A stylish win against Utrecht wouldn’t just be good for the young players involved, but would also instil confidence into the squad that we really are capable of damaging most teams as long as were on form. The time for excuses is over now. With Joe Cole’s suspension done and Dirk Kuyt recovering so quickly from his shoulder injury we pretty much have a full strength squad to choose from and I personally still believe that our first XI can go toe to toe with most teams in Europe.
The Europa League can be our training ground competition where we try out new systems to use against domestic teams. Along with that I’m actually seeing quite a few positives from our participation in Europe’s ‘B’ competition. For one thing we’re winning games comfortably without using our full strength squad; that’s one statement you couldn’t say about us last year for sure. Another positive from our Europa League games has been the goals of David Ngog. The young Frenchman is proving himself to be a real finisher due to the fact that even when he’s not playing well he’s managing to score goals. As long as he continues to score goals his confidence and reputation will increase rapidly and more importantly will give us fans more confidence that he can be relied upon to step in for Fernando Torres when needed.
Seeing us beat Steaua Bucharest 4-1 with some key players missing was a nice boost because it implies that our squad depth isn’t so bad after all, so i’m hoping to see a lot more of these confident Europa League performances transferred to our league games.
On a negative note it’s a shame that we’re out of the Carling Cup now because I was really looking forward to us using that as another training ground competition to benefit our second string. What it means is that for some players like Ryan Babel for example, the Europa League really is the last chance saloon for their Liverpool careers.
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