Silver lining hides reality

Liverpool’s six-year wait for a trophy is over, and their laboured victory over Cardiff City summed up where they are at as a team.

They have a big problem in that their centre forward lacks the most basic instincts of a striker. Andy Carroll could have scored in the second half had he remembered he was actually out there playing in the game, but instead he stood at the edge of the box and gaped as Luis Suarez got the better of his marker and delivered a hopeful ball into the goalmouth.

This reaction will be familiar to Carroll-watchers who noticed how he froze and watched Brighton’s Lewis Dunk slowly juggle the ball into his own net in front of the Kop a couple of weeks ago.

Liverpool’s other problem yesterday was an old one: Steven Gerrard’s lack of a strategic understanding of the game.

Gerrard’s gift has always been making things happen rather than prompting the best from his team-mates. When he is asked to run the game from midfield the play always becomes directionless and fragmented.

He’s never really understood how to play as a true central midfielder and three months short of his 32nd birthday he seems unlikely to learn now. His best position is still behind the striker or attacking from a wide position, but it’s easier to play in those roles when you’ve got explosive pace, and Gerrard isn’t quite as quick as he was.

That means Liverpool will soon have to start to plan for life without the player who has defined their team for more than a decade.

In a sense it is similar to the situation facing Chelsea, with one key difference: Liverpool’s manager has the authority to handle the problem.

Jamie Carragher has always insisted he could never tolerate a long spell on the bench, but since Dalglish quietly dropped him and made Daniel Agger and Dirk Kuyt his first choice partnership, there hasn’t been a word of complaint from Carragher.

The contrast with the seething and preening of Frank Lampard during his long struggle with Andre Villas-Boas illustrates the meaning of managerial authority.

The main problem Dalglish has encountered so far is that most of the players he has signed have not lived up to expectations.

But nobody questions his right to make the big decisions, and at a club as volatile as Liverpool, that is a priceless asset.