By Eric Beard, who finally turned 21 today

A friend of mine said to me Wednesday morning, “How many goals do you think Chelsea will win by? No way they put six in again, right? I think Newcastle will put up a good fight, so Liverpool will probably outscore Chelsea for once.” The Anchoring Trap is, simply, over-relying on your first thoughts. So if I asked (an ill-informed) you, “How many professional clubs are there in England? More or less than 40?”, then you may very well guess over 40, but your specific answer will likely be nowhere near the true number of 92. Anyway, it was early (10 am is early for a college student), and I was tired while walking towards by Strategic Management class. This was essentially my thought process: “Chelsea are amazing, but Liverpool are playing a team I have never heard of. Therefore, advantage Liverpool.” I was caught in the anchoring trap like a fool. His question assumed victories for Chelsea and Liverpool, and his assumption, through the ineffable footballing transitive property, became my perception.

It was so easy to accept. The match was at Anfield. No matter that Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres probably won’t be playing, it’s Liverpool. That tyrannizing “This is Anfield” sign in the tunnel will make Northampton wilt over and force League Two footballers to sit back and respect Dani Pacheco. More than anything, I have seen Liverpool win hundreds of times. I have never seen Northampton win, ever. Therefore, Northampton were, through my perception, incapable of victory.

 How naive. Perhaps I was stuck on Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy that “when an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.” Professional athletes in these lower leagues live amongst the fact that they are not the best at what they do. And not simply what they do, but how they define themselves. How indignifying to know that people thinking like “9:30 am” me discredit the collective power of individuals who have struggled to gain respect because I am vaguely aware that Dani Pacheco could have a future with the Spanish national team.

 What I failed to think about is what this match means to Liverpool. Essentially, it is nothing. It is a match forced upon them from the fabrics of history that they fail to do justice to. They disrespect history. They disrespect the Liverpool legends that once won league cups and played the full 90 no matter the opponent. But more importantly, they disrespect their fellow professionals. Liverpool is a football club, as is Northampton. And I had heard of Northampton beating Liverpool, it just wasn’t done so by Northampton per se. It was just in the form Hungary beating England, Brentford beating Everton, Cameroon defeating Brazil, Barnsley beating Chelsea, etc…

On an absolute scale, Northampton are ranked 85th out of the 92 professional clubs. But football is not a game of absolutes. The gods of the game had class, but they all have been embarrassed along their path to becoming legends. So what exactly was the difference between the impudence shown by Manchester City’s players’ attitude at West Brom and the disdainful response from West Brom’s players?

Is it merely a grandois sense of entitlement and self-importance? Yes, David Silva, you are surrounded by world-class players who each make about the same as West Brom’s starting XI. But you, too, are trapped in your own thought process. The notion that “I’m a Premier League player. I make more money than any footballer ever dreamed of!” captures class into a stagnant submission, especially when a footballer cannot see individual progress or improvement coming from a particular match.

But here lies the paradox; the best footballers are right about this mindset. They will not get better from playing those in lower leagues. But they must. Why? Because what they mean to the game of football is meaningless compared to what the game of football means to their lives as a whole.

The Carling Cup, in itself, is not an important factor in deciding whether Chelsea or Liverpool or Manchester City’s season was successful. However, the idea of a club like Liverpool losing to a League Two club is enough embarrassment to instill belief in every club that travels to Anfield from this point forward. So while Liverpool may have had nothing meaningful to take from a match against Northampton, they had every reason to avoid defeat for the sake of eluding the consequences associated with that defeat.

Roy Hodgson said of the loss to Northampton, “We must all take our responsibility… It is a major setback for the club.” He continued, “I shouldn’t have changed that many players [for the Carling Cup].”

Like Socrates was the gattfly that continuously irritated Athens for the sake of ensuring the city valued virtue, lower league teams annoy England’s strongest sides to ensure that the best always respect the beautiful game of which they belong. The Bill Mckays of football will never sit in a sustainable spotlight, however, their courage to challenge and conquer football’s aristocracy produces an invaluable opportunity to maintain the integrity of the game.

There’s time for everything to change. Next year Roy Hodgson will not send out a weak team. He will respect the competition, the competitors, and the consequences of failure. My favourite Chinese proverb is “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” So while the courageous heroes of the lower leagues will continue to reveal themselves, maybe the best clubs participating in the Carling Cup will respect the competition and what it means to football as a whole.