Liverpool Carling Cup fiasco: Gerrard should have been rested too

Rafa Benitez has taken a lot of stick during the past week over his team selection for last Monday's Carling Cup defeat by Arsenal. I was disappointed, too, when I saw the starting 11 -- and disgusted that Steven Gerrard was playing.

The Carling Cup for most, apart from the top teams, is still a competition worth winning, but Arsene Wenger got it right when he started to play his reserves in the competition. The following season other top teams adopted the same policy.

The Carling Cup is the perfect proving ground for the top teams with big squads to blood their younger players into first-team football. It can also be useful to put players in the shop window that they would not usually risk playing ... but this backfired spectacularly for Liverpool in Jerzy Dudek's case as he put on a shocking goalkeeping display.

Rafa got this one nearly right: Gerrard should have been rested, but apart from that he was right to rest his main players. We had just played Arsenal in the FA Cup and a second clash two days later takes a lot out of players. But because this is a "Mickey Mouse" cup, why tire out our squad in a competition that ,even if we went the whole way, does not really mean so much. Three Premier League points are far more valuable.