Kenny Dalglish believes cup win can inspire Reds

By Olivavu, Mon 27/02/12 at 12:06

Kenny Dalglish believes Carling Cup win can inspire Liverpool

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish is confident his side can build on their Carling Cup final triumph over Cardiff City and bring more trophies back to Anfield.

The Reds needed penalties to see off their Championship opponents at the end of a dramatic match - and Dalglish feels the celebrations that followed will inspire his players to further success.

"Although we have won something today, that is not us finished," the 60-year-old Scot said after his side's victory ended a six-year trophy drought.

"We don't want to stop here, we want to keep going.

"We've won it and we are going to really enjoy it. I know how much the players have enjoyed it and it gives you a wee flavour to come back and do it again."

Twenty six years on from his first managerial triumph, the 1986 league title, Dalglish becomes only the seventh manager in English football to have won all three major domestic trophies of league title, FA Cup and League Cup.

He hopes giving many of his players their first winners' medals in English football will bring more glory.

"Does actually getting your hands on a trophy inspire you? I hope so," Dalglish said. "I think anyone who has ever won a trophy, whether it's at Wembley or wherever, has come away and said, 'I enjoyed that, I'd love to do it again'.

Dalglish's Liverpool career in trophies
As a player

6 First Division titles
1 FA Cup
4 League Cups
3 European Cups
1 European Super Cup
As a manager

3 First Division titles
2 FA Cups
1 League Cup

"If you do something and you enjoy it, you are going to want to do more of it, aren't you? It's not to say it is going to happen but you would think it was logical."

He praised Cardiff for pushing Liverpool all the way but felt his side fully deserved their victory - and said it justified the way they had approached the competition from the start.

"Right at the beginning when we went to Exeter City in the second round, we said we wanted to treat the competition with respect because if we are doing that we are treating the club with respect as well," Dalglish said.

"We don't want to go and lose games. If we are playing in a competition then there is no way we are not going to try to win it.

"We have come through some hard games and we came through another tough one today.

"I feel for Anthony Gerrard after he missed his penalty, but for us we are delighted to have won the trophy. It's been a very good day for us. We will just continue to work hard and see where it takes us."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17174308

Absolutely fantastic to see him lift his first trophy since his return. He was clearly delighted and it goes to show what you can achieve in this competition when you don't disrespect it by playing kids and reserves. It's a trophy at the end of the day, and most other clubs don't win anything and so to play weakened sides makes no sense at all. It has been treated with more respect by the likes of Manchester City as well this season, as shown by how seriously they took the semi-final against us.

An excellent first year for Kenny. Keep it up lad

Speaking in the bowels of Wembley Stadium in the aftermath of Liverpool's thrilling Carling Cup victory over Cardiff City, Reds boss Kenny Dalglish spelt out how the club's first trophy in six years was important to "an awful lot of people".

And he put it down to "the work of everyone, not just me".

What Dalglish did not elaborate on was exactly what it meant to him personally. For that, we will have to remember his reaction to Anthony Gerrard's missed penalty that settled a topsy-turvy shoot-out at the end of an extraordinary game.

Dalglish was clearly visibly moved as he celebrated his first trophy in English football since he won the 1995 Premier League title with Blackburn.

But when quizzed about his reaction afterwards he typically preferred to play things down - or at least tried to. "I might have been emotional but you need to go to Specsavers," he said. "There wasn't a tear in my eye."

To most observers it appeared otherwise, and you could understand it too.
Already a Liverpool legend after a glittering first spell with the club as player then manager, Dalglish has been back in charge at the club he loves for less than 14 months.

He now has silverware to show for it in his first full season since returning, to add to the six major trophies he collected in his first stint as Anfield boss between 1985 and 1991.

Beating Cardiff also means Dalglish joins Joe Mercer, Bill Nicholson, Don Revie, Sir Alex Ferguson, George Graham and Jose Mourinho as the only managers to have won the full set of English league title, FA Cup and League Cup titles. No mean feat.

But his only acknowledgement of the short time he has taken to put a smile back on the faces of Liverpool fans came when he was praising his players.

One of his summer signings, Stewart Downing, was voted man of the match at Wembley and Dalglish said with a grin: "I think people were spoilt for choice. The most important thing is that we have won the game and we don't need to sit and go through every individual performance. But seven players have come in this season and for them to walk away with a trophy means they can be very proud of their achievement."

So too can Dalglish. His team remains a work in progress - the 42 shots they had on Cardiff's goal on Sunday summed up a season of frustration and failure to convert chances that has undermined their hopes of a title challenge.

They have too often stuttered rather than strutted their stuff like the Liverpool of old, but Dalglish has still underlined how he sees this cup win as the start of a period of sustained success rather than a one-off triumph.

Is that justified? It certainly worked for Liverpool in 2001, when they followed another hard-earned shoot-out win over a second-tier side in the League Cup final - on that occasion Birmingham City - by winning the FA Cup and Uefa Cup in the same season.

And on top of that treble, it is often forgotten that beating the Blues provided the catalyst for another achievement too - qualification for the Champions League for the first time. Liverpool would only miss out on it once in the next nine seasons but they have not taken part since 2009-10.

In a season that will now be remembered for silverware as well as the Luis Suarez saga - and still holds hope of more glory in the FA Cup - you sense that Dalglish would rather secure a Champions League spot than repeat their Wembley triumph in May.

It will be easier said than done though. Because of the lack of a cutting edge in front of goal, a top-four finish this time around will be a big ask - the Reds are currently seven points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, albeit with a game in hand.

But, if there is more to come, Dalglish knows Liverpool's best hope of managing it is by sharing Sunday's glory, even if he could bask in it on his own if he so wished.

"Although we have won something today, that is not us finished," were Dalglish's most telling words in his post-match press conference. He could easily have been speaking in the singular, but that would undermine the team effort he is trying to promote.

"We don't want to stop here, we want to keep going," he added. "And our best chance we have of doing that is to continue to do what we do best, which is to stick together."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrisbevan/2012/02/liverpool_cup_win_also_persona.html#more

Hopefully this can be the catalyst for a top four charge. We need to get back into that competition to attract the better players. But whatever happens, yesterday was a success for the club and something to enjoy.

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