We end our trophy drought, and learn about team's weaknesses and wisely address them in summer and Jan.

Just end that 6 year drought and I'll be happy with our season as long as we don't get relegated

I agree. For the last 2-3 seasons I've maintained we should concentrate on silver ware be it the Carling Cup, FA Cup or Europa League. I really hope we win the CC and give the FA Cup a good shot as well.

Win the Carling Cup, and we'll make the top four.

The Lucas injury was a MASSIVE blow to us, and with Andy still trying to adapt, it's looking very hard at the moment.

Let's not forget the fact that Suarez misses 4 PL games...

Potential excuses for disappointing performances this season, include but are not limited to:

Lucas injury () completely derailed the progress we had made up to that point. Gerrard's return was a boost, but we're still trying to adapt our play to a Lucas-less midfield.

Carroll is just now 23 ffs. He has shown he can be a dominant force in the premier league given the proper circumstances. Now it's just a question of when he can find his niche in this squad and Kenny's playing style.

The woodwork has been the opposition's best defender against us this year. Seriously... 17 times in the first 16 games is just ridiculous.

Regularly starting 4 players who weren't on the team prior to the summer window and 6 who weren't there before January '11.

Gerrard missing for almost all fixtures in 2011.

Suarez being utterly railroaded by the FA (resulting in an effective 9-match ban), unprotected by referees, harassed by opposition supporters and battered (physically and emotionally) by opposition players throughout the season.

The truth is that none of these excuses matter. We are LFC and we expect better and accept nothing but the utmost effort and devotion from our players, as we will give them the utmost support and devotion as supporters.

Reasons to be optimistic:

Just look at that list... If two or three of those situations went our way, the league position could be drastically different.

In any case, we are still in the running for a cup double. If that isn't a giant FU to the FA and all the "haters" out there, I don't know what is.

Well lets not give up hope with half season still to play.

Hopefully we win the carling cup and that pushes us on a good run resulting in top 4.

I disagree. While I realize it's not likely at this point unless we hit some better form, I think making top 4 is by far the most important part of this season. While I think our squad is very good atm, I also think we need to have more options in the transfer market in terms of top tier players if we want to compete for a title anytime soon, meaning we need to have Champion's League football. It's shocking halfway through this season that there was ever an argument in this forums of Downing vs. Mata, considering the vastly different years they've had so far, but truth be told, we probably never had a chance to sign a player of Mata's hype because of our league position. Our long-term goal should be to be at or near the top of the table every single year, and we're not going to reach that with a Carling Cup trophy and 7th place in the league.

Finishing in top-4 is all that matters. If we win the League cup or FA cup that's a bonus. But a CL return is the only real objective to me.

Art Morte wrote:Finishing in top-4 is all that matters. If we win the League cup or FA cup that's a bonus. But a CL return is the only real objective to me.

But what if we miss out on both CL (via T4) & EL (via CC) altogether!!!

We have now reached a juncture where we have to take an objective & critical stock of things ahead.

While some may point to the fact that we still have 17 games to push for a CL place, fact remains we haven't made any head-way in the 21 games played so far.

I'd rather to win the cup double (CC and FA) than 4th place finish.


Discuss

iftikhar wrote:

Art Morte wrote:Finishing in top-4 is all that matters. If we win the League cup or FA cup that's a bonus. But a CL return is the only real objective to me.

But what if we miss out on both CL (via T4) & EL (via CC) altogether!!!

We have now reached a juncture where we have to take an objective & critical stock of things ahead.

While some may point to the fact that we still have 17 games to push for a CL place, fact remains we haven't made any head-way in the 21 games played so far.

I don't see why it's an either or thing. Focusing on reaching top-4 will not hurt us in the Carling Cup, and vice versa, especially with a maximum of two fixtures left in the cup. That being said, if we were to win CC and continue on our current form, missing out on Champion's League, I would not be satisfied with that at all.

Sepi wrote:I'd rather to win the cup double (CC and FA) than 4th place finish.


Discuss

No way.

Carling Cup will give us that boost for a strong second half of the season. (We always turn it up second half anyway.)

We need CL. Simple as that. The owners have said it, the players want it and it'll help us financially. Probably put us back on the map for actually signing world class talent again too. We'd probably stop with the overpaying. Top four > anything for me. Could see us sneaking in the Carling Cup to that aswell.

Let's not forget the risk of losing players to a CL team.

Sepi wrote:I'd rather to win the cup double (CC and FA) than 4th place finish.


Discuss

That will not get us but a fraction of the money there is to be had in the CL. Nor it will be recognized as strongly as CL presence, i.e. attracting star players and top-class sponsors. Getting into Champions League is miles above domestic cup trophies to me.

Art Morte wrote:

Sepi wrote:I'd rather to win the cup double (CC and FA) than 4th place finish.


Discuss

That will not get us but a fraction of the money there is to be had in the CL. Nor it will be recognized as strongly as CL presence, i.e. attracting star players and top-class sponsors. Getting into Champions League is miles above domestic cup trophies to me.

Practically there is no money in EL. What they offer is mere pea-nuts and can't sustain the likes of LFC. What it offers is a degree of honor. Also, there is the risk of losing key players to CL clubs. So it's not really a choice. However, rather than missing out on every thing, EL scraps seems better me. After all, we are as close to mid-table quagmire than to CL spots.

I tend to agree with Henry on this one... missing out of top 4 would mean this season was not a success... perhaps a trophy would mean it wasn't a failure, but it still wouldn't be a success. With the financial regulations coming into effect, and the drawing power that comes from a CL place, a top 4 finish is almost, ALMOST necessary for the continued evolution of the side.