Would Liverpool be Better Off Losing The League Cup Semi-Final? | OneFootball

Liverpool Football Club exists to win silverware. Display even the slightest inkling that you might lack any sort of ambition and that is the kind of line that is inevitably thrown in your face. The Reds are the most successful club in England for a reason, which is based on being able to win silverware on a regular basis.

Whether it be European Cups or league titles, Liverpool have more in the trophy cabinet than any other side. With the Premier League on the line, though, might be Reds be better placed losing to Spurs on Thursday?

February is a Busy Month

As things currently stand, Liverpool’s fixture schedule has the club playing the following games:

That means we have to play six games in the shortest month of the year, with the longest period of rest being the week between the Wolverhampton Wanderers game and the Manchester City match. All of the other games scheduled to be played have either three or four days between them, meaning that there will be little rest for Arne Slot and his men.

The big problem is that the Carabao Cup final is scheduled to take place on the 16th of March. If that happens, the game that is due to be played that weekend, which is currently Aston Villa on the 15th of March, will be moved to take place on the only free date in the calendar.

That date is currently the 19th of February, which means that the Reds will need to line up against Unai Emery’s men in between playing Wolves and welcoming Man City.

There’s a League Title to be Won

Ask the majority of Liverpool supporters what they’d like to see from Arne Slot’s charges between now and the end of the season and you will be given one answer: the Premier League title. The Reds are currently six points clear of Arsenal with a game in hand, meaning that they are incredibly well-placed to win the title.

The problem is that the game in hand is against Everton and is to be played at Goodison Park, meaning that it is a significantly more difficult match for us than it is for any other team in the top-flight.

It is all but guaranteed to be an emotional occasion on the 12th of February, with Bluenoses heading to Goodison for the derby for the final time. The players will be up for it, the supporters will be keen to see our title ambitions halted and the rest of the country will be wondering what we have in our arsenal to see us move nine points clear of…Arsenal.

There are just 15 games left of the season for Liverpool, so we need to keep our foot on the throat of the Gunners if we are to win our second title of the Premier League era.

Fewer Games is Better

The problem with the League Cup taking place over two legs is that it clogs up the calendar. Once you have made the semi-final, however, you need to play in both games and you may as well do what you can to win the damn thing. Liverpool trail Tottenham Hotspur by a single goal and, given the porous nature of Ange Postecoglu’s men, will fancy their chances of overturning that deficit.

There will be either Arsenal or Newcastle United waiting for the Reds at Wembley Stadium, should they manage to do it.

One of the one hand, Liverpool would be much better-placed than Spurs to defeat either of them and no one wants to see either a club owned by Saudi Arabia or one managed by Mikel Arteta to win silverware.

On the other hand, making to the final will mean that an already busy February will have another game jammed into it and it will come directly before we have to take on Manchester City. Sure, the club with 130 charges hanging over it isn’t in the best form right now, but we’ll still need to be at our best to win at the Etihad.

Silverware is Silverware

Liverpool are the most successful club in the history of the League Cup. There was a time when Pep Guardiola’s men caught up with the Reds, but they quickly put paid to that and put themselves out in front again. With that in mind, there will be a desire from many to lift the trophy yet again.

There will also surely be a desire from Arne Slot to get his first piece of silverware in the trophy cabinet in a season that currently boasts so much promise. The likelihood is that we will reach the fifth round of the FA Cup, for example, and are already in the Champions League last 16.

Barring a complete collapse, Liverpool look set to win the Premier League. If they can get the League Cup won in the middle of March then that will mean that we can all let out a breath and relax, with silverware often begetting silverware.

We also don’t have a huge number of games to play in March thanks to the pointless international break, so chucking a League Cup final in there won’t be too hard to cope with. Yes, it will make February slightly trickier to navigate, but this team looks like it is relishing the challenge.