Is a Carling Cup win enough to pacify Liverpool’s players and supporters? Fan Mal James does not believe it should be.
Recently Charlie Adam gave an interview to the local Liverpool newspaper and came out with the statement that “We can beat any team on our day.”
This is true. Liverpool can do this, witness the away results against Chelsea and Arsenal. At the same time, they can lose against any team on their day also, and do so much too often. Can any supporter of the current Liverpool set-up really admit that they could see Manchester United, City, Arsenal or Chelsea losing to QPR having been 2-0 up with 15 minutes to play?
Adam’s comment was revealing. It said a lot about the mentality of one of Liverpool’s marquee signings. A statement that “We can beat any team on our day” is typically the sort of thing we hear from players with teams who are in the middle and lower parts of the Premiership and consider that to be success.
You would not hear such a remark from those at Man U, City, Arsenal, Tottenham or Chelsea. These clubs assume they will beat any team, not that they can on their day. What Liverpool Football Club does not need at the moment is players who clearly see an occasional ‘big scalp’, as acceptable. It is a mid-table mentality.
But then again, this is something that is increasingly seen among others associated with the club. There are those fans who are exulting in the Carling Cup win as success.
Yet, two years ago, when Manchester United won the same trophy, Liverpool fans were calling it a ‘Mickey Mouse cup’. The view that winning the Carling Cup is a big deal is typical of supporters of mid-table, or lower, clubs. I’m sure that Birmingham fans last season were shouting ‘success’ as they were relegated.
Or consider the tactics. A club like United kills teams off. They don’t go two up and then assume to sit on it. That’s the approach you expect from a lesser side. So why the inexplicable decision, against QPR, to withdraw the club’s most dangerous player with 15 minutes to go? United would have gone for a third goal. It’s a mid-table mentality that says “We’re two up, let’s hold on.”
Liverpool Football Club is headed for mid-table this season, yet again. The worrying thing is that this seems to be increasingly accepted by some of the fans so long as there is the occasional cup event.
Even more worrying is that a key recent signing seems content with this, and the team management seems to be doing nothing to respond.
The club is clearly not going to qualify for the Champions League, yet Adam, who is arguably one of the poorest players to plod around the Anfield midfield in many years, continues to be selected. Now would be the time to admit that some decisions were a mistake and to give some of the younger, more ambitious players, a chance.
image: © joncandy
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