28 Jan 2012

Mark Lawrenson is clearly DRUNK if he actually believes this is true...

Winning the Carling Cup this season would be a great boost for Liverpool football club, but I'm sure most fans would agree that finishing 4th must remain the number one priority. Anfield legend Mark Lawrenson doesn't think so, and he inexplicably believes that the club's owners would - given the choice - prefer a Carling Cup win over qualification for next season's Champions League.

In his weekly column for The Mirror, Lawro argued:

"If you had said to Liverpool’s owners at the start of the season they could have fourth place or the Carling Cup and getting into the Europa League then I think they would have taken the trophy all day long.

What Lawrenson is basically saying here is that Liverpool's owners would prefer to play in the Europa League over the Champions League if it meant winning an (arguably) meaningless domestic trophy (!)

Have Liverpool's standards dropped so low that winning the Carling Cup is now more important than playing in Europe's premier competition?

I highly doubt that the Owners would choose the Carling Cup over a fourth place finish; indeed, John Henry himself stated earlier in the season that the club's main goal is to finish in the top four:

"Our main goal is to qualify for the Champions League. If we don’t it would be a major disappointment".

I would be extremely concerned if the club suddenly modified its ambitions and prioritised the Carling Cup over a fourth place finish in the premier league. Thankfully, I don't think there's any possibility that Lawro is right here.

In my view, a Carling Cup win and a 5th/6th place finish would not represent, as Lawro contends, "a very good season" - it would represent an overall failure of progression, especially given the vast sums of money spent on 'improving' the team.

What do you think?



Jaimie Kanwar


44 comments:

  1. How about: cup double and 4th, sounds nice to me.  Better than both options above!!  YNWA

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  2. Carling Cup, FA Cup, 4th Place and Champions league

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  3. I agree with Patrick! The aim should be cup double and top 4! It can be done! YNWA

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  4. There is no doubt that I would prefer us to finish 4th than win a cup or cups. Don't get me wrong, I would love both and it has been too long since our last cup win but for us to move onto the next stage of squad development, we need to be in the CL. Last summer we rid the squad of the dead wood, reduced the average age of the squad and reduced the wage bill. Great start. The next stage is to add higher quality players (mainly young i.e. Eden Hazard) and those type of players want the CL, so how quick we can get back in it really determines how quick we can move onto stage 2!

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  5. I'm sure Lawro will be happy you are accusing him of being drunk while working in his professional capacity
    Try to learn some laws of libel: http://bit.ly/AbWP6X

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  6. I'm sure Lawro will be happy you are accusing him of being drunk while working in his professional capacity
    Try to learn some laws of libel: http://bit.ly/AbWP6X

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  7. Wow, who says we have the RIGHT (as you seem to love the caps lock) to win anything??????? Even though we have spent big with the new owners, why should that mean we finish 4th!!!!!! Whats wrong with a work in progress and just that? My god anyone who thinks any club has a right to win everything without hard graft and lessons to learn, needs some help!!! A cup final and progress is just that, progress...

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  8. the racist picture was obviously taken from a tvor press camera - how come they dont show his other arm ????

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  9. I think Lawrenson has forgotten what is expected at Liverpool and that is to try and win everything! 
    These last 2 games has shown the players what they are capable of when they put the effort in and don't give up.

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  10. Football is all about winning stuff..Most of the Liverpool team have won fuck all. What would be the chances of this Liverpool winning the champions league next year? I think most of them would take the cup this year and finish in the champions league next year..

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  11. 4th would be great for the club but what player wants to look at their career and say 'well, I don't have any medals, but I played in the champions league'. We are building a squad, winning a cup would be a boost for any player. Although Europa league isn't the best, one season there to give a lot of the players who have not played in Europe before the experience wouldn't be a bad thing. New owners have spent net of around 30-40m the team needs time to gel. Even city and the amount they have spent took 3-4 yrs to get to where they are now and still didn't get out of the group stages. LFC is about winning trophies, 

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  12. Personally, I would choose Champions League. However, it is all moot. We are going to win the Carling Cup. We will have Europa. That is a great accomplishment with everything considered this season, deal with it.
    Now, let's transfer this Cup form into League matches and we will get to the Champions League and it should make for an exciting summer transfer window.

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  13. Just to reiterate: I think it is a silly question to ask at this stage of the season. We are in the final of the Carling Cup and we should win it.

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  14. Surely winning something is better than finishing second never mind 4th? The reaction of city's players getting knocked out the other night said it all. No club can afford to consider the carling cup as meaningless given how difficult it is to any trophy nowadays.

    It's only natural to adjust your targets during a season. United never thought about winning the Europa league did they?

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  15. 4th place is the bare minimum we need to aim for in the league.

    Its just lame pathetic spinning if people suggest otherwise and pretend that they are NOW ok with winning the Carling Cup/FA cup over CL football next season. Pathetic.

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  16. who guarantee cl group stage? arsenal had wery strong Udinese to pass,with our current team it would be tight next summer against these teams. I d choose 2 cups,good farwell do king and new start under pep or mou. ITS REALITY!

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  17. The team has shown hard graft and winning mentality in the Carling Cup took the lower league teams seriously, then went and won at Stoke,Chelsea and Man City came from behind against City to get a draw twice. They showed it again today, so why shouldn't we start get the winning feeling? That is what Kenny is trying to in still into the players! Not about the right to win with arrogance but have the right mentality of winning with graft and hard work that they have put in the cup competitions so far. Hopefully it will start to rub off in the league, treat the opposition with respect don't just expect to turn up and win like against Bolton which up set KK but be expected to win each game with hard work. The winning feeling is the work in progress!

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  18. Bit pointless from Lawro, although he does tend to talk badger-crappy a lot of the time. If he'd said this at the beginning of the season it might have had more meaning, but not now at this stage. We can still do both.

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  19. The way we've played against city and united in all games this season says our league position isnt good enough , let's push on focus etc and get champions league spot , at the start of the season 4th was not what we wanted but if we could get there now and win a cup ( or two ) think we'd all be happier , well done reds

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  20. what were the chances we would win the CL in 2005 !! no offence mate but screw the carling cup.. CL football every day of the week if its a choice and Im sure the players feel the same .. hmm lets see a game against Cardiff with little or no interest to anybody bar the two clubs involved or a chance to test yourself against some of the best teams in the world in the biggest club competition in the world with the whole world watching ??

    Not only that but the financial benifits of CL football obviously far outweigh the CC .. and theres a small matter of being able to offer our summer transfer targets CL football.. Phone call goes like this.. Kenny- Hey ' apply your own preferable big name star here' wanna come and play for Liverpool son ??
    Big name star - em sure Kenny , yer in the CL right..??
    Kenny- eh no son, but we ll be defending CC winners this comming season..
    Big name star- beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... line dead
    Kenny - hello..hello.. Penny(kennys secratry ) get me kevin phillips on the line..

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  21. Unequivocally, our standards have fallen and the same is true of our ambitions. If Dalglish remains at the helm of the club, perhaps one day, we would all unanimously agree that being in the Premiership is sufficient reward.

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  22. Considering we are not playing in Europe at all this season, I would have thought the minimum acceptable standard would be Top 4 AND a domestic trophy. Fourth place alone is not enough in my book.

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  23. lfc needs to re-establish their winning culture. slag the carling cup as much as you want but i believe it would have an immense effect on improving the dressing room for years to come.

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  24. a carling cup win is a good thing especially when the top 4 has now become the top 6 and each team is trying to fight for any type of success at the moment. we have seen this by the team line ups in the carling cup; however if we do win it then when the dust settles and we are looking to sign more players next year then without champions league football we may not be able to bring in the higher profile players we need. I think for the owners a trip to wembley and an aknowledgement that liverpool are progressing and at least winning silverware will be an indication we are going in the right direction since last times disaster against northampton. I am happy with how liverpool are doing this season, we are in the latter part of the season and still in both cups and although we could have converted some of our draws into wins in the league we still have yet to loose at anfield and 4th spot is still there is we can use the recent wins and go on a good run in the league. Hypothetically if we did win both cups and managed to slip into 4th, my god what a first season that would be for dalglish. Currently some of our new signings are miss firing a litle or alot for others but, they are getting better and the team seems to be getting stronger the more they play together. When i look back at the team last year under hodgson to what we are doing this year, have we progressed. I think massively and if we keep progressing in this way then we will be back up challenging in the future but will it take tim , of course. Look at the likes of man city who ave spent massive amounts even under the likes of thaksin shinawatra and it is only now they are ready to challenge for the league, but for a team like man city who have spent massive, the league is all they have left to look forward to whereas liverpool can still reach their targets of 2 cups and a 4th spot (fingers crossed)!!!

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  25. How are you all Liverpool fans??? Last year we were 2nd from bottom, looming relegation, looming selling all our best players to stay a float, to stay in the league, we had FSG take over our club, they brought King Kenny back to the helm, shipped out the dead wood, spent only 13 MILLION (everyone thinks closer to 70mil but with the sale of torres and a few over players it totals 13mil) Were now 7th one point of 5th and five points of 4th, in one domestic trophy final, just knocked united out of the FA Cup.... We are rebuilding a team that was clearly destroyed by bad management decisions, benitez, hodgson....!

    You gotta give this team time to gel, as a liverpool fan myself I wanna see us win everything, but i also understand that 2 long cup runs, finishing in EUROPE any type Champions League or Europa would be a succesful season this year.

    Would you expect say Newcastle to be challenging 4th spot??? after finishing 6th from bottom last year? no! So why do you think we as liverpool should be?? Most liverpool fans live in the past, the time, of Dalglish, Keegan, Rush, Hansen, Smith, Thompson, and Lawrence.. Were not this team anymore, we have had to develop and move on..

    Still no matter what happens we are Liverpool FC and its about time you plastic fans started getting behind the team instead of moaning about where they are in the league or what aspirations they should be having!

    FSG clearly stated when taking over that it would be 3-5 years before liverpool would be challenging for major honours, 1 cup final in the bag, and into the last 16 of another...!

    So plastic fans get behind them and shut up..!

    RED TILL IM DEAD... WALK ON WALK PROUD... YNWA

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  26. Sometimes you need to actually win something to kick you into the next gear. Man City with their billions were poor last season, but winning the FA Cup last year has really pushed them up a notch.

    This might the impetus Liverpool needs to push for a title challenge next season.

    You don't gain much experience finishing fourth, but the experience gained from winning a cup is immense.

    Just my two cents.

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  27. A question that comes to mind is begging to be asked. If we did get into the CL do we have the quality of players at present to maintain a run of any length therein? We would hardly have enough time to , say, bed in any new summer recruits should there be any. Perhaps a year in a lower league would have many advantages?

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  28. FA Cup, Carling Cup and 4th would be a fantastic season but even if we ultimately fail with the 4th place finish i don't think it would represent "an overall failure of progression". Under Hodgson we dropped outside the top four and deservedly so considering the performances on the field, however, this season under Dalglish, at least to my eyes, we have progressed. We may or may not finish 4th and there have been a few under par performances but on the whole the team performaces have been a lot more consistent and confident. I am not usually an "ifs and buts" man but if even half the shots that have hit woodwork had gone in, things would look a lot rosier.
    I believe we are progressing, and given some more investment in the summer, most importantly signing another striker or maybe 2, we can get back into that top 4 and achieve great things again.
    In this era of impatience its so easy to get frustrated and demand change but that is where so many clubs and their fans fall down. We must always support the club through the good times and even more so through the bad ones. Here's to a bright "liverpool red" future, YNWA

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  29. Oh dear, let's not all get carried away and start reaching for the bottle! This time last year our prayers were answered and the man NOBODY wanted to manage our great club was fired and the KING returned! He got the confidence up and he took a team of underperformers and kids on a run that almost got us back into Europe (even if it was just the Europa league.... Where both the Mancs are now)! Our squad IS stronger now than then and we've progressed in 2 cup competitions, reaching the final in 1 over the most expensively assembled squad of players in Europe.... Progress??? Too bloody right it is! I'd take the players we have now over last years squad any day. I know we've

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  30. Its correct that LFC need to push on now, after a very good week on the pitch, as stated it will do good for the owners to go to Wembley, also will be good for us fans to head to a final, no matter what final it is. Winning the final will ease the pressure on some of the new signings, so in that sense even though its not the target set, it can lead to achieving the target we all want, Kenny should be happy that he has reached a final, changed the team and still have a fighting chance of CL place. also as quoted above this is without a net spend (13 million but Cole and Aquaman still on loan and both sold should regain this 13 million)


    Its not that bad, in fact its rather good

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  31. If I had to choose between finishing 4th or winning a cup, I would choose the latter any time even if its a small cup competition like the carling cup. You`ve got to realise that a team is remembered more for the number of cups they won in their history than for the number of times they qualified for the champions league. But anyway I wont be satisfied if we win only the carling cup this season. If we have to finish outside the top 4 again this year I would like us to win the fa cup also. Hopefully we can still make it to the top 4 and win both the carling cup and the Fa cup. That would be awesome!

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  32. We are Liverpool football club.. our aim is to finish at least 4Th, and win both cups.  Its as simple s that.

    Lawrenson, bless him, is talking nonsense

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  33. We are Liverpool football club and we may not be as successful as years gone by.
    But one thing we do know is that success is measured in trophy's and nothing else. Whilst we all loved the great teams of the 90's and noughty's , they never won enough trophy's.
    We need to get back to winning trophys, then the champions league will come. Mark my words.
    YNWA.

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  34. Since we are in the final.we must go for it.Forth place is still in the agenda even if it will be difficult.ynwa

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  35. Who cares about 4th, its all about winning trophies!!

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  36. Liverpool fans need to get real. Football is about winning trophies not doing an Arsenal and qualifying each year for CL and win nothing for so long. We can develop under Kenny and new owners. Bring through more youngsters. Add players who want to play for us. Build new stadium. Then grow into , not only , a CL team but a genuine title team like city have.

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  37. For me it's not even close. I'd much rather have the trophy. Liverpool desperately need to win things. Finishing fourth doesn't excite me at all. Lawrenson is right.

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  38. I think we can already say with great certainty that Daglish's spend policy has been a complete failure and will be responsible for us not finishing fourth. Carroline, Adam, Downing and Henderson have been utter garbage... let's hope the owners squash Dalglish's idiotic buy Brit stupidity... 

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  39. were not getting fourth spot in my opinion!... to weak at home!...carroll cant score in a whore house!... good thing is suarez is back next week!..chelsea look like there going to strengthen again!..we need some more fire power up front if we stand any hope!

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  40. that would be the owners and commolli's buy british policy, not dalglish's, and you can't have seen too many games to be labelling Adam and Hendo garbage, neither have set the league on fire but both have made usefull contributions and Henderson has many years to improve, not to mention the fact that he is mostly played out of position on the right instead of the centre as we still don't have an out and out right winger of any real note.

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  41. faliure, yes  i agree, we are in a cup final and we beat the top teams consitently. we have a british base to our team something that liverpool have always had in their past glory and something that dalglish had during his successfull reins at liverpool and blackburn. Yes lets buy alot of foreign wonder kids and reach the success of arsenal in recent years, foreigners like mireles and torres who leave as they have one eye on their home land or like any other foriener who becomes world class looks at madrid and barca or a massive pay check. Think of the top teams in recent years the and look at the best players who have left in their prime!= one in particular was ronaldo for man utd. do you think van persie will stay on this year at arsenal? if barca come calling do you think surez wil stay?  If you can build a winning team with mostly british contigent then you have more of a chance of keeping it together.

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  42. we are yet to loose a game at home this year, we are not weak we just dont score enough!

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  43. lies lies lies - prior to the season all the talk was about the lack of European football benefitting our push in the league. This retrospective talk about 5th or 6th being targets in pre-season as long as we did well in the cups is all B.S.

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  44. Let's have T-shirts to save any any Liverpool FC criminals!
     

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