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Louise Thomas
Editor
Crystal Palace boss Ian Holloway is ready to go on the attack as he attempts to pull off another another shock at Liverpool on Saturday.
Holloway's Blackpool side were relegated in 2011 after one season in the top flight but they collected some notable scalps along the way, not least when they did the double over the Reds.
Newly-promoted Palace find themselves in a similar predicament, lying second from bottom with just one win from six games so far.
But Holloway insisted: "It's a wonderful opportunity for us to put right what's been going wrong.
"We have to be more attacking, it's who dares wins. That was the Blackpool approach, to be more daring. We've worked hard on that this week.
"We have players who can attack but they are coming back too far to defend, so we have to be a little bit braver and we are working on it.
"The proof is in the pudding, can we get at Liverpool? Can we take our chances, and will life look a little bit better afterwards?
"It's tough, it's not easy at this level but you have to believe in what you do. We'll keep plugging away. People will rubbish us but no one knows how many points we'll get.
"If we keep doing what we are doing we'll get what we've got, which is nowt. So we have to be adventurous."
Charlie Adam and Luke Varney were on target for Blackpool in a shock 2-1 victory at Anfield three years ago this weekend, but Holloway knows Brendan Rodgers' in-form side are a different proposition these days.
He added: "It was a different time, Roy Hodsgon had just gone there.
"Now they are flying high, the new manager is bedded in and they didn't have the points they have now."
Palace will come up against the Barclays Premier League's most feared strikeforce in the shape of seven-goal Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez, who marked his return from a 10-match ban with two goals at Sunderland last weekend.
But Holloway, who can welcome back centre-half Damien Delaney from an ankle knock, says his team can cope with the red-hot duo.
"Could I handle them? No - I'm glad I'm not out there," he admitted.
"But can my team? Yes, we've worked on it, we've got to deal with it and then we've got to say 'how can we counter- attack and throw that punch'?
Palace fans of a certain age will still shudder at the thought of a trip to Anfield, where the Eagles were famously drubbed 9-0 in 1989 - although they went on to beat the then mighty Reds 4-3 in the FA Cup semi-final seven months later.
Holloway experienced something similar early in his career. He recalled: "In one of my first games as a coach when I was 17 I took over some under-15s, and we lost 17-0. But at the end of season we beat that team in the cup final.
"You have to believe you can handle whatever happens to you. I've made a living doing it."
PA
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