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Carragher: Liverpool should focus on all competitions


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Jamie Carragher says Liverpool should give themselves every opportunity to win all four major competitions on offer.

 

The Reds have slipped nine points behind current leaders Man City albeit having played a game less.

 

As the calendar has rolled into 2022, Liverpool face a season defining clash against fellow contenders Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tomorrow afternoon.

 

By the time that fixture comes around, City could be 12 points clear of Liverpool as they play in the New Years Day early kickoff against Arsenal.

 

So any more slip-ups like we saw against Leicester during the week will mean that the league title winners from 2019/20 would face an almighty mountain to climb to regain their crown.

 

As we have seen over the past two years, the best laid plans can easily come unstuck at the drop of a hat and it is why Carragher has the complete picture in mind when it comes to silverware as he wrote in the Telegraph (per the Mirror).

 

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“Winning the biggest prize of all — the 2019 Champions League — and ending the 30-year wait to become English champions in 2020 secured Klopp’s legend.

 

“The subsequent Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup victories made for a memorable 12 months.

 

“But if Klopp leaves Liverpool in 2024 without adding to them, there will be regret when considering all the other seasons where scintillating football went without silverware.”

 

“There is a broader lesson to learn, for Liverpool especially, when the margin for error in a title bid is so small.

 

“The club have to maximise their chances of winning all four competitions they enter every season, recognising the League Cup and the FA Cup as worthy prizes.”

 

The Sky Sports pundit said that his former club could look at the path that Chelsea have been down over the past two decades or so.

 

“To put it simply, Liverpool need to become more like Chelsea.

 

“In the past 22 seasons, Chelsea have won the Premier League twice (2015 and 2017). A good return, but a reflection of how the balance of power changed after the City Abu Dhabi takeover.

 

“In the previous six years, Chelsea were Premier League champions three times (2005, 2006 and 2010).

 

“What they have done so well during the Roman Abramovich era is to become serial trophy collectors: five FA Cups, three league cups, two Europa League titles. That’s in addition to being Champions League winners twice.”

 

Due to the compressed fixturing and extra competitions that his club have taken part in during the last few years (eg World Club Cup), the domestic Cup competitions have not been on the radar for Klopp.

 

However this season they see themselves in the semi final of the Carabao Cup where they will play Arsenal in a two-legged contest.

 

It is something that Carragher feels should be embraced as the club aims for more silverware.

 

"When the Premier League is a step too far, Chelsea have shown there is nothing wrong with occasionally redefining themselves as a cup team.”

 

“Liverpool need to get on board that Wembley bus to ensure the promise of another campaign packed with brilliant collective and individual performances does not go unfulfilled.”

 

 


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I make him right.

 

Winning trophies is the clubs only reason for existing.

 

If course the league and the european cup are the top priorities..

 

But we absolutely should try and win everything and doing so contrary to popular belief does not mean jibbing off the big ones for smaller ones....building a squad that can push for all 4 and hopefully pick up as many as they can each year absolutely should be our aim...you won't win everything every year even Abu Dhabi don't but you absolutely should be trying.

 

 

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It's an awkward one , as Jurgen quite clearly doesn't like having extraneous players who aren't likely to play too many games , and I'm sure  FSG wholeheartedly agree with him. As an oldie who has seen loads of trophies in my younger days I do agree that it has been a bit dismal going out of the cups so early for years now , and depressing to see them discussed in purely monetary terms.

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That's the key, building a squad strong enough to compete for all 4. 

I don't think we're a million miles away, we've some good young lads who have come in to help the league Cup run and will be needed in the Fa cup. 

I think it was robbo who said words along the lines of, '' we want to be winning that much that we don't remember the years we won things''. 

That's got to be the attitude and why we need to take the cups seriously. 

Last 4 of the league cup next week, we need to win the silverware. 

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34 minutes ago, sir roger said:

It's an awkward one , as Jurgen quite clearly doesn't like having extraneous players who aren't likely to play too many games , and I'm sure  FSG wholeheartedly agree with him. As an oldie who has seen loads of trophies in my younger days I do agree that it has been a bit dismal going out of the cups so early for years now , and depressing to see them discussed in purely monetary terms.

Up the prize money for the two domestic cups and you’d soon see Liverpool trying to win them again.

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Sadly due to the way football finance is structured, unless you have a bottomless purse the main objective is always going to be top 4, which is pretty shit when you think about it.

 

Ferguson - British footballing hero figure that he is - and to a lesser extent Wenger, ruined cup competitions and that's a tragedy.

 

That's only because there's less money in it too, therefore a PR exercise was waged against them to make fans think they're shite, but they're not, my happiest football memories involve domestic cups, especially FA cups.

 

What would you rather have, top four finishes for the nest 10 years, or * adopts William Wallace voice * one chance, just one chance to go to Wembley in a cup final, any cup final, and see an actual fucking trophy.

 

The brazen disdain we show for the league cup especially, treating it like it's a pre season tournament, is embarrassing quite frankly, it always pisses me off every year.

 

Carragher is spot on here.

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Not so long ago (like, just a few weeks!) I'd have disagreed and would have said prioritise trying to win the league (and/or CL) at all costs. 

 

But it's like playing poker with someone who is being allowed to just go through the pack and select whatever cards they want. How can you compete with that? We have done incredibly well to compete and even beat them, and with a fair wind behind us we still can. Unfortunately we've been derailed through one thing or another over the last couple of weeks and unlike how it always used to be there's just no margin for error. 

 

City are cheating, they're being allowed to do so without ANY punishment and it's completely fucked the league up for everyone else. They'd be on course for five in a row only for the fact we had the second greatest season (99 points) in the entire history of the competition and denied them. Take us out of the equation and they'd have won the last four leagues by the following amount of points:

 

19

26

15

12

 

So yeah, now it has to just be try and win whatever trophy we can and not be too sniffy about what it happens to be. 

 

I haven't cared about the league cup in years but Carra is right about Chelsea just picking up trophies here and there and amassing a nice little collection for themselves and adding to the honours list. We had the obsession about ending the 30 year wait but that's gone now so it takes away that pressure. It's harder than ever to win the league when the deck is stacked so strongly in favour of a club not operating within the same rules as everyone else.

 

I'd love to win the league cup this year now, problem is we probably wont even be able to field a proper team against Arsenal now because of covid, injuries and AFCON.

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14 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Sadly due to the way football finance is structured, unless you have a bottomless purse the main objective is always going to be top 4, which is pretty shit when you think about it.

 

Ferguson - British footballing hero figure that he is - and to a lesser extent Wenger, ruined cup competitions and that's a tragedy.

 

That's only because there's less money in it too, therefore a PR exercise was waged against them to make fans think they're shite, but they're not, my happiest football memories involve domestic cups, especially FA cups.

 

What would you rather have, top four finishes for the nest 10 years, or * adopts William Wallace voice * one chance, just one chance to go to Wembley in a cup final, any cup final, and see an actual fucking trophy.

 

The brazen disdain we show for the league cup especially, treating it like it's a pre season tournament, is embarrassing quite frankly, it always pisses me off every year.

 

Carragher is spot on here.

Except he’s not really, at least not in his reasoning. Chelsea are a poor example because domestic cups / the defiled former UEFA cup get managers the sack there. I agree in principle that, now the league has completely gone, it’s worth putting a bit more stock in the domestic cups, but it’s still a tertiary goal behind the CL and qualifying for next year’s competition.

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I just think it all comes down to what being a footy fan is all about. When you were a kid you'd put the cup final team picture in your house's front window and all the family watch the game. I can remember where I watched the 86/89 Fa cup, where we were in when Owen scored two against arsenal and where I was when we beat the mancs in the Worthington.

 

I can't remember and matches where we qualified for top four, which for the last 20 years has been our only goal. It's shit. I'm not arsed about seeing us in the champions League unless we're going to win it, the games themselves have lost their novelty value, I want us to win things and I want young fans to have those memories.

 

The money men want us to qualify and they've just constantly reinforced the notion that cups are shite and that they're just in the way, but they're not, they're what footy is all about, at least what it should be about.

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4 minutes ago, rb14 said:

This is so utterly utterly depressing.

 

More depressing is that most people don't give a fuck because they're just happy someone other than us or United (and probably even Chelsea) are winning it.

 

They're letting that cloud their judgement as to what City are doing and how genuinely horrific it is for everyone. They're ruining the game in this country and most people are refusing to see it.

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4 hours ago, sir roger said:

It's an awkward one , as Jurgen quite clearly doesn't like having extraneous players who aren't likely to play too many games , and I'm sure  FSG wholeheartedly agree with him. As an oldie who has seen loads of trophies in my younger days I do agree that it has been a bit dismal going out of the cups so early for years now , and depressing to see them discussed in purely monetary terms.

Thing is back in the day it was the same 14 to 16 players doing it

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8 minutes ago, MegadriveMan said:

ously a lot has change

 

44 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

More depressing is that most people don't give a fuck because they're just happy someone other than us or United (and probably even Chelsea) are winning it.

 

They're letting that cloud their judgement as to what City are doing and how genuinely horrific it is for everyone. They're ruining the game in this country and most people are refusing to see it.

And equally depressing is that the media is complicit in this dreadful state of affairs, failing to call out City for the massive cheats that they are (with only a couple of low profile exceptions) and lavishing unjustified praise on this uber-sportwashing exercise by an appalling regime.

There was a piece in the Telegraph a few days ago saying, basically, that their dominance is crap for the PL, but because of Foden, Grealish, Sterling, it's great for the England team. Whoop-de-fucking doo.

 

I feel more distanced from this sport with each passing day, which is fucking tragic because we have the best manager and team we've had for decades.

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8 minutes ago, DaveT said:

 

And equally depressing is that the media is complicit in this dreadful state of affairs, failing to call out City for the massive cheats that they are (with only a couple of low profile exceptions) and lavishing unjustified praise on this uber-sportwashing exercise by an appalling regime.

There was a piece in the Telegraph a few days ago saying, basically, that their dominance is crap for the PL, but because of Foden, Grealish, Sterling, it's great for the England team. Whoop-de-fucking doo.

 

I feel more distanced from this sport with each passing day, which is fucking tragic because we have the best manager and team we've had for decades.

Great for the England team? Would those players magically turn to shit at midnight if City were forced to play by the rules? I have a funny feeling they’d easily find themselves a home at other top six clubs in the event City were no longer able to cater to their demands.

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1 hour ago, dave u said:

 

More depressing is that most people don't give a fuck because they're just happy someone other than us or United (and probably even Chelsea) are winning it.

 

They're letting that cloud their judgement as to what City are doing and how genuinely horrific it is for everyone. They're ruining the game in this country and most people are refusing to see it.

This is nail on head.

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45 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

Great for the England team? Would those players magically turn to shit at midnight if City were forced to play by the rules? I have a funny feeling they’d easily find themselves a home at other top six clubs in the event City were no longer able to cater to their demands.

Absolutely. The whole article was utter drivel, and mostly aimed at putting some positive spin (for the Ingerlund wankers) on an abysmal situation.

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