The Doc says it's Unirea

I’m in two minds about how Rafa should approach the Unirea game. On the one hand, I feel that as the only competition we can still win this season, we should go all out to win the Europa League and that means playing a strong XI against the Romanians at Anfield. On the other hand, a Cup tie against a team whose name sounds like a water infection in a competition that has become cast so far adrift of the Champions League is about as appealing as a Sunday morning hangover and we face a League match against City just 3 days later that could define whether or not we ultimately end up back in the competition next year.

Playing in the Europa League is a bit like shopping in Aldi. You can clearly see there are benefits to shopping in there but you feel pretty embarrassed about it none the less – especially when you know your neighbours are shopping at M&S. It’s best to be able to shop than not but it saps the pride none-the-less.

However, in the current Liverpool squad, the following players have collected winners’ medals with our club: Carragher, Gerrard, Reina, Agger and Aurelio. And Agger’s and Aurelio’s were for the Community Shield win over Chelsea in 2006. Since then Kuyt and Mascherano also picked up runner up medals for the 2007 Champions League Final and since then there has been nothing. The only silverware Torres has won in his time at Anfield was the European Championship with Spain. Benayoun has added nothing to the runner up medal from the 2006 FA Cup Final that he brought with him to Anfield. Insua, Babel, Lucas, Skrtel, Riera, Ngog and everyone else who arrived at Anfield after 13/08/2006 has won as many honours as Everton and Newcastle combined during the same period.

Winning trophies is like winning football matches. It becomes a habit if done frequently but the longer times goes since the last one, the harder it becomes to get back into the habit.

We saw with teams like Man Ure and Chelsea that after a few seasons without winning a trophy, winning even a pot as derided as the League Cup can prove to be the catalyst for future successes.

After a trophyless season in 2004-05 in which the dirty Mancs finished outside of the League’s top two for the third time in four years, Fergie’s men pipped the Mighty Wigan Athletic to win the League Cup in 2006 to avoid a second successive trophyless campaign. For the likes of Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Park Ji-Sung and Louis Saha this was their first winners medal at the club. The following season they were League Champions.

Similarly Chelsea had won nothing since the FA Cup in 2000 until Jose Mourinho took them to Cardiff to play us in the Carling Cup Final of 2005. Thanks to Stevie G’s 79th minute own goal, Chelsea went on to win the Cup earning first winners’ medals of some players’ careers (Lampard, Joe Cole, Gallas, Duff, Cech and Glen Johnson) and first winner’s medals at Chelsea for the likes of Makelele, Carvalho and Drogba. They went on to win the Premiership that season and added numerous other honours in the next few seasons bankrolled by Roman Abramovich.

I am not suggesting that had Man Ure not won the Carling Cup in 2006 that they wouldn’t have won the League the following season but I do believe winning it made subsequent successes easier. Had United lost to Wigan, supporters would have been critical of the team and crucially of the manager after two barren campaigns. The talk on the terraces, moan-ins and internet forums would focus on the team’s inability to add to the club’s list of honours. The pressure to win a trophy in the 2006-07 campaign would have been far greater. As it was, that success gave the players the experience of winning something and the belief they could win things together under that manager.

It is a similar story with Chelsea. Had Stevie G not headed the ball into his own net and Liverpool held out to win in the Millenium Stadium, Chelsea probably would still have gone on to win the League but perhaps with more doubts in the minds of their players that could have led to a wobble or two during the run-in.

I certainly would not suggest that winning the Europa League would mean Liverpool will win something next season but I do think it would make it easier for them to do so. For a little while, it would silence the ‘Rafa-out’ brigade and crucially it would enable the likes of Kuyt and Torres to look around them in the dressing room and see players with whom they have shared a success. Perversely, even if we did qualify for next season’s Champions League, how could the players believe we can win it if they couldn’t even win the Europa League?

I can’t believe I am actually saying this but I think it is more important to win the Europa League than to finish in the top four this season and, given the choice, that is what I would choose. Even so, I would prefer not to have to make a choice because I would like to see us go all out to achieve both.

That means playing a strong-ish team at Anfield on Thursday. I say ‘ish’ because I think Rafa should take the opportunity to give certain fringe players a game. Assuming he is fit, Aquilaini has to start this one. I totally understand Rafa’s decisions not to use him against some of the very physical recent opponents such as Stoke and Everton but if he can’t be expected to perform against Unirea then there is literally no point having him in the squad this campaign. Having resisted Birmingham’s offer for Babel, I think the manager needs to use the frustratingly inconsistent moron so I would like to see him feature. Perhaps this game could enable Rafa to play Babel up front but then it might also be worth using Ngog as the lad seriously needs a goal for his confidence right now. This is also an opportunity to blood Dani Pacheco and give him a chance to prove whether he should be in contention for the first team in the remainder of the campaign but whether you could field both Pacheco and Aquilaini is debatable. I would expect Aurelio to start given his lack of recent games while Kyrgiakos may come in for Daniel Agger given that the Greek is suspended for Sunday’s game at City. Carra is definitely out of Thursday’s game so Rafa will have to choose between young Kelly and Degen for the right-back slot. Personally, I would like to see Kelly get the nod. I just hope Rafa keeps Reina in goal and doesn’t give Cavalieri the nod as he has done in most domestic Cup games (in which we have been eliminated).

That means my starting XI would be: Reina; Kelly, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Aurelio; Lucas, Mascherano, Maxi, Babel; Aquilaini, Ngog with Pacheco replacing Aqua if he’s not fit or coming on after 60 mins.

On paper, that is clearly not the strongest XI but neither is it a ‘Carling Cup’ side. If it can’t do the job, we still have the second leg to pull the tie back (and it might add a bit of interest to the competition if that were the case) while we can also have the likes of Stevie and Dirk on the bench if needed.

I put Maxi in the team as I think he needs a decent performance and this is the sort of opposition against which he should be able to shine. However, Riera has been kicking his heels of late so I would say it’s an either/or scenario. One should start against Unirea with the other starting against City unless the guy who starts against Unirea makes himself undroppable.

Of course, if Riera started, Babel would not be used on the right and, in any case, I think Rafa is more likely to field Degen on the right of midfield.

Still, Degen apart, it is nice to have some options at last!