Romelu Lukaku needs a confidence boost… Chelsea should use same trick I gave to Gareth Bale, says Harry Redknapp
A BIT of confidence can take you a long way in football… and that could be the deciding factor at Wembley today.
On the one hand you’ve got Liverpool, a side absolutely brimming with it, against a Chelsea team whose record signing has very little.
So as tight as the EFL Cup final is going to be, I think Jurgen Klopp will be taking the trophy home with him.
You look at that attacking set-up he’s built, and it’s as good as any in the game.
They just over-run sides, coming at you from everywhere. No doubt Klopp will go 4-3-3 again and with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz, that’s some strike force, even if Diogo Jota is injured.
What a contrast that is to Chelsea, with Romelu Lukaku so far off it at the moment.
I mean, seven touches against Crystal Palace last week. Incredible!
I’ve heard people making excuses, saying he isn’t getting the service. But his movement needs to be better too, he needs to put himself about a bit more.
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Fair enough, I’ve seen clips when the ball didn’t go to him — but he wasn’t moving into a position to get it. He needs someone to work with him on the training ground.
They should have someone working with him one on one in the 18-yard box, half an hour with a coach — that’s their job.
Get him making runs, show him how to get half a yard of space, how to get on the end of things.
We’ve all had players who have been badly out of form, really short of confidence, or maybe a bit of both — and that’s when coaches have to earn their money.
I’ve heard people making excuses, saying Lukaku isn’t getting the service. But his movement needs to be better too, he needs to put himself about a bit more.
Harry Redknapp
Gareth Bale was really struggling for a while at Tottenham, so on the training ground I put a full-back up against him who I knew he could tear the a*** out of.
I’d give him the ball, say ‘go on, take him on’, and it did wonders for his confidence.
That’s what we did, and look what Gareth went on to do. It is all about building up confidence, and it’s the same with finishing.
There was another time when I had a centre-forward at Portsmouth, Jason Roberts, on loan from West Brom, and he was going through a bit of a bad spell.
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Jim Smith said to me ‘I’ve got a drill I’d like to do with him Harry’, so we stuck two wide men out there with half a dozen balls each, knocking them in to him.
There were no defenders in there, they were just crossing them for Jason to finish.
Although I must admit, this one morning we were crossing a few and he still couldn’t hit the target.
I told Jim we’d better stop or we would make him even worse! To be fair, he stuck at it, put a few away and did come good. And once he scored that was it, again it was all about confidence.
Talking of which, I do admire Jurgen for having such faith in Caoimhin Kelleher, the young goalkeeper he says he’ll stick with for the final.
I did the same with my No 2 keeper at Tottenham, Carlo Cudicini, in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
I left first-choice Brad Friedel on the bench, as I had done all the way through.
I can’t see there being much between them at Wembley — but if you twisted my arm I’d say Liverpool will nick it.
Harry Redknapp
But you are leaving yourself open if the result goes against you, like it did for Spurs when we got well beaten. None of them were Carlo’s fault, but that didn’t stop me from getting loads of criticism, so that’s the risk.
It doesn’t mean Klopp isn’t taking it seriously either, because I know how much he wants to win this — in fact these are two managers who want to win everything they’re in.
I get fed up of seeing teams halfway up the table putting out reserve sides in the cup competitions, so fair play to this pair.
When Jose Mourinho came, the first thing he did with Chelsea was make it clear how important it was to win a trophy.
Liverpool are still in with a chance of winning everything, because although you’d probably have to fancy Manchester City for the league, you certainly wouldn’t write them off.
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Thomas Tuchel has already shown he knows what it takes, having won the Champions League last season… a trophy Klopp got his hands on two years earlier.
I can’t see there being much between them at Wembley — but if you twisted my arm I’d say Liverpool will nick it… although I couldn’t be totally confident.
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