Former Liverpool star Steve McManaman has said that winning the Carling Cup is better than finishing in the top four of the league.
The Reds face Cardiff City at Wembley on Sunday aiming to win their first trophy since the 2006 FA Cup.
Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy recently stated that securing Champions League football was the club's top priority.
However McManaman, who won the League Cup with the Merseyside outfit in 1996, has now claimed that the prize at stake for fourth place has "watered down" cup success.
"For me, winning trophies and being successful is everything," the 40-year-old told talkSPORT. "At the start of the Premier League when I played there was no such thing as 'fourth place got a Champions League spot'.
"It was champions or nothing, and then it was the first two or nothing. Now that it is fourth, it is slightly watered down.
"A day out at Wembley and coming home from Wembley with the trophy, or coming home as a fan if you have won it, and you are with your father or whatever, these days you will remember for the rest of your lives."
McManaman came through the Liverpool youth ranks before leaving for Real Madrid in 1999.
Michael Penkman
