Ah, the League/EFL/Carabao Cup- can you feel the excitement?
No, well I don’t blame you, as this tournament is a competition that is typically regarded to be less important than all the others (Premier League regular season, UEFA Champions League or Europa League, FA Cup). Still Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has warned his players that they must take this competition seriously; otherwise they will face a “problem.”
“When you first come to a country there are a lot of things you have no clue about,” Klopp told his news conference ahead of the tonight’s League Cup third round clash against Chelsea.
Liverpool starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Chelsea starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Match Preview, Injury Report: go to this link
“One of them is how people judge cup competitions before you play them. When I came in I think my first [cup] game was Bournemouth and everybody here told me you play the kids or whatever. You have a competitive game and you play the kids? It’s nice to play the kids but you cannot use all of them. You have to adapt to that.”
“I was never interested in that, to be honest. We have a situation and we have plenty of games, so we make decisions because of the situation and not because of the competition.”
The winner of tonight’s Liverpool-Chelsea EFL Cup clash is in a good position to win it, due to two reasons. First they will have eliminated a fellow big six club from the tourney. Secondly, Manchester United, who had the second most favorable odds of winning the tournament, crashed out last night.
Also, Liverpool have not won a trophy of any sort since claiming the 2012 League Cup, so silverware of any sort is certainly welcome at Anfield.
“It’s never the competition that we say: ‘It’s only the League Cup and the final is in March or whatever’. It’s Wembley and I remember when we were there we wanted to win it — we were close, but we didn’t. We will try again,” Jurgen Klopp continued.
“It’s not about judging the silverware. You cannot do it like that. What we have to do is to be always 100 percent in concentration, rhythm, focus and everything. Only be there and don’t think about where it leads to.”
“If I see one player tomorrow have the feeling that it’s ‘only the League Cup’ then he will have a problem.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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