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Liverpool game :
I would like to begin with a question. Has any team beaten Liverpool three times in one season? Maybe it has happened but not too many times, I think.
Yet that is what we will achieve if we manage to defeat them in the FA Cup tomorrow.
We were on the team coach travelling to Bournemouth when I heard the fourth-round draw and I admit I was not happy because it was one of the toughest options for us.
I know we have beaten them twice already but that is in the past and this is Liverpool we are talking about — at Anfield!
So it is a tough draw. On the other hand, although we are not big headed, we are optimistic because we deserved to beat them at Upton Park this month and also at Anfield early in the season.
Of course, they have played many games recently. Their Capital One Cup semi-final on Tuesday night went to extra time and must have taken a lot out of them. Had they lost to Stoke, they would have been very, very tired and the players would have felt their knocks a lot more.
However, they won so can look forward to Wembley and it is amazing what something like that does to give you a boost of energy and optimism. I watched the game on TV. Stoke were better on the night and did a job on Liverpool, although the goal was offside.
Tomorrow’s match has also revived memories of what I am told was a great FA Cup Final between the teams in 2006. I haven’t seen the match but have been told often enough how marvellous it was — the best final of modern times. Steven Gerrard broke West Ham fans’ hearts that day when he equalised in the dying seconds of normal time.
Steven is almost unique in modern-day football — a one-club man in this country and an icon for Liverpool — one of the greatest players to play for that club, perhaps the greatest.
These days, players move clubs all the time, perhaps seeking a new challenge or more money. He showed great commitment to Liverpool because he could have gone anywhere in the world.
Whether it was right for a parting of the ways last year I don’t know because I am not working there. In the end it was done in the right way, I think. The manager at that time had different ideas.
They are missing Gerrard’s leadership, though. He was Mr Liverpool, as John Terry is Mr Chelsea or Mark Noble is Mr West Ham.
It is impossible to find a new Steven Gerrard. You can find a new player of great quality but that will not make him a new Gerrard. It is most important to have someone like him, Terry or Mark. A player such as this is the manager’s right-hand man on the pitch. When everything is going well you don’t need him so much but there are parts in every game where you need one of your players to lead, to not think about his own game so much as helping the team. The best sides have several of those players, those who the others look to when things are not going smoothly.
Jurgen Klopp is finding out very quickly, as I have done, about life in English football. As for many things in life, you can prepare meticulously in theory but until it happens, you don’t really know.
He will have been prepared for the intensity of the Premier League and the heavy Christmas programme and thought, “I can cope with this, it is similar to the Bundesliga”. But there are many things which can take you by surprise. Of course, he will adjust, he is an experienced coach who is used to the top level with Borussia Dortmund.
He will find a way but I am sure some things have surprised him, particularly the different training and difficult schedule.
We go into this game with plenty of confidence after our performance against Manchester City. To be disappointed not to have beaten the team who, on paper, are definitely the best in England is good. It tells you that your standards are high.
We were a bit disappointed but we were also proud of our performance. Had it not been for Sergio Aguero, surely one of the top five strikers in the world, we would have won.
Sam BYRAM:
How quickly things can change in football. A week ago we signed Sam Byram and were thinking he could ease his way in slowly.
Then suddenly James Tomkins is injured and can’t play against Manchester City, Carl Jenkinson picks up a bad knee injury early in the match — and Sam is on!
It was a very mature debut considering everything, especially the opposition.
Imagine coming on and being up against Kevin de Bruyne, or David Silva — and then Raheem Sterling in the second half! He wasn’t scared, though. He relished the opportunity and what helped him was that he was match fit.
Sam has been playing regularly for Leeds. Okay, someone will say it is a different level but the Championship can be more intense than the Premier League. Yes, the quality isn’t as high but often you have less space in the Championship. But Sam deserves a lot of credit. It is harder to come on in a match if you are a defender. A striker can come on, make a couple of mistakes and there’s no problem, but for a right-back to come on for the first Premier League game in your life and play as he did, it was a little bit special, perhaps even a little unexpected.
We knew Sam had quality, that’s why we signed him. He’s a young player, he’s going to be up and down but we are expecting big things from him.
He demonstrated straight away that we made the right choice and so did he. He is cup-tied tomorrow, so won’t be involved but we don’t need to go looking for another full‑back before the deadline.
Joey O’Brien, who has missed most of the season with a variety of injuries, is back training with us and is pain-free.
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