Liverpool’s Corner: Dalglishai??i??s Team Selection Is Key To Avoiding Wembley Blues

By Akarsh Sharma
13 years Ago

With Liverpool v Cardiff – Carling Cup final – around the corner, TheHardTackle continues its build up to the big day at Wembley with an eye on Dalglish’s team selection.

It is the least glamorous of all trophies that can be won by a top English club in a football season, but try telling this to Steven Gerrard, who claims his Wembley experience will be on par with any thus far in a Liverpool shirt. Try telling this to Kenny Dalglish, who has a special love affair with the cup after winning it four times in a row in the 80’s. And try telling this to anyone else associated with Liverpool football club, who has had to endure a traumatic six-year spell without a concrete ai???silverai??i?? lining.

Capturing the Carling Cup will do nicely, for starters. However, as with any major final where one team is such strong favourites to win, complacency is regarded as the main obstacle.Ai??The statements coming out of Anfield, though, are really positive and there seems to be little to suggest that complacency is going to trouble the redsai??i?? quest for an elusive trophy.

Steven Gerrard hasn’t played nearly the number of Cup finals a player of his calibre deserves. He is still as hungry as ever and looks forward to leading his boyhood club to a first ever domestic final at the new Wembley.

ai???Don’t get me wrong, we had some great days in Cardiff and I’ve got some fantastic memories of playing at the Millennium Stadium, but I’d have preferred to have won those trophies at Wembley.ai???

Kenny Dalglish was a player with immense experience of Cup finals and will draw on his experience of losing a final as massive favourites.

ai???Underestimate Cardiff City and theyai??i??ll do a Wimbledon on us.ai???

Even the likes of Andy Carroll are saying sensible things, without getting carried away. The big man expects a start at Wembley.

“We’ve got to go and think we’re playing against Manchester United. We’ve got to treat it as though they are the best team we’ll play against.”

So, it seems that complacency is unlikely to hamper a bunch of players who are willing to go to any lengths for a trophy. In their semi-final win against fellow Championship side Crystal Palace, Cardiff City played football worthy of a Premier League side. The Welsh team dominated proceedings at home and were unlucky not to triumph in regular time, being denied multiple times by the woodworkAi??- something their opponents on Sunday would sympathize with.

In Kenny Miller, they have a Scottish International capable of troubling the best of defences and although Cardiff have had a major dip in form – perhaps, distracted by the Cup final – they have been masters of scoring first and shutting up shop thereafter.Ai??However, it would take only the most hardcore of bluebirds to deny that only a bad day in the office for Liverpool coupled with a great day for Cardiff City, will result in an upset at the new Wembley on Sunday.

This is why Kenny Dalglish’s team selection plays a major role towards determining Sunday’s result. Of late, Kenny Dalglish has left everybody guessing. Although he hasn’t been as unpredictable as former manager Rafael Benitez, he has made game-defining choices that have affected the overall display of the team.

King Kenny’s liking for a bold – and bizarre – team selection was clear right from the first day of the season, when his choice to play young John Flanagan along with four newcomers in the team resulted in a draw against Sunderland. Since then, Flanagan has hardly seen any first team action and Liverpool have failed to shed the habit of drawing games at home.

In more recent matches too, Dalglish’s team selection has been put under the scanner. In an insipid goalless draw against Stoke at Anfield, Dalglish started with five defenders and Dirk Kuyt alone upfront, while leaving Andy Carroll on the bench. Carroll was left on the bench at Old Trafford, as well, even though he was the architect of Liverpool’s win over United in the FA Cup; exploiting United’s vulnerability in the air.

Ai??

Liverpool manager knows a thing or two about Cup finals!

Stewart Downing has claimed that his performance against Brighton was his best in a Liverpool shirt, but it should not be nearly enough to see him in the starting line-up come Sunday. At Old Trafford, Downing was so rubbish that he brought Jose Enrique down to his level and made Liverpool’s left flank completely ineffective.Ai??The only reasons due to which Downing has regularly seen first team action are Craig Bellamy’s bad knee that does not allow him to play consecutive matches, and Bellamy’s occasional deployment as a striker rather than a left winger.

Jordan Henderson has been another disappointment, who has seen first team action only due to Liverpool’s lack of right wingers and Dirk Kuyt’s declining performances. He is a classic example to justify that England is a place where “perspiration is given precedence over inspiration” (a quote borrowed from another article). The former Sunderland midfielder has always put in a decent shift in terms of ground coverage, but his technical ability is yet to blossom. He has also been deployed as a central midfielder and an attacking midfielder with poor effect.

The Liverpool manager has to make a choice between Dirk Kuyt and Jordan Henderson, and Dirk Kuyt’s experience should get the nod ahead of the young Englishman.Ai??Dalglish has also been excited about unleashing his attacking trio of Gerrard, Suarez and Carroll, as he did in the thrashing of Brighton. There is no reason that the three shouldn’t start on Sunday.

Liverpool’s back line is a certainty – consisting of Johnson, Skrtel, Agger and Enrique. Besides this, Charlie Adam must partner Steven Gerrard instead of Jay Spearing. Although LFC’s academy product has done brilliantly in covering for Lucas, Adam is a better ball player.

Ever since his stunning performance against Manchester City in the return leg of the semi-final, it has been dubbedAi??Craig Bellamy’s Cup final against his boyhood club Cardiff City. The Welshman, who has been the club’s signing of the season, will definitely start on Sunday adding to the Welsh flavour in the tie.

With a virtually full squad – apart from long-term absentees – at his disposal, any deviation from the above suggested line-up opens the door for Cardiff City to play around a weakness and cause an upset.

Another worry for Liverpool is the hard way in which the club has managed to grab the previous trophies. In the last decade, it has taken penalties to beat Birmingham in the League Cup, a late Michael Owen miracle to win an FA Cup, another miracle at Istanbul and a Steven Gerrard special against West Ham at the Millenium Stadium.

Pattern suggests that Liverpool are going to make it difficult for themselves, but they have been masters of overcoming difficulties on theAi??road to Wembley. On their way to the final, the Reds have triumphed at the Britannia, at Stamford Bridge and at the Etihad Stadium – a wonderful collection of away grounds that areAi??amongAi??the toughest to conquer.

Carling Cup is often referred to as the ‘Mickey Mouse Cup’ in football banter to indicate a meaningless trophy, but Roberto Mancini’s disappointed look at Anfield suggested otherwise. And so did Villas-Boas’ expressions in front of a flat Stamford Bridge, or Fergie’s face when Palace shocked United at Old Trafford; or rewinding one year, the tears that followed Arsenal’s shock defeat to Birmingham City.

With the rise of six big guns in England, every trophy matters now more than ever. If Liverpool need to start re-building towards a future akin to their great past, recapturing their ‘King of Cups’ tag wouldn’t be a particularly bad start for Kenny Dalglish.

Come Monday, ‘Mickey Mouse’ should be sitting comfortably inside the Anfield cabinet, smiling next to ‘Ol’ Big Ears’ from Istanbul.

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Categories: COVER STORY, Editor's Pick, English Premier League, Liverpool FC
Tags: Liverpool FC

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