Capital One Cup
| The first trophy of the season means much to the managers
TODAY’S Capital One Cup final at Wembley Stadium in London will focus lots of attention on the managers.
For Manuel Pellegrini it is a chance to put another trophy in the Manchester City cabinet and enhance his legacy as he makes way for Pep Guardiola.
And, after stumbling on the title front in recent weeks, City need a lift as they look to round off the Pellegrini era on a high.
With Guardiola’s arrival imminent, changes could be coming and some players have points to prove and futures to play for.
There could be question marks over several members of an ageing squad and that would even include the likes of Yaya Toure, David Silva and Pablo Zabaleta.
Much of that sentiment could apply to Liverpool, though, unlike at City, the current manager will oversee any overhaul.
Some of the other talking points from today’s game are:
City’s season has promised so much at various points but it remains some way from fulfilment
The player who left Liverpool for City in an acrimonious £49million deal in the hope of furthering his career has had reasonable success at the Etihad Stadium, with impressive performances both domestically and in the Champions League.
His decent showing today would be an excellent response under considerable pressure, while a failure would leave him with much to prove.
The City boss will hope the final can provide the springboard it did two years ago, when victory over Sunderland precipitated the late charge that saw his side pip Liverpool to the Premier League title.
Jurgen Klopp has made a big impression at Liverpool but his team have only shown in flashes what they could be capable of under his stewardship.
It will take time for the German to truly imprint himself on IN FULL SWING: Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini and Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, right, will battle it out for the Capital One Cup at Wembley today the squad and coax the results he needs consistently, but winning the Capital One Cup in his first season would get his reign off to a good start.
Even if the squad gets revamped, a trophy would represent good credit in the bank.
It was something Brendan Rodgers did not achieve, becoming the first Reds boss in more than half a century not to win silverware in three years.
City’s season has promised so much at various points but it remains some way from fulfilment. Their title challenge has floundered in recent weeks and they would need to produce some spectacular results to win the Champions League.
At this stage, the Capital One Cup does seem the most obvious way of claiming a tangible reward from the campaign. Fail, and the season could peter out to one of underachievement.
Such is the focus on the Liverpool striker that Klopp jokingly refers to any questions about the England international as “the Daily Daniel”.
Injuries mean he has been missing for more days than he has been available during three years at Anfield, but having finally regained fitness he offers a cutting edge that is definitely missing without him. His goals-per-game strike rate is in the top three in the club’s history and his pace and sharpness in front of goal gives Liverpool a much-needed focal point.
It has almost become a cliche just how bad Liverpool are at defending corners and free kicks. It has been a regular issue for a few years but this season they have been exposed at an alarming rate— though this has not been helped by injuries to all five centre-backs at various times which has prevented Klopp fielding a consistent defence. A quarter of City’s 48 league goals have come from setpieces, by no means the highest in the top flight, but an area they will exploit. — irishexaminer.com and espnfc.com