I too think we 100% deserved to beat them. Where we need to match them certainly is consistency. Ours is certainly not good enough. We need to play like we played against them at Anfield more often. And against lower ranked teams we need to be more ruthless.
I'm not sure the problem is consistency. Well it is, but not in the way you think. The problem is that we consistently fail to convert the vast majority of chances we create (more than any other PL team). That's the problem. I'm sure steps will be taken to address this now and in the future.
The CC brought us 2 major benefits thatare inter-related. It gave us a guarantee of some form of European football next season and it helped take the monkey off our backs regarding not winning anything. Liverpool now have 2 discreet objectives for the rest of the season the FA Cup and 4th Place. Success in either will in no way hamper success in the other. What they do have in common is the psychological benefit that will allow the squad and the manager to be more creative and maybe attack minded. We do have a strong squad. Now is the time to use it.
Spot on. Do you take any joy from being a football fan CTJ? We have a mini international break after winning our first cup in 6 years, if there was ever a time as a fan to just enjoy your football it's now. Stop putting pressure on yourselves guys. All the omens are there: Teams that invest in players then win cups usually go on to do much better at the top of the table. We finally have our best attacking players available for selection. Our summer signings are starting to find some form. Liverpool tend to finish the season strongly. Our transfer guru says big players are already interested in signing for us (Mesut Ozil was one of the most random ones of twitter to congratulate us and repeatedly said what a 'great' club we are, that's a German who plays for Madrid). Our manager and captain's first comments after the win said of our desire to win another trophy and do well in the league. We don't have to play any of the top clubs away from home. We have the morale boost of winning a cup. Our main rivals for fourth are leaking goals. We have genuine young talent pushing for the first team. Positive thoughts! I firmly believe we should now get 4th spot, we'll have underperformed if we don't get it from our current position. However in the meantime we're very well placed for a really nice end to the season. The game against Brighton was a better indicator than the Cardiff one as Cup Finals just aren't normal games i think. EDIT: Not meant to be harsh, welcome to the forum! Glad to have new blood!
