Brendan Rodgers has said the FA Cup represents Liverpool's last realistic chance of success this season and warned their involvement will be over without an improved defensive display at Blackburn Rovers.
Liverpool travel to Ewood Park for the delayed quarter-final replay on Wednesday with confidence and Champions League qualification hopes dented by defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal. Rodgers concedes a top-four finish is a remote prospect, although has not dismissed the possibility completely with Manchester City struggling in fourth, but says Champions League qualification and a first trophy of his reign were his objectives before this campaign.
The Liverpool manager denies the season will be over unless his team secure a semi-final meeting with Aston Villa, yet admits they need to win the FA Cup for a sign of progress. Rodgers said: “I don’t want to go down the route of saying that [the FA Cup will make or break the season]. Our objective was to win a trophy. I think if we didn’t get in the top four and we didn’t have a trophy this year we ourselves would be disappointed.
“The FA Cup would certainly give us a great boost as a team, with lots of young players and players coming into the club. That’s the expectancy we want. We want to be able to be challenging every year. That was the key thing for me, to get the group challenging at the top end of the league and for trophies. The FA Cup would mark a good step forward for us.”
Suspensions
Liverpool have several defensive problems as they prepare for the replay against Gary Bowyer’s Championship team, with both
Emre Can
and
Martin Skrtel
suspended. Can received two yellow cards in Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Arsenal as Liverpool toiled in the absence of Skrtel, who is also suspended for Monday’s game against Newcastle United, and Kolo Touré made an erratic return to the heart of defence.
Rodgers’s side had gone 596 minutes without conceding an away goal in the league until Héctor Bellerín’s opener at the Emirates – the second longest sequence in Liverpool’s history – and the manager admits a return to that form is essential at Ewood Park.
Defensive performance
The Liverpool manager, who selected Touré ahead of the €27 million summer signing
Dejan Lovren
against Arsenal, was asked whether his team would lose to Blackburn with a repeat of Saturday’s defensive performance. “I think so,” he said. “We didn’t defend. First of all, we didn’t defend the ball well enough. We gave the ball away in poor areas for two of the four goals.
“Over the last few months we have defended really well, we had six clean sheets against good opponents and defended very well away from home. The minute you come off it and if you come off it against good players you can get punished and that is what happened at Arsenal.”
Rodgers has denied a report that a team meeting to dissect the Arsenal game on Sunday represented crisis talks but admits Liverpool’s confidence has suffered.
Manchester City’s defeat at Crystal Palace on Monday, however, means Liverpool remain only seven points adrift in the pursuit of Champions League qualification and their manager insists the season still offers rich potential.
“The job now is about preparing the players on the training field and looking to reinforce the confidence. We have the benefit of analysing our performances, looking at why we played well and why we won games, and it is about retaining that. You have to continue to work and be positive.
“The last two results and performances have been disappointing but there is still so much left in the season for us. The seven league games we have left offer 21 points and you never know – the teams above us still have difficult games to play but the mathematics of it show it will be difficult, but it can be done. Our attitude and our mindset is to get to the FA Cup final and win it and we will be fighting to the very end in the league. There is everything still to play for and we can still make it a really successful season.” Guardian Service
