Liverpool leave shadows behind, move towards light

Liverpool have miraculously worked their way to fifth in the English Premiership table but they are still not satisfied. And that, indeed, is how it should be. When their coach Kenny Dalglish was asked about his team’s late surge of form and how he felt being in fifth place, he only said: ‘We got to be first.’ That, in a nutshell, is how Liverpool are feeling at the moment. Everytime, they step onto the field, they believe that they can score goals; they believe they can compete; they believe that they can score goals. And those beliefs were well encapsulated in their 5-2 win over Fulham last night. They were simply spectacular and have inched closer to a place in the Europa Cup. [caption id=“attachment_7291” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Maxi Rodriquez scored a hat-trick for Liverpool. Reuters/Eddie Keogh”]  [/caption] Whether that will be a good thing for Liverpool or not is a discussion that we’ll save for a later day but for now, the only reward they are seeking is a feeling called redemption. For much of the season, Liverpool were a team of stragglers in the English Premier League. They were a great collection of players who just couldn’t get it right, no matter what they tried. But it’s amazing just how much has changed since the arrival of Dalgish at Merseyside. The new manager has given the squad a healthy dose of confidence and the wins are helping too. Jamie Carragher, who was playing his 666th game for the club, feels that there is a new respect in the eyes of the supporters too. “When you walk down the street, they smile at you and that’s quite a pleasant change,” said Carragher. “I think the arrival of Dalglish and Luis Suarez has made a big difference.”   Earlier, Maxi Rodriguez scored a hat-trick to give Fulham no chance last night, Reuters reports. There were only 31 seconds on the clock when Maxi slotted in from the right before the Argentine added a second in the seventh minute. Dirk Kuyt then made it 3-0 when keeper Mark Schwarzer let his speculative shot slip past him. Shell-shocked Fulham pulled one back in the 57th minute through Moussa Dembele but Maxi slammed in a fantastic long-range shot 13 minutes later to complete his second treble in three games and Luis Suarez added a fifth soon after. Steve Sidwell scored late for Fulham but it did not change anything for Liverpool who climbed above Tottenham Hotspur into the Europa League spot in fifth place on 58 points before Spurs (56) travel to fourth-placed Manchester City (62) on Tuesday. It came the day after arch rivals Manchester United closed within one point of winning the league to stand on the brink of breaking the record they share with Liverpool of 18 English top-flight titles.  With inputs from Agencies