Kenny’s winning mentality making us all believe again

IF we played like this until April, I’d still tell you to remain calm, so ignore me and my seven rooms of gloom. You go right ahead and wallow.

Ashamed to say I forgot the Exeter game until folk began predicting the result on the internet. That’s from years of taking Europe for granted and a decade of flinging out the flotsam (sorry, “utilising the squad fully”) kicking in there. I don’t watch the reserves on the laptop so why would I do it in Devon? Perhaps to witness the night record-holders Liverpool started taking the league cup seriously again? Dalglish sprang a surprise when the stars and the new boys were selected. Eye well and truly wiped there, then.

It makes sense to capitalise on our continental exclusion by at least trying to find out what Wembley looks like nowadays. We haven’t been there since Cantona poked a bone idle foot at a ball David James should have caught.

That would haunt me if there weren’t so many others from that Nintendo-obsessed nightmare.

It also made sense to take this game seriously after Hodgson’s fatal errors against Northampton turned so many more people against him through the sheer humiliation of it all.

Kenny wants to win and it doesn’t matter if somebody else rebranded it the cup no one wants. HE cares, that’s what counts. Suarez is cut from similar cloth. He goes for everything. There is a statistic flying around that Liverpool haven’t scored without him since February. Considering how we hobbled on against Sunderland and toiled to crack Arsenal, it’s utterly believable.

Surprisingly it was Henderson who got himself booked for thespian behaviour. If Luis has one major flaw it’s a tendency to dive when he could still play on. See? That’s how modern football’s moral vacuity corrupts your soul. Years ago I’d have just been appalled by the theatrics; now I frown because it isn’t practical! He paid for it against Bolton, where the abysmal Probert clearly believed the boy was crying wolf.

Sunday’s scores only make the Bolton result more aggravating. Not the performance, which was exceptional, but 5-1 wouldn’t have flattered us and I’m not sure an 8-2 was unrealistic either.

It was one of those ‘rub your hands with glee’ days, when even the moves which don’t come off thaw the cockles.

I like Coyle but he seems to have dropped Bolton between two stools. Devoid of Allardyce’s malevolent jealousy they simply don’t threaten any more. Davies threw an elbow at the immaculate Lucas more out of reflex than resolve and was amazingly substituted for being utterly ineffective.

Ha! “The immaculate Lucas”; when did we start saying that without raising an eyebrow? Greater challenges lie ahead for sure, but surrounding him with the creativity he lacks has simply allowed him to keep it all ticking along and snuff out any danger the opposition can muster during our quieter moments.

The discussions over what Henderson offers have been silenced for now. I’m sure they’ll resurface but after three years of snickering at our Brazilian maestro I won’t be casting aspersions over anyone else for a while.

Apart from Carroll perhaps. He doesn’t like the bench one bit, but even his Exeter goal had an indifference about it. We delivered some sublime crosses against Bolton yet he never once showed a goalscorer’s instinct for being in the right place. When you start to question where Gerrard and the most expensive player fit in one can only sense a corner has been turned and Liverpool are starting to believe again. Damn internationals...

*Steven Kelly