The concept of Liverpool intentionally seeking to exclude themselves from home cup competitions, even for the advantage of their general marketing campaign, rightly wouldn’t sit nicely with the fanbase.
It’s a membership constructed on a never-say-die perspective, on a perception that we must always be going for each honour on the desk.
But, regardless of that, we’ve seen pundits, together with Champions League winner Jamie Carragher, urge Arne Slot to desert the pursuit of home cup glory in favour of the larger image.
To not counsel that this recommendation borders on madness – there’s a chilly logic that appeals. Actually so if Liverpool end the 2024/25 marketing campaign as Premier League and Champions League winners.
However is that value compromising the membership’s core values?
Have Liverpool created a nightmare state of affairs for themselves?
It’s exhausting to not sympathise with Carragher’s feedback given we’ve seen a push for max honours is completely able to derailing a season come the March/April mark.
Paul Merson, likewise, appears to share this view, having expressed some concern at what he views to be a ‘nightmare’ scenario for the membership following a Carabao Cup victory over Southampton.
“Getting via to the semi-final is a nightmare for them as a result of now they need to play two additional video games in January and that’s an enormous load on this workforce,” the Sky Sports activities pundit wrote in his column with Sportskeeda.
“If I’m being trustworthy, that win for Liverpool within the cup was not a superb consequence. These video games simply mount up and it may find yourself being an issue. Once you get to the semi-final, you can not mug round, it’s essential to play your finest workforce!”
We’ll now be set to play out the primary leg of a two-legged conflict with Tottenham on the week starting January 6, with the second leg commencing on the week starting February 3.
On a optimistic be aware, an FA Cup third spherical assembly with Accrington Stanley on January 11 ought to grant Arne Slot a uncommon alternative for rotation.
With Liverpool having already assured a spherical of 16 place within the Champions League knockout stage, we’ll skip the dreaded play-offs (happening on February 11/12 and February 18/19. So there might be some respite forward of the spherical of 16 fixtures in March.
So, sure, there’ll be some additional mileage in our legs, however issues don’t look fairly so unhealthy general.
