Peter Crouch believes Liverpool ‘shouldn’t hold any fear’ heading into their League Cup final clash with Chelsea.
Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage saw the Reds book their spot at Wembley next month where they’ll meet Mauricio Pochettino’s side who defeated Middlesbrough 6-2 across the two legs.
Despite the huge money that the Stamford Bridge-based outfit have spent in recent years they’ve struggled massively for consistency this term and currently find themselves ninth in the table – 17 points adrift of league leaders Liverpool.
Form usually goes out the window for cup finals, but ex-Red Crouch believes Jurgen Klopp’s side should ‘come through’ the game ‘comfortably’.
“From Liverpool’s point of view, the Chelsea game shouldn’t hold any fear for them whatsoever,” Crouch told talkSPORT (via Rousing The Kop). “I’ve watched a lot of Chelsea this season and been highly disappointed. It’s not the Liverpool Chelsea game certainly from when I was playing in those games, they were a much better side than us at that time.
“At the moment they’re in a transitional period and Liverpool are the far better side. So, I think they’ll come through that comfortably.”
It certainly won’t be a walk in the park at the national stadium at the end of next month but there’s no doubt that we’re favourites heading into the game.
Chelsea still have players who can cause us problems, however, so we will need to be right at it from the start all over the pitch as we aim for a record-extending tenth League Cup trophy.
We defeated the Blues at Wembley twice during the 2021/22 campaign winning both the League Cup and FA Cup via penalty shootouts after goalless draws on both occasions.
Before facing Pochettino’s side in next month’s final we welcome them to Anfield next week in a huge Premier League game.
We earned a point at Stamford Bridge back in August but we’ll be searching for three points this time around.