Liverpool‘s failure to end their season in a high note after suffering two consecutive defeats in the league that cost them their fifth place spot along with a ticket to the Europa League doesn’t seem to trouble their veteran defender Jammie Carragher.
The center back confessed that not playing in the second rate club competition in Europe is not a thing that the Reds should be crying over as not playing in the Europa League could actually help their course in getting the Champions League ticket next summer easier.
Carragher also believe that the prestige of playing in the Europa League can never replace of getting into the Champions League, that’s why for him their failure could actually be a blessing in disguise for Liverpool in achieving their targets in local competition. Moreover, the center back also revealed that the Europa League schedule is really something that would be giving plenty of problems for the Reds next season, just like it pretty much did for them this time of year.
No disrespect to the Europa League but the way that competition has gone it’s not a massive disappointment. The main thing for us next season is getting back into the Champions League. Not being in Europe will give us a better chance of doing that. We want to get back in the top four and do well in the cups,” Carragher stated. “Playing Thursdays and Sundays isn’t ideal so there’s a flip side to not being involved.”
Despite not that upset about losing the Europa League spot, Carragher did admitted that he and his teammates would actually wanted to end their season in a much better way especially after the club managed to make a strong comeback in the second part of the season under Kenny Dalglish reign. The two consecutive defeats that they received from Tottenham Hotspurs and Aston Villa in last match days give a little bit glitch in the Reds’ strong comeback since January which saw them moving from the bottom tables into the top five for a while before ending the season at sixth place.
“It’s disappointing we lost the last two games and we would have liked to finish better, Sixth is an achievement from where we were. We wouldn’t have accepted in at the start of the season but we would in January,” Carragher added.
Surely Carragher would really hope that next season, his club would really be able to fulfill their minimum target in finishing at the top four place and doing well in domestic competition or his recent statement can pretty much be called as nothing but an excuse. Still, he does raise a good point in stating that being absent in Europe theoretically could help them in doing much better in the premier league in the new season.
photo credit: Nigel Wilson
