Rio Ferdinand believes Liverpool have a quartet of lieutenants in the dressing room ready to fight the only thing that can stop their charge to the Champions League final - complacency.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have one foot in yet another European final, having beaten Villarreal 2-0 in the first leg of their semi-final clash with Villarreal at Anfield. Liverpool, for the second time in a week, had to exercise patience in overcoming stubborn opponents who implemented a low block.
And as they were against Everton on Sunday, the Reds were frustrated in the opening 45 minutes and went in at half-time with the scores at 0-0. The hosts perhaps needed a slice of luck to break their resistance and had just that when Jordan Henderson’s cross found the back of the net virtue of a Pervis Estupinan deflection.
That lit the touch paper and one became two just a couple of minutes later when Sadio Mane broke the offside trap and finished expertly following a delicious Mohamed Salah through ball. That lead allowed Klopp to rotate his charges ahead of another vital Premier League encounter on Saturday and those that remained on the pitch were able to cruise to the full-time whistle.
And the result means Liverpool will now be overwhelming favourites to reach next month’s showpiece final in Paris, with Ferdinand warning only taking their foot off the pedal could see them miss out. But the Manchester United legend believes that in Jordan Henderson, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool have a core of players ready to stamp out any misplaced notion that their ticket to Paris has already been punched.
“They have got to make sure that they fend off any type of complacency, they can’t allow complacency to creep in anywhere,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.
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“Yes, it is 2-0, but you still have an away tie, you have to go over there and give a professional performance, but the one thing that I will say about this team, is that they are a solid bunch, there is a togetherness there and they won’t allow that complacency to set in when there are so many important games. That is the only thing that can trip them up now.”
He added: “The two people in that interview there [Henderson and Robertson], are two of the lieutenants I think, along with Van Dijk and maybe Trent as well. They will control the culture against complacency.”
Having exerted such dominance over their opponents there was a feeling that the tie could have been out of the Spaniards’ reach ahead of next week’s second leg, but Ferdinand thinks Klopp can still be more than pleased with his side’s showing.
“I think what he will be saying is that of course you would have liked to have scored more goals. But, I think he will still be satisfied with what he has got.”
