CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP E:JAVIER MASCHERANO is confident that Liverpool will not be demoralised by demotion to the second tier of European football and says the players must take responsibility for the club's damaging early exit from the Champions League.
With qualification for next season’s competition essential for Rafael Benitez, Argentina’s captain has called on his team-mates to turn the misery into a sustained assault on a top-four place and victory in the Europa League.
The impact of elimination on a squad accustomed to preparing for finals, semi-finals and quarter-finals under the Spanish manager was the one assurance Christian Purslow could not provide in Hungary.
However Liverpool’s managing director moved swiftly and smartly to soften Liverpool’s fall in terms of providing guarantees over the manager’s immediate future and the financial implications for a club heavily reliant on income from European club football’s premier tournament.
Players’ attitudes following their failure to reach the knockout stage for the first time under the Spaniard, however, are more ambiguous.
“It’s a strange feeling for everyone at the club. We are all so very disappointed,” said Mascherano.
“The Champions League is a special competition for us but it’s gone and we must keep going. Now we are in another competition and we will do all we can to win it.
“There will be no problem with motivation. The motivation is simply to play for Liverpool. We are representing a top side and we all want to do well for Liverpool. We need to show that we are good players.
“It’s got nothing to do with motivation, every year we do our best to qualify for the Champions League.”
The Liverpool midfielder echoed Benitez’s assessment that, despite a campaign littered with injuries and distraction, the team had only themselves to blame for finishing third in Group E following late goals home and away against Lyon and a dreadful display at Fiorentina.
He added: “We are out in the group stage but that can happen. Liverpool deserve more from us and that is why we will do our best to win the Europa League.”
With his team 13 points adrift of the leaders Chelsea in the Premier League, and under severe pressure from Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Manchester City in pursuit of Champions League qualification, Benitez cannot afford despondency to linger among his squad.
Liverpool went 10 league games without a win after they last exited the Champions League group stage, at Basle in 2002, and with a derby to come at Goodison Park on Sunday, Mascherano believes a pivotal game awaits at Everton.
“We know that in the league we have got to start winning again because we are not in the top four,” said the Argentinian, who impressed in the ultimately inconsequential 1-0 defeat of Debrecen at Puskas Ferenc Stadion.
“That is strange for everyone at the club and all the supporters. In the last four years we have always been in the top four, sometimes fighting for the title but always fighting to get into the Champions League.
“We need to start winning games and we know that we have got a very important game against Everton. We need to win it. We beat Debrecen to get a bit of confidence and now we have to take that forward.”
GuardianService
