Minimal disruption the goal for top-four charging Liverpool and Tottenham in Europa League

While both teams have designs on gatecrashing the top four in the the English Premier League, coaches Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino could discover their best route into the Uefa Champions League is by winning Europe's second club competition.

Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp has hailed the Europa League as a "great tournament" ahead of their Group B match against Bordeaux. Alex Livesey / Getty Images

The performances were as emphatic as the results suggested. Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur turned in arguably their best displays of the campaign at the weekend; Jurgen Klopp’s charges thrashing Manchester City 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium and Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham overcoming West Ham United by the same scoreline at White Hart Lane.

With Chelsea still languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table, 12 points adrift of the top four, there is considerable hope on Merseyside and in North London that at least one of Liverpool or Tottenham can finish in the Champions League places this term.

For now, however, such ambitions are not at the forefront of the minds of Klopp and Pochettino, with their respective teams in Europa League action on Thursday.

As Liverpool host Bordeaux and Tottenham travel to Azerbaijan to take on Qarabag, the Premier League has been placed on the back-burner.

Europe’s secondary club competition has rarely been too high up English participants’ list of priorities. West Ham and Southampton both exited this year’s edition in the third qualifying round, while Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton and Hull City were all knocked out before the quarter-final stage last season.

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While Chelsea triumphed in 2013 and Fulham and Middlesbrough reached finals in 2010 and 2006, such achievements have proven the exception to the rule that Premier League sides generally do not take the Europa League as seriously as their continental counterparts.

In many ways, such a stance is regrettable.

The tournament offers a shot at silverware for clubs who are often unable to challenge for the very biggest prizes in the game. The likes of Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk and Zenit Saint Petersburg have enjoyed some of the best nights in their history by lifting the trophy in the past decade.

It also affords players and coaches the opportunity to test themselves against foreign outfits with different styles of play and tactical approaches, as well as, in the latter stages, the chance to experience knockout football against high-quality opposition.

Ultimately, though, Premier League teams have generally concluded that the costs of the Europa League outweigh the benefits.

The English top flight is widely considered to be more intense and difficult to play in than most other European divisions, with the high-tempo, all-action style and lack of a winter break making it a test of endurance.

As such, managers have tended to view the Europa League as an unwelcome distraction from the bread-and-butter business of domestic action.

It is an attitude that was criticised by Klopp ahead of Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Rubin Kazan earlier this month, a game in which the German fielded a strong starting XI.

“I don’t need my team at 4am on Friday morning,” he said. “The difference is not too big. If you play Champions League, you are playing Wednesday and Saturday. Where is the difference?

“Is the only benefit that you like the other tournament more?” a reference to the reporters asking questions regarding the Champions League. “The Europa League is a great tournament.”

It will be interesting, however, to see whether Klopp’s enthusiasm continues in the new year, providing Liverpool advance from Group B as expected.

Like Pochettino at Tottenham, the former Borussia Dortmund coach promotes a high-pressing, hard-running game that can take its toll physically when matches come thick and fast.

While the winners of the competition are now granted automatic entry into the following season’s Uefa Champions League, both Liverpool and Tottenham may now consider qualification via the Premier League to be a more attainable target.

The negative perception of the Europa League in England is not entirely fair, and both Klopp and Pochettino seem keen to take it seriously this season.

As the race for the top four heats up in 2016, though, Liverpool and Tottenham’s domestic form will be the ultimate test of how highly their managers really regard it.

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