Sunday, February 14, 2010

Dominic King: Liverpool FC Can’t Get Sidetracked By Europa League Adventure

A grand day out in Hamburg or an untroubled passage through to the end of the season in the Premier League?

They are the choices with which you are faced and, it must be stressed, this is an either/or situation; you can’t have one and top it up with the other.

In normal circumstances, the vast majority would opt for the former; nothing beats the feeling of being involved in a showpiece final nor can the emotions of winning a trophy be bettered.

Were Liverpool to go all the way in the Europa League, skipping through the rounds en route to a glorious conclusion in northern Germany, not one supporter would be complaining on the morning of May 13 – or would they?

Just say the weekend had seen Rafa Benitez’s side draw or lose at the KC Stadium, a result which meant they missed out on a place in the Champions League.

Suddenly the celebrations that you might have just started visualising will have become just that bit more muted; the harsh reality of modern football, sadly, means that clubs in Liverpool’s position need finance coming in just as much as trophies.

Having started to manoeuvre themselves into a position where it appeared they would firmly grip hold of fourth place, particularly after last Saturday’s victory over Everton, events in midweek have muddied the waters again.

There was, of course, plenty to like about certain aspects of Liverpool’s performance against Arsenal; they defended robustly and, in the main, stifled a side that usually plays with such dash.

Added to that were terrific performances from Javier Mascherano, Steven Gerrard – the captain is poised to spring into life any time soon – and the composed Daniel Agger, while the return of Fernando Torres, Glen Johnson and Yossi Benayoun is imminent.

Problem is, though, Manchester City – the side who, at this stage, look the most credible challengers for fourth spot – are now level on points with the Reds and have two games in hand; furthermore, they do not have any European fixtures to trouble them.

This, clearly, will be on Benitez’s mind when he starts his preparations for Thursday evening’s Anfield tussle with Unirea Urziceni – on one hand he will be desperate to give supporters who have had nothing tangible to celebrate since 2006 a trophy.

Yet, at the back of his mind, he will be conscious of the game which takes place less than 72 hours later at the City of Manchester Stadium, a meeting that could prove definitive in the race to reach the riches of the Champions League.

“There is nothing we can do about the Arsenal result now but the lads have got some time to reflect and be disappointed,” Gerrard noted earlier this week.

“We’ve got a very big league game coming up against Manchester City but if we play like we did against Arsenal, then I would really fancy us to beat them. You can see that in the way we have played in the last six or seven games, being so hard to beat.”

But with a game against Stoke City on Tuesday night, Roberto Mancini’s team could be three points ahead of Liverpool before the sides lock horns; the margins for error with which Benitez is dealing are decreasing dramatically.

Admittedly, City’s run in is far more complicated than the one Liverpool must negotiate; they have to travel to Stamford Bridge, the Emirates and Upton Park, aside from facing Manchester United, Everton, Aston Villa and Tottenham at home.

Looking at things from this point, Liverpool’s descent to the finish line hardly presents the perils of the Hahnenkamm, the most difficult assignments being the trip to Old Trafford and home showdown with Chelsea; granted their tendency to hit form during this part of the season, you would expect them to amass plenty of points between now and May 9.

Complicating matters, however, is the Europa League. Provided they breeze past Unirea – as they should do – Lille or, most likely, Fenerbahce await.

In an ideal world, Lille will provide the opposition in the last 16, as a short hop to northern France would be far more attractive than four-and-a-half hours to Istanbul.

That said, nagging away in the back of everyone’s mind will be the question – do Liverpool have the squad to cope with fighting battles on two fronts?

Imagine, say, Torres pulls up lame chasing a pass that prevents him hassling and harrying Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic or Gerrard tweaks a groin trying to help Liverpool to get through to the last eight of a tournament that nobody really wanted to be in.

Yes, it would terrific for Liverpool to go all the way in the Europa League but, quite simply, it cannot detract from the main aim.

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