The point about our centre midfield: to me, the staff are going to play a pivotal role in this game, more than any one player.
It's not as clear-cut as saying play Stevie and Adam in the centre and we're going to get stuffed. We could play them there, give clear instructions to hold, always to provide cover to whichever player on the side of their side of the pitch in our third for the entirety of the game and while we're never going to hit the security that two quality cms can provide we'll do ok if the players follow instructions. If we give these two license to choose their runs though we'll be fucked.
After having a clear gameplan, there's the big detail of training working off the ball as a unit for this particular game, based on the usual movement of the City players which, against the big teams always, we have shown we are decent at.
In terms of being a springboard to success, while it's true to an extent trophies sharpen the hunger in players to consistently get them, it only does it in players who are of a certain mindset, who are by nature going to try to improve anyway. If you're the type that thinks you've made it after signing for Liverpool, it's not going to do much. The league cup under Evans was a decent example, that squad of players were simply not professional enough to win consistently, the trophy changed nothing.
Still, the main thing is that it's another trophy under our 'honours won' section, about time we added a few.