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Adam Lallana admits he hasn’t lived up to his £24million price tag – but the Liverpool midfielder is determined to finish the season with a flourish by lifting the FA Cup.



The England international faces a battle to be fit for Sunday’s semi-final with Aston Villa at Wembley as he continues his recovery from a groin injury.

It’s the latest setback to hamper Lallana during his first campaign with the Reds. He missed pre-season with knee ligament damage and has struggled to reproduce the form which secured him his dream move to Anfield from Southampton. He has scored just five goals in 35 appearances.

“It’s not gone great,” Lallana said.

“It started off with injury and I’ve had another over the last few weeks with a few more in between.

“It’s been quite frustrating if I’m being honest and I haven’t been out on the pitch as much as I’d have liked.

“Getting injured and missing pre-season I feel played a big part in my recurring injuries. It’s a very important part for a footballer to get the basis of the fitness in.

“But I want to be fully fit for the run-in, we’ve still got an outside chance of making the top four, and that’s something I want to be a part of. And obviously the last game of the season is the FA Cup final.

“I’m looking to come back in next season, get a good basis in with my fitness and kick on from there.“

Liverpool’s campaign has been full of ups and downs. Brendan Rodgers’ side transformed their fortunes after enduring a miserable opening few months of the season.

Switching to a 3-4-2-1 formation kick-started their revival but in the past two wins over Blackburn and Newcastle the manager has reverted to 4-3-3.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy with the amount of new recruits that came in. But I think we have proved to everyone and ourselves that we are a good team,” Lallana told the theFA.com

“We’ve put in some great performances over the second half of the season and we’ll be looking to build on that over the next couple of years. It would be the icing on the cake to win on Sunday and get to the final.

“It’s been exciting playing in the new formation, but I feel we can utilise a number of different formations which is always handy to have. The last couple of games we have reverted back to the old system, but it gives us the opportunity to change and switch back if that’s what the manager wants to do.”

Tim Sherwood has improved Villa since his appointment in February and Lallana says the Midlanders command respect. However, he insists that if Liverpool perform how they can then they will march on to the final.

“They’ve picked up and had a great result at Tottenham last week. That shows they are definitely in good form,” he said,

“(Christian) Benteke is finding the net again so we have to keep our eye on him, but we’ll be concentrating on ourselves and playing well. We have enough in our team to win.

“We said at the beginning of the season our aim was to get to the final of a competition and win some silverware. We are still in that position at the moment. Liverpool is known for winning lots of silverware and I think it’s important that we continue that this year.”