Almost six years without any titles are many years for a club the size of LFC’s. Fortunately, that gap ended last Sunday with the Carling Cup, and the first title won in the new Wembley. Not the only statistic gap filled: Dalglish became only the seventh manager to win all three major titles in English football. Having won also the Community Shield, he has no voids to fill in his list of local accolades. Not to mention he also won all of them as a player, meaning he has nothing new to aspire to in English football.

Luckily, as we all have heard these days, achieving successes not only does not have the effect of calming the thirst for titles, but has the contrary effect of stimulating the desire to keep on enjoying finals and adding pieces of silverware to the records, both individual for players and managers and collective for the clubs. So it is a safe bet that not only has Dalglish even more ambition than before completing his list of trophies, but also the players will be raring to go and return to Wembley and winning ways as soon as possible.

This has happened before and will happen again. The momentum, the winning habit, can help raise the level of a team, turning a bad team into a mediocre one, a mediocre one into a good one, and a good one into a really great team. However, it is not automatic, obviously. The mechanism is not “you win a title and from then you keep on winning”. Ask Birmingham after their Carling Cup title last year.

The effects of winning a title are boosting the confidence of the team as a whole and of the players, increase the feel-good factor in the team, and ultimately improve the level of play. Hence, the subsequent titles. Without improving the quality of there is not a promise of keep adding titles. Winning a title stands a team in good stead from that moment on. It is up to the players and technical staff to capitalise on that and effectively raise the level of the team.

That is the challenge ahead for Dalglish and the squad. Being able to reproduce the kind of winning trend that in 2001 led the team from the League Cup to the UEFA Cup, the FA Cup and, last but not the least, the qualification for the Champions League. And, hopefully, keep on the momentum to become a team really capable of competing for the Premier League. That 2001 team were far from being the finalised product. So is the 2012 team. But both, 2001’s and 2012’s, were (and are) teams capable of challenging any other team on a good day. And both teams had (and have) in them the potential to provide the structure for a Premier winning team.

Houllier failed with the fine tuning of his team, and, two years later, the 2003 Carling Cup was not the beginning, but the end, of a possible great team. Benitez came very, very close to completing his rebuilding of the team, and after 2005 Champions League, 2006 FA Cup, and 2007 Champions League final, his 2008/2009 team was not only capable of challenging for the Premier League (as was Houllier’s 2001/2002 team), but in fact a team that deserved to win the League, that was the better team that season.

Sadly, out of the pitch problems prevented that squad from taking the final step. So there are, broadly speaking, two great challenges ahead: firstly, take the momentum going into the end of the season and came back to Wembley and get the fourth spot; then, make the necessary adjustments to the team in the summer so that next season the squad is better equipped to even greater challenges. As Dalglish says time and again, the task is to get the club steadily going forward.

There is indeed room for improvement. Satisfactory as it is to win a title, there is no denying the performance in the final was not even close to brilliant. As so many times this season, the team struggled severely to break down a composed defence. LFC dominated the match in almost every moment; but, chances-wise, the match was not greatly unbalanced. Cardiff not only scored as many goals as LFC did, Cardiff created as many clear chances as LFC did. During long spells, LFC’s only path to scoring was crossing balls into the box from set pieces. And LFC defence looked somewhat less solid than in previous matches.

Even so, LFC were deserved winners, no doubt about that. They were the better team, the players endlessly pursued the victory, they took the game to Cardiff half. But, much as we have heard these days that finals are not played, only won and lost, the truth is that, in the long term, the better you play, the better results you get. And, with Arsenal waiting in the weekend, the level of play does matter.

And that level needs to be raised if the season is to end up in a high. On the defensive side, the injury to Agger is bad news, and Van Persie will test soon enough the capacity of LFC to keep up its up to now good defensive displays. On the midfield front, Gerrard is still trying to adjust his game to a holding role, and is not having on the  games the impact usually expected, while Adam is not playing as the playmaker the team needs. As for the attack, both in the wings and in the centre the team needs to create more troubles, ask more questions, to opposition defences.

The reassuring side is that LFC have consistently proved its ability to deliver against the better teams, so it can be expected a much needed good performance against Arsenal. A defeat would make it extremely difficult to achieve fourth spot, so Saturday match is, in a sense, a new final. And something LFC can do, and do well, is perform well in finals. In a final you need playing qualities, but you also need determination, will, not acceptance of defeat, mental strength, drive, fighting spirit.

LFC have, time and again, proved along the years its capacity to play and win finals, either through outplaying the rivals, or through sheer will. 2012 Carling Cup was won on penalties, after arguably the two most reliable LFC players on that front failed their shoots. Too bad league games are not decided on penalties. I bet most of those costing eight draws at Anfield would have been turned into victories.

One title already in Anfield, the team needs now to take the impetus and go on a winning run, starting next Saturday. In order to do that, determination and mental strength will be needed. But also an improved level of play, a better way to break down the opposition through footballing skills like passes, crosses, movements, and goals. In the end, playing good football is the best way to adding points to Premier league table. And, while far from perfect, this LFC team and LFC players have in them the ability to keep improving and play better football. The Carling Cup could help and provide them with the confidence to take that extra step.