It’s never nice losing to Chelsea , particularly not in a semi-final.
Much as everyone will now be quick to say “ah well, nobody cares about the
League Cup anyway”, it would have been great to win it, particularly at the
expense of our rivals from West London . Sadly
it wasn’t to be, but there are many positives that can be taken from the game.
The first of these positives is Simon Mignolet. As I’ve been
saying for much of the season, he makes up for the errors he makes with the
excellent saves he pulls off. He was at his finest in yesterday’s match, an
exquisite save with the feet from a deflected Costa shot being the highlight.
He also looked a lot more confident in claiming the ball than he has been for much
of the season; he plucked multiple crosses out of the air, and his commanding
cries to his defenders could be heard clearly. Although he won’t be replacing
Thibaut Courtois as Belgium first choice any time soon – he picked up man of
the match in both legs of the tie – he is at least demonstrating to his critics
that he is far from the root of our problems, and thus not a priority for
replacement.
Another good sign was the continued excellent form of
Philippe Coutinho. He has a huge amount of talent, and it was on show in this
match. His clever twists and turns as well as his deft touches allowed him to
glide seamlessly past Chelsea
players on a number of occasions – he even worked his way through on goal once,
only to be denied by an excellent Courtois stop. He is arguably the best player
in our team – although strong arguments could be made for Sterling and Coutinho – and if he can keep up
this run of form then our push for the top four will be helped significantly.
The youth of the team is also very encouraging. Nobody would
argue the fact that we gave Chelsea a proper run
for their money; we were all over them in the home leg, and took them to extra
time at Stamford Bridge England
such a good contest now, where will they be in three years time? If we can keep
this exceptionally talented bunch of players together, Liverpool will surely be
back up with Europe ’s elite before too long.
Can, Sterling , Coutinho, Sturridge, Markovic,
Ibe and Henderson
are all under the age of 24; to say the least, this has the look of a side that
could turn out to be formidable.
Of course, it isn’t all positive: we did, after all, get
knocked out. The only real downside to our performance was the inability to
find the net, and to be honest I’m not too concerned by this failure. Firstly,
Thibaut Courtois is an exceptional goalkeeper. Nobody would find it easy to
score against him. Secondly, we were missing our main striker: once Sturridge
returns, the excellent chances we are creating currently will start getting
rounded off. Is it frustrating that Balotelli has still proved unable to step
up in Sturridge’s absence? Of course. Ultimately, however, Sturridge is one of
the best strikers in the league; we can’t expect to have a back-up who can
match his standard. The blame can’t be placed entirely on Balotelli either –
Rodgers could be handling him better. Using him as a 70th minute
substitute piles immense pressure on him to score, particularly after Rodgers
publicly criticised him prior to the match. It is also true that Balotelli is
better in a two than as a lone striker; hopefully he is given a chance to play
with Sturridge when he returns from injury.
Overall, although losing to Chelsea is devastating, I am choosing to take
the positives from what was ultimately a very good performance. Although we may
need to be patient with our young squad, I am confident that we will be able to
exact our revenge on Chelsea in full before long –here’s hoping that next time
we face up to them in a semi-final there will be more on the line than the
Capital One Cup.
-James Martin
Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013
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