Daniel Sturridge is unlikely to feature in Liverpool’s attempt to reach the Capital One Cup final, at the expense of a Chelsea side whom Brendan Rodgers is insistent his players have no cause to fear.
Sturridge returned to first-team training on Sunday after almost five months out with thigh and calf injuries and has travelled to London for Tuesday’s semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge. Rodgers, however, is averse to risking Sturridge after so long on the sidelines and is expected to omit the 25-year-old striker from the match-day squad, with Saturday’s Premier League game against West Ham United a more realistic target. Liverpool’s encouraging display without Sturridge in the 1-1 first-leg draw may influence their manager’s decision.
“It’s no good having the psychological threat [of having Sturridge on the bench] if he can’t play,” Rodgers said. “For us it’s about assessing whether the risk is worth it and, if not, he’ll hopefully be ready by the weekend. It’s important that he’s back training now and the players have done really well without him, recently in particular, so we just have to assess that and see if the risk is worth taking. If he is on the bench that means he can contribute. He’s a top-class player and if he enters the field then we’d hope he could do well for us.”
The Liverpool manager said his players would be confident of reaching Wembley and believes any trepidation will come from Chelsea following their FA Cup embarrassment against Bradford City on Saturday. “We respect the opponent because they’re a very good team but we’ve got nothing to fear,” Rodgers said. “We know we can go there and win.
“Chelsea’s result at the weekend does not help us. They will have great motivation and after a game like that you want to put it right, but it will be on their mind. Having been 2-0 up and lost, they will know they can still lose Tuesday’s game whatever the score is. There will be a bit of trepidation there.”
José Mourinho will pick his first-choice lineup for an occasion he has described as “live or die”, as Chelsea seek to make amends for Saturday. The Premier League leaders will revert to their strongest team despite a top-of-the-table match with the champions, Manchester City, looming largeon Saturday. That means players such as Diego Costa, Cesc Fàbregas, John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Thibaut Courtois and Nemanja Matic will be restored to the starting side with the semi-final tie delicately balanced.
Mourinho is attempting to secure the first trophy of his second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge, and his own first return to Wembley since the 2007 Community Shield, with the urgency to exorcise memories of the Cup humiliation obvious.
“We need to forget the Bradford game and think about the next one in a different competition,” Mourinho said. “We are one victory from the final, and it is important we reach Wembley. At the end of May we don’t go to FA Cup final. That is for sure. The FA Cup is finished for us.
“We don’t go even to play FA Cup semi-final. So to go there should mean a lot to everyone. It’s a knockout game, a second leg of a semi-final, live or die. Maybe the fact we play against a good team will push us on to a different level of concentration and motivation that, against Bradford, we couldn’t reach.”
The Chelsea manager, who is not expected to include Andre Schürrle in his squad, with the German edging towards a move to Wolfsburg, was furious about the capitulation to League One opposition but remains exasperated by last week’s first leg at Anfield, an occasion he considers to have been a missed opportunity.
“I was frustrated because Liverpool gave a lot of space,” he said. “They play with three defenders, the full-backs are wide, and we could have hurt them much more than we did there. Normally our midfield is full of quality, but we lost so many passes. I saw enough space to score more goals in that game. But, even so, the team had discipline, good individual commitment and the result was positive in terms of a two-legged semi-final.”
