Current Liverpool manager and club legend Kenny Dalglish has been speaking about the relief he feels at the way his players managed to overcome the troubling distraction of Andy Carroll to beat the striker’s old club Newcastle in what was the player’s first game against the Magpies since his controversial and big-money transfer to the Merseyside outfit in January earlier this year. Prior to kick-off, the Liverpool boss had been fearful that the bad blood between the clubs resulting from the striker’s big-money transfer would lead to the Liverpool players losing their focus by allowing issues off the field of play to dominate proceedings on the pitch.

As it turned out, Newcastle couldn’t gather the momentum or garner the quality needed to provide Liverpool with the sort of challenge on the field of play that would have upset them on their bid for Europa League qualification, and Carroll was only introduced as a substitute in the final 20 minutes, a fact that may well have helped the team’s cause as he was subjected to extremely personal abuse by the travelling faithful, who still hate the striker for leaving them so quickly after the Magpies won promotion to the Premier League at the first attempt at the start of the current season, and especially since such a large sum of money switched hands.

The win, made certain by crucial goals from Maxi Rodriguez, Dirk Kuyt, and Luis Suarez, who seems to be getting better with each passing game, could turn out to have massive repercussions for Liverpool when the current season is all done and dusted, with all three points lifting the club into fifth place int he league and Europa League qualification in the process if they can stay where they are now. With Spurs beaten by Chelsea last weekend in a game they were unlucky to lose after a pair of dodgy goals from the Blues that should not have been allowed to stand, the Merseyside outfit did very well to maintain their focus and leapfrog the North London side, who have seen their fortunes slide massively over the last month or so following the distraction of Europe.

Dalglish will take further joy from the fact that, mathematically at least, the club can still finish in the top four, which would be a truly monumental achievement given their early season woes before Roy Hodgson was sacked and Dalglish took over in mid-season. Hodgson is widely assumed to have done more damage than good during his spell with Liverpool and seems far more settled at West Brom, a club of the size that seems to suit the former Fulham man.

The Liverpool manager himself might not want to speculate about the possibility of a top four finish this season, but the fact the players are in contention for just that surely adds another high point to the Liverpool manager’s CV as he aims to stay in the managerial hot-seat beyond the coming summer, with the Reds fans and players desperate for the club’s owners to keep faith in him after such a fine few months.

With Liverpool clicking in attack at just the right time this season, and with Rodridguez scoring a crucial and stunning goal that proved his impressive hat-trick against Birmingham in the league game prior to the Newcastle fixture one was more than just a one-off showing of skill and determination, next season looks like it could well be a positive one for the team written off as nobodies not so long ago.

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