Chelsea v Liverpool
Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish: “Liverpool and Chelsea are close when they play each other, apart from the 4-1 at Anfield earlier this season, although they lost 2-0 down here [London].”
I couldn’t put it better myself. Since Jose Mourinho took over at Stamford Bridge in June 2004, Liverpool have lost all four home and away Premiership games they’ve played against Chelsea. Combined score: 8-1. Last season they finished fifth in the table, 37 points off top spot; this season they currently lie third, 15 points adrift. Closer, but not close.
In stark contrast to the League, European games during the same period have been tight, cagey and, on occasions, tedious affairs; of the four games played, three finished 0-0 and one finished 1-0, Luis Garcia’s infamous “goal” (has the use of quotation marks ever had quite the power to annoy?) the only difference between the sides.
Liverpool’s players have been spouting their customary hubris-laden pre-game inanities. Luis Garcia came out with this gem earlier in the week: “Liverpool are one of the teams who always cause problems for Chelsea … Mourinho must fear us because after each game his head must really hurt”. Will they ever learn?
Jose Mourinho’s head seemed fine during yesterday’s pre-match press conference, as he reflected on the last game between the teams, February’s 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge: “For me it was a game where only one team played. The other team couldn’t compete against a side that played a magnificent game. Chelsea played very well.
“We were psychologically prepared for the game and I don’t remember one chance they had. We beat them 2-0 very comfortably and we scored a third, an amazing goal from Crespo that the linesman didn’t give.”
Mourinho has a number of injury concerns going into the match. Eidur Gudjohnsen has been ruled out due to illness, while Michael Essien is rated doubtful after picking up a knee injury during last weekend’s win over Everton. Petr Cech also sustained a leg injury in that game, and was substituted at half time. Lenny Pidgeley has travelled with the squad as extra insurance.
Prediction: Both teams are in a rich vein of form and have scored plenty of goals in recent games: Liverpool have won their last seven, scoring 22 goals in the process, while we’ve looked impressive in our last three, sweeping aside West Ham 4-1, Bolton 2-0 and Everton 3-0.
That’s not to say we should expect a goalfest similar to 1997’s fourth round at Stamford Bridge, the last time the two teams met in the FA Cup. We were 2-0 down at half time but scored four times in the second half… it’s one of my all-time favourite Chelsea games. Rafael Benitez is likely to prevent it happening today by sticking to his ten men behind the ball tactics, thus stifling the game.
I’m predicting a hard fought 1-0 and a sixth straight domestic win over the Reds in just two seasons.
Chelsea 1 - 2 Liverpool · Update
In my humble opinion, Jose Mourinho got his tactics so wrong in the first half that we handed Liverpool the initiative if not the game, at least for the first 55 minutes, which were desperately disappointing.
One is wondering how Joe Cole is feeling now… as bad as the rest of us I would imagine.
Time for post-defeat sorrow drowning…
Match reports: BBC Sport; Sky Sports; ESPNSoccernet; Official Chelsea FC Website; The Observer; Sunday Telegraph; Independent on Sunday; Daily Telegraph; The Times; The Guardian; The Independent.
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I forsee (and hope) we get a 1-0 win, got a feeling Didier will pop up with a goal.
Come on you Blues!!
We’ll score atleast 2 goals for sure. One more defeat for Liverpooh.
I think its either of this scores : 2-0, 3-1, 3-0 to Chelsea.
well i can predict a good game and a result of 3-2 for Chelsea.
i reckon didier and hernan both r gonna score today, and perhaps a john terry special too!!
u know the running header{unstoppable}!!
i just hope jose dont go over the top today………..
true blue forever!!
This is a sweet encounter!!! The side that plays well will win!!
If the boy Drogba keeps up his recent form then Hyypia will be quivering by half time. Could be tight - team that scores first wins it I’d say. Come on you Blues!
Jonathan, I know you be watching out for Drogba today but I don’t know if you have noticed what a revelation Geremì’ s been at RB. I thought it was a fluke taming Ronaldinho but he seems to know what to do with that position. Always available to recieve the ball from MD and CH, crosses, unbeatable, runs up and down. Awsome. Hope he’s given the nod to do Kewell today.
Certainly one to watch.
Certainly will be watching out for Drogba Henry - potentiallly a match-winner if on form…!
I like Geremi I have to say - think he’s suffered a little bit in the sense that he’s never really been given a chance to make a position his own due to his ‘utility’ reputation. Done really well at RB though - great crosser and handy with the dead ball too. Fingers crossed…
Bloody Hell!!! a “Lovefest” between Jonathan and Henry LOL
Jose owes us an apology and a promise never to try a diamond formation again.
I agree, Chris. Jose got his tactics spectacularly wrong in the first half.
It may seem vindictive to say this, but we lost the match rather than Liverpool winning it.
And Henry: Geremi was really poor. Kewell had him for breakfast.
I’m a wreck. Going to drown my sorrows with cheap red wine.
we met them 5th time last season..
Lost by a single goal margin..
Missed a sitter right at the end of the game..
Its like freakin’ DEJAVU.
ARGHHHHH!!!!!
well wtf was that about?? OMG OMG OMFG! i cant stop feeling soo shit, is it de ja vu, or did gudjohnson miss a sitter in the last minute of our tie agianst these priscks in the campions league last year, now JC does the same, i cant belive it i really cant. what was the formation about??? not playing joe or duff or robben, not to mention wirght phillips from the start is crazy instead we have geremi playing on the right?? wtf someone tell me. never ever would have guessed that. And to be honest lets think for a minute, did we really play well or was it because liverpool let us play we dominated in the 2nd half?? i mean robben should have scored as wel as terrys goal should have counted. but joe cole, OMFG please tell me how he missed, i saw it like 20 times and i still dont understand how it didnt hit the net, had that went it we would have won. i was sitting in this pub with 30 “liverpool fans” from trinidad and myself prob the only english one there, and fuck they were scared to shit in the second half, and that last chance i actually celebrated thinking we had scored, then the tv lost signal and as it came back on to my shear and utter disbelief we had missed, i knew by then game over, i didnt even watch the end. just came home, im absoultley gutted. cannot express, being so close last year to CL and this year to Fa cup and to be done both times by these pricks. i need to go chill, so annoyed,
again cheated by a dodgy goal. Jose’s tactics weren’t right, but he went with what he thought was best as;
i) a similar team was suceeding in the league where others werent.
ii) he predicted ‘pool would expect a winger formation, that had succeded twice in the league previously.
it didnt work however
luckily though, we lost two big games against arse not long ago with Raneiri for stupid reasons, but the third time - when it was really important in the Chmps Lge, we scored a beauty via Bridgey. So the next time we meet in these circumstances, we will win. And it is for this reason, that i am not in a state right now.
Was a little upset crespo went off, thought he could be the difference. thought we could take maka/essien off, have three at the back etc etc. But this would be a massive gamble…
pleasant evenings to all…
We were poor first half and it is fair to say that Jose got the tactics wrong but he put out a side that he thought could beat Liverpool, and if decision had gone our way we could have.
Riise’s goal shouldn’t have been a FK in the first place, Terry went for the ball which was in the air and there to be won. Cant believe Cole blazed over, why the f**ck does this alway happen to us!?
Really disappointing today.
What a selection! I’m really confused by that and now seen the consequences.
Why Jose is not playing the wingers from the start? Is there any rebellion or bust up inside the dressing room ? Why our manager is doing this?
Really frustated with the negative attitude.
I doubt if Robben ,Cole or Wright Philips will be in Chelsea next year. If that happens then I can’t really bear that disaster.
Hoping for the better next time.
On positive note we’ll be champions again. Come on Chelsea…………..
in the official website, JM gives the reason he put Ferreira in that position in the first halk was because Ferreira ws once a midfielder. OK fine. I accept that. But why the freakin’ hell is Essien in that position then??? And all his claim that Ferreira was the best player yesterday was plain bull.
Loss yesterday was due to (in order of significance): JM’s tactical error, Graham Poll’s inconsistent refereeing decision and players’ poor performance.
Damn. Now I have to tolerate crap talk by scousers.
I’m pissed and hurting, but still proud to be a Blue and wouldn’t change it for the world. What’s cheered me up is a brief visit to the BBC 606 web site and reading the Scouse muppets who are bragging about us spending 300 million and only winning 2 Premiership titles and no major cups. I think just having an IQ of 4 (and I’m being generous to them), get a f***ing life, you fluked it again and I hope Wet Spam or Middlesbrough beat them in the final!!!!
IN a supreme Irony, Mourinho made one of the same mistakes his predessor made on so many occasions, worrying too much about how the oposition were going to play rather than focus on winning the game with the superior quality we had available.
What a disaster. The only person feeling worse than me at the moment must be Geremi.
An Joe Cole will wake in the night screaming for weeks to come, talk about deja vu. Eider really hasn’t been the same since his miss and coles was an even eaier chance.
yeah speaking of which.. I could add more.
1. Luis Garcia goal separates us and them..
2. we dominated late in the second half..
3. we got a hell lot of injury time (5mins to last year’s 6)..
4. game with a controversy again.. (Terry’s disallowed goal and dubious free-kick at the edge of the box that led to the first goal)..
5. we did not start with wingers..
6. we lost in another cup semi-final..
What I mentioned earlier:
7. The 5th time we met them, we lost again..
8. Joe Cole missed a sitter in injury time i.e like Gudjohnsen..
9. Lost by a freakin’ single goal margin..
10. questionable refereeing decisions..
Its like almost fated. Damn. Clearing my head.. Clearing my head now..
“IN a supreme Irony, Mourinho made one of the same mistakes his predessor made on so many occasions, worrying too much about how the oposition were going to play rather than focus on winning the game with the superior quality we had available.”
Amen to that. Absolutely. I think Jose has outsmarted himself with all those tactic etc. thoughts. Why couldn’t we just go out and beat them with all the quality we have? It’s not like we’re a conference side in the semi-final.
To sum it up Mourinho might have been on a ego trip with his team selection.
Jose we love you mate you don’t need to prove to your critics how good you are.your the daddy all know it and that’s all what counts.
He knows more than most that you play to your own strengths not what others might be thinking.
Graham fucking get me name in the papers tomorrow POLL. what a complete prat.
He just cant wait to do the nations bidding and awards dodgy decisions against us.
Nice one POLL give a free kick against us that was almost a penalty cos of its position and a gaol disallowed bet hes busy this morning with his scissors and glue cutting out his clippings for his scrape book.
and just a word for poor Geremi and Cole chins up lads its never as bad as it seems.
forever blue!
Forgot to mention in the above do you lot notice how the reporting is comical in the newspapers. This is what they are saying about Polls blatant cheating free kick for the scousers ” there seemed a harsh decision against JT”. that’s it .that’s all that is said even that little comment is lost in the marvel of the brilliance of the said taken free kick….
Now if the shoe was on the other foot and Chelsea got the decision. what! blazing headlines Cheats this and lucky that and we paid for the free kick. Sack the ref(not a bad thing).
Well bollocks to em.we just have to settle for being poor little CHAMPIONS of the country again!!!!!!!
Except we’ve given the status of God to Mourinho, we should expect him to get it wrong once in a while. And, of course, we can only say he got it wrong with the benefit of hindsight, an advantage he himself wouldn’t have had when he had to make the decision.
Yes, like most people, I found the initial line-up against Liverpool strange, but any follower of football must understand why Mourinho decided to play very narrow. Liverpool have the strongest midfield in the Premiership and Mourinho must have reasoned that it was important to match them strength-wise in the middle of the park. In fact, in his pre-match comment, I remember him saying he’d bring in the wingers in the latter stages when the Liverpool defence becomes susceptible to their pace. My only problem with the line-up was Essien at the head of the diamond. I thought a more creative player would have been more useful (though, I wouldn’t say Essien performed badly). Besides, playing on a big pitch, you would expect the widemen to be more likely to cause damage against any opposition, including a very defensive team like Liverpool.
Having said the above, I must point out that the Liverpool goals were not conceded on the grounds of selection or formation. The free-kick that led to the first goal was totally undeserved (though the Chelsea wall that defended it was purely schoolboy stuff). The ball was there to be won and Terry got it cleanly. Also, the second goal was an unusual defensive error. An improperly headed clearance fell for Garcia and the out of position defenders couldn’t get to him before that looping shot that gave Cudicini no chance. Otherwise, Chelsea dominated possession and play.
While we criticize JM for his starting line-up, we must also recognize that he changed things early enough for us to get a result. Drogba missed two clear chances, Robben missed one and Joe Cole missed one at the death. I personally see nothing wrong with Terry’s goal. It’s okay to criticize Jose for his part in our loss, but in truth, we had enough in the team he put out yesterday to win that game. As usual, they waited until the second half before they woke up. But a defensively disciplined Liverpool side two goals up weren’t going to make the kind of mistakes our boys were hoping to cash in on. They made one and Drogba scored; but in spite of our bombardment, they stood. I believe we played the better football, but Liverpool had all the luck and the big referring decisions clearly favoured them.
Like every fan, I feel terrible after this loss, because we were so close. But we have to put things in perspective. Last year, we didn’t get up to this stage in the FA Cup and our loss this time wasn’t against minions. Liverpool are a good side; they knocked out Man United in this competition and deserve to be in the final, if only for the fact that their players seemed more disciplined and knew the simple things to do to contain a better team like Chelsea once they had their nose in front. But when all is said and done, Chelsea remain the premier force in English football as we stroll on to our second title in two years. I am happy that what some of our losses have showed, against all the hoopla at the beginning of the season, is that there is genuine competition in the Premiership and in the English game. More importantly, we retain the biggest portion of the glory. For now, Liverpool fans can celebrate, but I don’t think anyone of them is happy that for the second year in a row we are carting away the big prize.
I’m grateful to Mourinho and the boys. I know they’re human and do not expect them to win every game. I know the season has been tough, but they’ve showed that tough men will always rise to tough occasions by putting themselves on the verge of winning the league. The FA Cup is a big cup, but most of us blaming Mourinho and the players too harshly now are doing so only because we expect Chelsea to beat every team they play at every time. Life isn’t that easy. As a fan, you take the good and the bad and count your blessings at all times. As far as I can see, we have many, many more years of competing with the big teams at home and abroad and we’re bound to lose some as we’ll win some. So far at home, I do not think any of the big teams have had the better of us overall since Mourinho’s arrival. And that is enough for me.
It is my hope that Mourinho is learning all the lessons from our victories and defeats. I’m sure each defeat is revealing to him the individual character of his charges and what needs to be done to make the team stronger and better. When in the days ahead he begins to make the necessary changes to freshen up things and posit the team for next season, I hope he puts all these into consideration. He’s still the Special One and Chelsea are still the Special Team.
For some reason it hurts more than ECL exit.
The annoying thing is Liverpool used our 4-5-1 tactic well…with Kewell and Garcia on the wings, and they were too good for us. I hope the performance in the last 25 minutes would convince JM to return to 4-5-1. Geremi was run down.
and er…just realised Steven G. snubbed us so he could win more trophies(lol).
Would we have such a strong finish had Kewell not gone off injured or Cisse been so Cisse?
I’m not mad with Jose for tinkering (*cough*claudio*cough*), nor am I angry that he didn’t put things back as they were until about 65 mins gone. I’m upset he won’t say sorry and that he doesn’t seemed to have learnt anything from this. The lessons have been there to learn over the past 2 months of odd performances on the whole but there’s no sign that throwing away the FA Cup will have made any difference.
Yes the ref was crap but the Chelsea that won the Premiership over the first 2 thirds of this season (yes we won it already - look at the goal difference on ManUre) could have brushed the scouse aside.
We are a good side and we can be a great one.Just let us be great Jose.
I think you can over-analyse this game.
We started cold, as usual.
Yes, the formation was unfamiliar and yes, the free-kick was a joke. I agree with all that. But the moment you go down to an “A list” team like Liverpool, the chances are its over at that point. They know how to defend a lead and counter attack, just like us.
Whatever happened after that, we were probably going to lose.
Its really the first time this season I’ve seen us punished for our slow start - and we’ve had many of those whatever the formation! The harsh lesson from this game is for the players, not Jose.
45 minutes of football is not enough and you can’t chose when you start playing…..
Got back from the game at 2am this morning. Thought Liverpool outplayed us for 60 mins and deserved the lead until Jose took the shackles off - though Poll (fing arsehole) free kick award was well dodgy we played into their hands tactically. Felt sorry for geremi because he was isolated by tactics. Also ADH who people were going past for fun. But we had nothing to make liverpool think about going forward on the wings, so their full backs midfielders and wide players just doubled up. Kewell’s an arse but he had an excellent game and why we decide its a good idea experiment to try ferreira in midfield in a cup semi is beyond me. Joe Cole has learnt how to be disciplined and put in the tackles so why deprive ourselves of his attacking attributes. Biggest disappointment was that we’d seen the best way to rattle liverpool defence was to run at them and get behind them a la Robben so why again do we decide to spend last ten minutes pumping long balls at drogba and JT when we have three of the best wingers in the country on the pitch? Carragher and Hyppia did make one mistake but usually they love stuff in the air.
Is just a bit depressing because I genuinely think we are a far better team than liverpool in all areas of the pitch with possible exception of gerrard. We’ve obviously made a huge amount of progress and jose is an excellent coach, but this one he got wrong. The essence of a cautious approch is that you give nothing away but they were all over us in first half.
Plus points of day: Blues support was brilliant and despite the usual press love-fest about those wonderful red scouser fans the scarf-twirling scallies were slient from the Drog’s goal until about 2 mins from the end. As one of their lot said after, they were shitting themselves. Shame we couldn’t make them do that from the off.
Plus we are still building something here and should win another league title barring catastrophe, Jose’s the coach that has done that for us, depsite occasional bad days at the office, which we all have. However, I wish the future development of the club could be a little bit more about that - the club - rather than Jose’s own personal CV. When he responds to critics its always about how he has won the league for the past four seasons. Well, not with us he hasn’t and I don’t really give a monkeys about what Porto won or what his next club wins. I’m glad we have a great coach who helps us win things and to move onto the next stage to become a dominant club for years. But its Chelsea I have supported for 30-odd years, not Jose.
Minus points: The result, obviously. Always a kick in the teeth to lose to fierce rivals and that’s what Liverpool are now. But that’s obviously what makes it so deeply satisfying when we get one over on them so you have to take the rough with the smooth.
And the organsiation at Old Trafford, which was hopeless. coming out of the ground aftewards tens of thousands of chelsea fans were squeezed through a tiny passageway, causing a huge crush and people having to climb over walls, rubbish bins and fences to get through. Minimal police supervision or clue of what was going on. Am sure OT is not like this when the manc reds are playing, was like a throwback to 20 years ago.
I bottled out of the game and decided to hide away on the golf course, relying on texts for updates. My golf was subsequently crap because my mind was elsewhere, but when I got the team news text my heart sunk and I commented to my Pompey loving mate that we would struggle with such a frankly Ranieri like selection. Why no Joe Cole from the start? I think he’ll opt to go elsewhere next season coz frankly he would be on the 1st team sheet for ANY other club in Europe. Plus I’m sure he’s sick of being JM’s whipping boy.
Sad to say this as I think JM is a great coach but this was a spectacular mistake almost as bad as Clownio’s selections and tactics against Monaco and Arsenal in our ill fated FA Cup final. The most worrying thing for me is the post match denial of liability on his part and that for me is the one bad thing he does. The players are at fault, yes, but the coach chooses them and decides tactics and yesterday was just wrong in every sense. We have brilliantly talented playmakers in Cole, Duff, Robben and SWP and yet none are on from the start against a resilent and confident Liverpool, a crap decision and one that will taint his record for some time.
This means that we have been less successful this year than last, a retrograde step in any book. I hope the players are stung by this but I do fear that Manure will be lifted by this and be the confident side on Saturday. I don’t want to be negative, but please go back to my earlier article which outlined The Curse of Chelsea, which resurrects every time a player gobs off about winning the Treble - JT and the whole team, do us a favour next year and keep it shut!
The weekend has been one of those I’d like to forget - not just our result but the performance for an hour or so, Poll’s refereeing, the journey to and from Old Trafford, getting home at 115 a.m., not sleeping well, Sunday papers - and now the Spammers getting to the final - hmm, roll on work on Monday!!!
But in the cold grey light of a south London Sunday, I’d read the press reports, read the thoughts and emotions on here and began thinking about Jose’s reaction to the game. About usual, I thought, from what I’d heard and read: he didn’t respond to the criticisms about the team selection, rather talked about how well we’d done in the last 30 minutes (amen to that!) and gave a side swipe at Poll for that stupid decision on JT’s ‘foul’ (??) that led to their first goal. Strange really, that he commented on the errors that led to the scousers second goal, but barely mentioned how the team had been under the cosh for a long time perior to that: sheer pressure, dodgy shape to the side, mistakes with passing and keeping the ball was what I, and heaps of other saw.
And then the arrival of JC - Joe Cole not the other (potential) saviour!! Given that Joe has done for, and to, Liverpool in several games, why hadn’t he started? Jose says he picks his team on training during the week, and also mentions that his wingers have not been playing well. So all 4 wingers are training worse than, say, Hernan Crespo and Paulo or Geremi? I simply don’t believe it. What I’m coming to is that in the last few weeks, I think there’s been a sea-change at the club with training, selection, tactics and overall management. Evidence??
The results in February and March have not been good, neither have the performances. Tactics wrong? Or simply has the golden goose stop laying the right eggs - is much of this difference because Michael E, Eidur and Frank have not played well,together or as individuals, and Claude has had to ‘hold the fort’ in typical unassuming fashion? Jose changes things by not playing wide players (okay, Robbie, Duffer, and SWP have been less than good) but JC has played as well this year as at any time. So I wonder are we seeing ‘favourite’ players getting their way? Is it true that Didier has made clear he wants a strike partner with him so Jose has gone for 4-4-2 to accommodate that AND to meet the shortcomings in our overall play? A change is as good as a rest, and it seemed to work for a few games.
But Saturday’s selection almost threw the whole previous five games up in the air. Joe C, simply because of what he has done to Liverpool seemed to be cert starter to many of us. make them worry about us, not the other way round! So Jose selects an even more conservative team than in some away CL games - and look what happens to us. We lose! This midfield selection to apparently blunt Kewell, Garcia and Gerrard obviously didn’t work from the outset. Geremi and Paulo F play on top of each other, Del is run past, over and round because we Liverpool play on him. I really think this team is confused now and only when we have some vague ‘natural’ shape restored do we look better.
I know that hindsight is a wonderful human quality, but had either Joe C or Duffer or Robbie started I do not believe we would have experienced such a crap start. So Jose decides to try to play close and tight in the first half when we are given a chasing, but opens up when two down and we take control. Does this tell you something Jose? YOU GOT IT WRONG and I hope that you admit this with the team very soon, because with Saturday coming up and the Mancs, we cannot play as badly as we did again and give them any momentum.
But, hey, this is just an older Chelsea supporter wanting EVERYTHING, because I know how good we can be when the team has width. I bet Fergie was chortling as he watched how the Hubcaps disrupted us and he’ll work on that again.
Go on Jose be bold for Saturday!! Play with at least one wide man, hope that Eidur is fit so he can play off Didier up front, and maybe bring back Percy Carvallho because he’s big game player: I know that sacrifices Billy to left back but if Ronaldo is playing anywhere near as well as he can then Del would probably be sent off for having him over very early. And go back to your natural instincts of pulling teams apart rather than compressing them because if we get pressed deep then we rarely ahve much ‘outball’ space.
i dont know why all of us have started giving suggestions to JM abt wide man..
Do u guys remember that we are the ones who praised JM for having both crespo and drogba aganist WestHam in our 4-1 and wanted it to be made permanent..
Comeon guys..JM does everything with a purpose and if it backfires soimetimes,he cannot stop working on it..Anyway lets forget the FA cup defeat and win aganist Man U
GrocerJack,
I share your pain, but reject some of the conclusions you’ve reached based on how you feel right now. As I’ve said earlier, like you, I found the initial line-up strange, but only because it was something new, not because I thought it wouldn’t work. We have to understand that Mourinho, from all accounts, does not leave anything to chance. Everybody who’s worked with him talks about his elaborate preparations and attention to detail. It follows that he wouldn’t have put out a selection that he hadn’t tried in training or one he thought the players wouldn’t be able to cope with. Mourinho combines the best of Dutch total football, Latin flair and English physicality in his game, pragmatically adapting these to suit the football culture he’s competing in.
The idea yesterday was to match Liverpool’s strength in midfield and then bring in the wingers or players with guile and pace at a time the Liverpool defence becomes susceptible due to tiredness or fading focus. Of course, that didn’t mean he was sure the opposition wouldn’t score first; but anyone would think that Chelsea had enough big characters in that starting eleven to cope with anything Liverpool had to offer. All of them are first team internationals; so, why did we have to worry? Geremi has been playing for years in that position for his national team and Ferreira was a midfielder before Mourinho converted him to a defender. So, there was method in that madness.
Personally, I don’t think the problem was with the selection; I think it was with the attitude. Our boys did not really begin to play until after we were two goals down. Liverpool’s goals were not earned by virtue of dominant play; they were fortuitous goals – one from an unearned free-kick scored via a schoolboy defensive wall and the second, an improperly cleared header that fell for Garcia when our defenders were out of position. The statistics of the game tells us clearly that apart from their goals, Chelsea were better in every department. We had 60% of the possession to their 40%; we had 5 shots on target to their own 3 and we had 5 off target to their own 4. We had 3 blocked shots to their own 0, 8 corners to their own 3 and 5 offside decisions to their own 2. They committed 16 fouls to our own 7 and had 2 yellow cards to our 1. So, minus the fortuitous goals, we were clearly the better team.
I wonder what you mean by Mourinho’s “post match denial of responsibility on his partâ€. What did you expect him to say on national television? That he got it wrong? How many coaches can any of us name who’ve come out after a loss to say they got it wrong? And why should JM come out to say he’s got it wrong simply because we didn’t win? Would you have expected him to say he got it wrong if Terry’s goal had stood, if Drogba had scored any of his two missed chances, if Robben had scored his feeble close-range effort or if Cole had buried his inside the net? No! All of us would have since declared him a tactical genius! Besides, Mourinho made the necessary changes in ample time. Robben came in 45 minutes into the game and Joe Cole and Duff came on the hour mark – enough time to perform any magic they needed to perform. We got a goal back, but not enough. The damage had already been done with the boys’ lethargic first half display.
Mourinho is not afraid to try new things. He did yesterday and it was working until that unearned free-kick. Liverpool, being a very defensive team were comfortable defending that lead. Mourinho changed things early enough for us to get back in the game. But the fact is simply that the boys chose to play only in the second half and only after going two goals down. It’s not tactics or selection, but attitude that was our problem yesterday. Yes, Mourinho’s selection may have contributed or not contributed to our loss; we might have won with it or without it, considering other factors; but the fact is someone needed to take a decision yesterday and he was and still is the one to take that decision. Mourinho was bold enough to try some new things with the hope they’d work. But he wasn’t going to command Lady Luck to smile on us, nor was he in a position to do anything when big referring decisions go against us. Every coach makes a crap decision at one time or the other because none of them are God, but in the end, they’re judged on the big picture, not by individual games.
As for your claim that we’ve been less successful this year, that is debatable. Yeah, we’ve lost the Carling Cup and we were knocked out before the quarter-final stages of the CL and now at the semi-final stage of the FA Cup. Apart from the Carling Cup, the rest simply boils down to the same thing, like last year, we didn’t win them. Of course, we progressed better this time around in the FA Cup than last year, but because we are a club that wants to win everything now, winning is all that matters. This is a good mentality and I’m not about to dampen that. But we must put things in perspective. The biggest prize is still ours. This is not “a retrograde step†by any means, because in spite of the so-called closing of gaps touted by Benitez, Wenger and Ferguson, what matters in this business is winning the big thing, not being also-rans or nearly-men. We are still the most successful English team this season, no matter what Arsenal ultimately achieves in Europe and we still are on course to beat our points record total of last year if we win all our remaining games. I think every fan in this country would wish to be in our shoes and that says enough about how far we’ve come.
Yep, like you, I’m absolutely gutted by the loss of yesterday; but I’m pleased that I would be having the best celebration of all when the smoke clears.
Cheer up, Grocer, you win some and lose some; but for us, the best is yet to come!
Kenn, you wrote
“We have to understand that Mourinho, from all accounts, does not leave anything to chance. Everybody who’s worked with him talks about his elaborate preparations and attention to detail. It follows that he wouldn’t have put out a selection that he hadn’t tried in training or one he thought the players wouldn’t be able to cope with.”
That doesn’t mean he’s right, it’s like studying to answer questions in an exam but then finding out the ones you thought they’d ask aren’t in the paper. You can only prepare to what you think is going to happen, but it seems that virtually everyone is in agreement from fans to press to TV pundits. JM got it wrong and maybe just for once needs to admit to that, even if it is only privately to himself. It was a poor selection and just because Ferreira was once a midfielder it seems perverse to ask him to switch back for such a big game, especially when his form at right back has been so patchy this year. I was once a really handy goalkeeper despite my height but that doesn’t mean my old Sunday team would take me back now for a Cup Final.
I respect your views Kenn but I stick by my feelings and opinion that JM called the wrong hand this time.
Time to reflect on the bitterness of the Saturdays self inflicted wounds has left me with the conclusion that such disasters get one back in touch with what being a football supporter is always about, as without nights like saturdays spent kicking the cat you can’t fully appreciate the magic moments (such as Bridges last minute winner against Arsenal - ultimately futile but hey! - and Billy Gallas winner against Spurs).
Many years of mediocrity should have given most long term fans the back bone to cope with such reverses and remind us of how far the club have come since the appoclyptic 1994 capitulation against the Mancs.
What irks me most about Liverpools recent success is, as I’m sure most thirtysomethings have noticed in the last 12 months, those armchair supporters of a similar age who had disowned football in favour of rugby or some other pass time whilst the team they grew up supporting underachieved for over a decade have all crawled back out of the woodwork. . If ever there was a club for whom the song “where were you when you were sh$t” was suitable its Liverpool. I started supporting chelsea as 12 year old partly because they were my local team but mainly because everyone else in Surrey of my age seemed to inexplicably support Liverpool!
Anyway - On Saturday we can win the league and remind ourselves that things really ain’t so bad.
MOURIHNO OWE US AN APOLOGY
SIMPLE; DIAMOND FORMATION INDEED
Lets put this all into perspective, we all appear to be tactical experts and in choosing formations and players. Lets give Jose some credit here, I think he knows what he’s doing most of the time, look at the stats, we’ve only lost 6 games in all competitions so far this season, (and I’m not counting the Charlton penalty win).
I think we can safely say he’s getting it right most of the time, and although as mentioned in earlier replies hindsight is a wonderful thing, and perhaps he would do things differently now. But for all his preparation and planning, he has no control over certain situations like bad refereeing decisions and players who miss the target when in front of goal. Things could have been oh so different had Drogba taken his two chances or even the one of them, but hey that’s football.
I did understand some of the logic in his approach, by wanting to keep it tight and then stretch them with pace and trickery from the wingers in the second half. He had observed on previous occasions that Liverpool tire in the second half which did happen (Gerrard getting cramp was indicative of that) and also how Robben was beating players with ease.
I may be looking at this with perhaps a naive understanding of tactics, and I’m sure some of you will put me right.
We lost and and I think we were unlucky, we at least deserved extra time, but if you ask any sensible Liverpool supporter if the would prefer being in an FA Cup Final (which they haven’t won yet) or 9 points clear in the Premiership with three games left.
I think we all know the answer
F*ck the FA Cup. We won 4-1 at Anfield! Humiliated them in front of the Kop on the way to winning back-to-back Championships! Did you ever think you’d see the day?
Like it Peter, that’s the spirit! We’ll be celebrating again come Saturday afternoon, and we’ll just have to wait until the FA Cup comes back to Wembley before our moment of glory arrives again in that particular competition.
A note on the match. We can talk all we like about tactics, formations, team selections etc, but none of it can take account of the magic of the FA Cup. If your name isn’t written on it then it wont be your day. That was clear on Saturday, we were the better team as the statistics show (see Kenn’s comments) but random moments conspired to add up to us not making it through. On two crucial occasions we didn’t concentrate properly defensively and it cost us. Whatever anyone says about the freekick award (how when two players both have their feet at the same height only one is guilty of dangerous play is beyond me!), if our wall had just stood its ground we wouldn’t have gone behind and would probably have won the game. Whose fault is it we made these two mistakes? Who cares, let’s just look to the next game and enjoy confirmation next week of us being the best side in the country for the second successive year!
I have read all this and I would not have agreed with Ken E anymore/anyless…Well said all that you left out was
YOU WIN SOME YOU LOSE SOME
Anyhow the wheels might have come off the team but I was relieved when I got back to the car that the alloys hadn’t been nicked.
Shit does indeed happen it seems. Pretty grim really but we could hit the other end of the emotional scale next Saturday. Shall be posting a match report / thoughts on the game once I’ve completely purged a weekend’s worth of alcohol from my system…!
Liverpool defensive? Utter crap. We played you bankers off the park for 60 minutes and then you revert to the big boot game. You bottle the big games and will NEVER be one of the greats.
>> We played you bankers off the park for 60 minutes
First time for everything, eh Dave?
Time was that Liverpool supporters used to regard the league as the really big games. Interesting that they have now prioritised cup matches.
Tell me Dave me old mucker, look at my previous post (No 37) what would you prefer??
Just trying to establish if you’re a sensible Liverpool supporter
Fire JM!
Hands up on that one!
Dave, we already ARE one of the greats, mate. Deal with it.
Yeah. Widely agreed by fans worldwide that we are the second best in Europe after Barcelona. That makes us a Great. And the fact is, it gives the creeps even to Barcelona when they face us. Will Barcelona be fearing Liverpool? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!