Liverpool's preparations for Manchester United showdown not going to plan admits Gerrard
Liverpool's preparations for Manchester United showdown not going to plan admits Gerrard
Champions will be better rested for Sunday's clash after Kop club not only play 24 hours later but get dragged into extra time
Gerrard: "A lot of players who'll be starting on Sunday have played too much football"
Andrew Powell
Steve Gerrard admits Liverpool’s 120-minute midweek Capital One Cup
marathon was the last thing they needed going into Sunday’s showdown
with arch-rivals Manchester United. Liverpool needed extra time to see off Notts County on Tuesday after the League One side stragglers launched a brave fightback from 2-0 down at Anfield.
The match also saw the Reds lose Kolo Toure, Joe Allen and Aly Cissokho with injuries.
Gerrard accepts the gruelling tie was hardly ideal preparation for the Anfield clash with the champions - not least because David Moyes’ men have had an extra day’s rest following their 90 minutes against Chelsea on Monday.
“That wasn’t what we wanted,” said the Liverpool captain after the match. “We go away slightly disappointed.
“Yeah,
we’re in the draw, and obviously pleased to be through, but it was
exactly what we didn’t want, really - 120 minutes, and a lot of players
who are going to be starting on Sunday have played too much football.
“There’s no doubt about it, that extra-time, playing that amount of minutes, is a bit of a blow to us.
“I think the plan was to get the game won, done and dusted, and then try to rest a few for Sunday.”
Gerrard
claims he and his team-mates are to blame for Toure’s groin injury -
although Martin Skrtel is fit again to soften the blow if the former
Arsenal and Man City stopper cannot face United.
“Kolo’s injury
came in extra-time,” he said. “Maybe he wouldn’t have suffered that
injury if it’d finished after 90 minutes, so we have ourselves to blame
for his injury.
“We all have to take responsibility for that, but,
fingers crossed, it’s not too bad. We’ve got an international break
coming up as well, so hopefully he won’t miss too many games.”
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Laurence Griffiths
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Liverpool v Notts County
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Liverpool were cruising at 2-0 after 29 minutes but they let County back into the tie after the hour.
Gerrard claims it is a lesson to the younger players about the need to close games out.
“It
got too easy,” said the England star. “I think when you’ve got a lot of
inexperience in the team, you take your foot off the gas and you get
punished. That’s exactly what happened.
“We were in complete control and it looked like we were going to go on and win by three, four or five.
“But
that’s the problem. When you’ve got a lot of players in your team, who
are young and don’t know how to see a game out, sometimes you can make
it very difficult for yourselves and that’s what we did.”
Because
of their 100 per cent start, Kopites feel Sunday could well see
Liverpool end their three-match losing streak; and Gerrard says the
players are confident.
“We’ve got to take the game to them and be positive,” added the midfielder. “Our tails are up.
“We’ve won three games, even though we won the third one the difficult way. Confidence is high.
"The injuries aren’t ideal going into the game, but we’ve got a squad that can cope.”
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