With all the negative publicity surrounding Liverpool lately it feels like we're constantly on the back foot and more likely to argue the case for our club than raise a smile at the progress that we're making. I think it's time we got the actual football into perspective and started giving the team and the coaching staff the praise that they deserve at the moment. Cast your mind back to Christmas time 2010, Roy Hodgson was in charge and we'd climbed out of the bottom half of the table but we were still way way below where we should be aspiring to be. The previous season had seen Rafa Benitez' side fail to qualify for the Champions League for the first time and there was a real sense of despair at the way we had been playing. Hodgson came in and while he's a decent, hardworking likeable football man it was obvious early on that his style didn't suit the club or the senior players.
Then came the return of Kenny Dalglish along with the very smart appointment of Steve Clarke, a football icon alongside a coach respected throughout the league, on paper an excellent management team. Just over a year on from then and we find ourselves in the Carling Cup final, the 5th round of the FA Cup and 4 points off a Champions League place. Liverpool Football Club and it's supporters will never settle for 4th place as a long term goal, but in the short term it would be an achievement we'd all be happy with. And it's something we are certainly capable of grasping this season. It's easy to say we need to start turning the draws at home into wins but it seems far harder to put this into practice. Our away form hasn't been too bad this season, there have been low moments but we've not yet gone into an away match where you have the feeling before kick off we might as well not turn up, every fixture is met with the optimism that victories at West Brom and Wolves, just as much as at Stamford Bridge and the Emirates, has generated. We need to pick up more points at home but nobody has yet turned up at Anfield and looked like beating us so we should take heart from this and take more risks going forward, the defence has performed well enough this season for us to have faith in them.
The Carling Cup final will not be an easy game, Cardiff are an excellent attacking side who may well earn themselves promotion to the Premier League at the end of the season but we are strong favourites and if we treat the game properly we should win. We have struggled over the last couple of years against lesser sides who have a go at us, Stoke are a good example of this so nothing should be taken for granted in the final but a win would set up the rest of our season nicely. With a Europa League spot already secured we can take risks in an attempt to crack the top four, there will be no need to accept draws towards the end of games, we can push for victories the way Liverpool should and in football the team that dares to win more often than not reaps the rewards.
We still have new signings to reach their peak, Downing and Carroll can only improve, Henderson is looking better each week but is still capable of more, we have academy players coming through looking good, Spearing looks comfortable in the first team and Kelly will become an England player before too long, and our senior players are all now injury and suspension free. The prospect of Gerrard and Suarez in the same side is mouthwatering and if they can both play the rest of the season they can definitely earn us more points than Chelsea, Newcastle and Arsenal. Consistent creative attacking play from those two should inspire Carroll and Downing to reach the levels we have seen them play at with other clubs, as well as help talents like Adam and Henderson settle in and learn more about what it takes to play at the top level.
Liverpool are not yet where we want to be but looking at where we were fourteen months ago we're moving in the right direction. Real success doesn't come overnight but we're moving in the right direction and the rest of the season should be met with the optimism it deserves. YNWA.
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