Would winning the Carling Cup paper over all the cracks at Liverpool?

Liverpool head into tonight’s semi final second leg Carling Cup tie with a 1-0 lead over Manchester City.

The win at the Etihad Stadium has set the Reds up nicely to make it into the final of the much-criticised competition.

Silverware

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has revealed that he would rather win the Carling Cup than finish fourth in the Premier League.

Gerrard told Sky Sports: “As a player I don’t want to be saying I finished in the top four, four or five times. I want to look back and say I won the Carling Cup three times. Or four. Or five,”

I believe Gerrard is right in the fact that he wants to win silverware but the Carling Cup is regarded as the least valued competition in English football. The Reds haven’t won much silverware in the last few years but would winning the competition really convince Liverpool fans that the club is progressing?

Statement

I think most Liverpool fans would have taken fourth place over winning the Carling Cup at the start of the season. Finishing fourth again would have put them back alongside the elite of Europe’s teams in the Champions League.

It would have been a statement of intent that Liverpool are progressing and on their way back as a major force in English football. However at this moment in time the Reds find themselves sitting in seventh place in the table, six points off fourth place Chelsea.

Saviour

When Kenny Dalglish returned to the Liverpool dugout last season he was seen as something of a saviour. The Scot managed to achieve a sixth place finish in the Premier League, despite the Reds being near the bottom of the table when he took the reigns.

The Anfield legend spent an absolute fortune in the summer reinforcing his squad in an attempt to qualify for the Champions League this season. The season started off well but in recent months the team has failed to produce the necessary results.

Dalglish, who is known to be fiercely loyal to his players criticised them after last weekends 3-1 defeat at Bolton. He was seemingly furious with his sides display and let the players know how he felt. He also told the press, which is rare for the Scot.

As much as Liverpool fans probably don’t want to believe this there has to be questions asked about the Scot’s ability to manage the club. Some of the signings that the former-Scotland international has made especially have to be questioned.

The main one being the £35million signing of Andy Carroll from Newcastle last January. The fee was always going to be a difficult one to live up to but Carroll has had a year to adapt to life at Liverpool and is still struggling.

When he was at Newcastle the team played to his strengths but Liverpool don’t play like that. In fact Liverpool have refused to adapt their style of play to get the best out of the big striker. If Roy Hodgson would have spent that amount of money on a player and he hadn’t delivered he would have been slated.

However because Kenny Dalglish is a club legend it seems fine that he has wasted the clubs money. Andy Carroll was never a £35million striker and I feel the price tag has been a burden to the striker. Other signings Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing haven’t exactly been a resounding success either.

I think Kenny Dalglish believed he had to bring in British players to improve the morale in the Reds dressing room and it hasn’t really worked. The likes of Downing and Henderson were overvalued and overhyped simply because they are British.

Progress

I really can’t see how Liverpool have progressed since finishing sixth last season. In the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final it was a familiar story as Steven Gerrard won Liverpool the game with a penalty.

The Liverpool captain has been doing that for years now and that tells you were Liverpool as a club is at the moment. They always need Gerrard to come to rescue them. Sooner or later Gerrard won’t be there to rescue them.

I really can’t see anybody else out there in a red shirt that is capable of doing that. Suspended striker Luis Suarez is capable of moments of magic but even he was struggling for goals before his suspension.

Outsiders

Liverpool still have an outside chance of qualifying for the Champions League. However it will be difficult for the Reds considering the amount of competition there is for those four spots. Winning the Carling Cup and finishing outside the top four would probably be considered failure by Liverpool fans.

Winning the Carling Cup would just mask the problems at the club. Liverpool are no longer where they were in the English game and if things continue in the same reign, it will be a long time before they anywhere near the pinnacle again. It’s a sad state of affairs for one of English football’s biggest clubs.

Would Liverpool fans be happy with winning the Carling Cup?