112.771
3. Arsenal 105.021
4. Man City 100.021
5. Napoli 88.499
6. Zenit 87.106
7. Dynamo Kyiv 67.526
8. Ajax 64.092
9. Liverpool 56.021
10. Roma 53.566
11. PSV 46.172
12. Besiktas 45.840
13. Viktoria Plzen 40.635
14. CSKA Moskva 39.606
15. Club Brugge 39.480
16. Sporting 36.866
17. Gent 35.480
18. PAOK  35.080
19. Young Boys 28.915
20. Nice 16.766
21. Istanbul Basaksehir 10.340
22. Slavia Prague 8.135
=23 Hoffenheim 0
=23 Steaua Bucharest 0

The Dortmund Situation
Dortmund are currently joint third with Hoffenheim on the German Bundesliga, Liverpool fans should therefore hope Dortmund beat Werder Bremen in the season's finale so as to qualify directly for the Champions league without needing a play off, Liverpool fans should also hope Napoli overtake Roma in the Serie A, Roma are currently 1 point and 1 place above Napoli who are third, the reason being that Liverpool have a higher coefficient than Hoffenheim and Roma but have an inferior coefficient compared to Dortmund and Napoli.

If Dortmund make third then the reds will have a not so big team in Hoffenheim to contend with in terms of the Coefficient and if Napoli make third place in Italy The Reds will be considered ahead of Roma in the seedings.

Liverpool also have cause to support Ajax in the Europa league final because if Ajax win they will go straight to the Champions league and the PSV (with an inferior coefficient) will enter the qualifying rounds, CSKA Moscow finishing second above Zenit in Russia it will also be in favour of Liverpool as Zenit would not be in contention for Europe's elite competition.