Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish views domestic cup success as a sign improvements are being made I've not got any idea what my team will be for then. Every day in training if someone does well, or in any game, it never does them any harm. The target for us is to progress into the next round of the FA Cup. The cups have not only been a source of salvation for the club's traumatic period, but they are also helping Dalglish reaffirm the view progress is being made. In recent weeks he has pointedly remarked how Liverpool are in much healthier shape than a year ago. That is undeniable given the club's ongoing interest in two cup competitions and they are still competing for a Champions League place. "We are in a better position than we were a year ago - we were out of the FA Cup, out of the Carling Cup and tailed off in the league," said Dalglish. Now we're four points off fourth spot, the fifth round of the Cup's coming up and we are in the Carling Cup final. We still have an awful lot to play for. Such a positive view can also be countered by less favourable statistics. In Rafa Benitez's last season, for example (generally regarded as an appalling campaign), Liverpool had five more points after 25 league games than they have now. A fairer reference point would be how both Benitez and Gerard Houllier fared in their first seasons in charge at Anfield. Benitez had 40 points from 25 games, while Houllier accumulated 47 over the same period in his first year of sole management in 1999/2000. Roy Hodgson, of course, never made it that far as Dalglish immediately led the club away from the bottom half of the table a year ago. Such statistics do not take into account the broader impact of Dalglish's reign, the circumstances he inherited and the continued belief of supporters he is leading the club through a period of transition back to where it belongs. But the comparisons do confirm why domestic cup success is so important to sustain the view improvements are being made and Dalglish genuinely is taking Liverpool down the right path. Old Trafford was by no means a rare poor performance since the turn of the year, and Dalglish is wary of Brighton's threat after their success in the last round. "They obviously beat Newcastle, which was a good result for them," said Dalglish. They will come here, sit in and make it tight and hardfor us, but they are a good footballing side too. So we need to concentrate and not give them any presents.