Liverpool vs. Chelsea | The D-Day

stevieg8 wrote:

Fahim89 wrote:It felt bad but I haven't been any prouder of my team in the 10 years i have been supporting them.

So nothing changes #WeGoAgain

My brother :proud:couldn't be prouder of this team, an 11 game win streak is an incredible achievement and so is everything else we've done this season.  I've been saying it all along, it doesn't matter how this ends this has been a great run.  Let's see how things play out

Exactly what Stevie said.

This game reminds me of the Monaco-Porto CL final.

Anyway, we may have lost the initiative but we are still very much in the running. I hope we win the remaining games, and see what happens.

I'm sad but I'm proud.

mr-r34 wrote:LOL mou isn't a tactical genius, anyone can park the bus, FFS Fat sam did it against him and he lost his shit and started talking about some 19th century BS.

We couldnt do much, we really needed to get lucky, but we didn't

Losing on GD is a killer, city won't slip.

And Fat Sam clearly "out tacticed" him on that day.

stevieg8 wrote:Red Alert, they packed the box so clear cut chances were hard to come by, true.  But we had a fair number of half-chances, and when playing against 11 in the box, you have to take those - and we didn't.  But when you  have 8+ shots on goal, I really can't praise the opposition's defensive masterclass.

I agree we weren't good enough to win today, the scoreline shows that.  We weren't hard done by the refs, we just lost plain and simple.  But I was thoroughly unimpressed by Mourinho's supposed "tactical genius" today.

Half chances are nothing if you don't challenge the keeper, but. We didn't challenge Schwatzer enough. Who is a decent keeper, but he's not the best. All our shots on target from memory were STRAIGHT AT HIM. He's 41 ffs. His reflexes have gone, and he hasn't been the same keeper he was 5-10 years ago. (He only JUST retired for Australia...)

On Mourinho, hold up. I'm quoting like 3 people...

Natalie Portman wrote:Tactical Masterclass though.

I am sure Mourinho iNCLUDED in his master class: "Gerrard will slip sooner or later, that's part of the plan". I can't wait until he leaves this sport. Mourinho to football is what Genghis Khan was to human beings. Just a butcher.

Sure.

CBarca wrote:Not sure what "tactical outclassing" was done here (this comment not at you Sepi but I comment I saw earlier in the thread, I don't know who it was by)

Chelsea went into the game with a back 4, of which they're outside backs refused to leave their own half or participate in any attack, two pure defensive midfielders, and hardworking wingers who will track back and attack on the break. Then they had Ba and Lampard.

If you call the wingers attacking players, they had 4 out there, if you don't (and I'd be hesitant to do so), they had two. That is 9 players in and around their own box.

I can give him props due to organization, but even average managers can park the bus and deny goalscoring opportunities. Mourinho is just pretty good at it because he does it a lot.

It's just really too bad, for you guys and the sport. I feel for you guys, but you aren't out of it yet.

Again, his "tactical outclass" came from BEFORE the goal. We play a very fast tempo game at the start of games in an attempt to take early leads. 3/4 of the time, we get it and then it's our game to lose from there as we're in full control. Mourinho saw this as a problem and he decided from the VERY BEGINNING, like 3 minutes in, to slow the game as much as he can to frustrate the crowd and players. This WORKED. We couldn't get our attacking game going AT ALL because of the time wasting / "dirty" tactics. He nullified EVERYTHING we had over them (and that's to score goals) by doing this. It's frustrating to watch but he gets RESULTS. And that's all that really matters at the end of the day. He's held City, and now us (both potent goalscorers) on 4 occassions this season. It's not a coincidence. He set up as a CL semi final, and got the result needed. Sterling made one run in the first 2 minutes, and after that, we literally played side passes all the time, or shot from long distance and didn't even hit the target until the second half iirc. Three quarters of our players had no composure today, and that includes some of our "leaders" in Suarez and Lucas. Gerrard showed far too much confidence...   

We literally had no idea on how what to do with when he shut up defensively. And for all those saying "it's easy to park with the bus" HAVE YOU SEEN OUR SECOND HALVES THIS SEASON? We've literally almost bottled every single game playing that way, it's not as easy to play as you people claim it to be.

RA, all I'm saying is this. From my perspective, results are impacted by three factors:

1. Preparation (game plan/tactics)
2. Execution (player performances)
3. Luck

I feel that the purpose of 1 should be to minimize the impact of 3, provided 2 occurs correctly. The manager should set up his team so that they have the best chance to get the result even if luck doesn't go their way at all, provided the players execute. Obviously in practice you can't take luck entirely out of the equation, but I do think strong tactics and effective play can minimize it. When I'm impressed by a manager's tactics, it's because they do everything in their power to give the players a chance to win.

Chelsea won yesterday because of 3-4 very impressive Schwarzer saves (you are forgetting two of Allen's shots, Suarez's shot at the end that you referenced earlier, and a Gerrard drive), a goal line clearance, a shanked Sakho miss on an open goal, and a fluke slip by Gerrard. You can tell me Mourinho tried to force a lack of composure, but if any one of those things I just listed go the other direction, this result would be flipped - and not a single person watching would've batted an eye in surprise. That's a hell of a lot for a manager to count on, so no, I'm not impressed by Mou's tactics.

All that said, luck is a massive part of footy and any sport, and some days the breaks don't go your way. Tip your cap to the other side for the parts they controlled, say so be it for the parts they didn't, and move on to the next match.

Mourinho played for the 0 - 0 and that's not a tactical masterclass. It can be a wise tactic if you think that gives you the best chance to get something from the game, but it doesn't require great tactical awareness to defend with all you've got.

My sympathies friends. It was heart breaking. I am not going to try to lie and say that I still have hope.

Mourinho could at most be credited for being capable of getting a draw against a team that had looked pretty much unstoppable till then but their victory was a once in a life time fluke.

The only thought I had and have was that someone up there loves the Moneybags more than a team that builds from the grassroots for reasons that are only known to him.

^ Cheers man. Thankfully, while vital, this slip hasn't proved to be fatal yet. Hope Everton/Villa/WestHam can do us a favour now and we can keep our heads up in our last 2 games.

One day, we'll beat park the bus and make it go extinct from our beautiful game. One day, we'll do it. I am sure.

Due to this treacherous match and its subsequent result, it has cost me socially, in my work space and 24 hours of unproductivity as such is the impact of what it held for me as a Liverpool fan.

Just like in Stamford Bridge, we commenced the 1st half all to respectful to Chelsea, lacking the scintillating set of pace and interchangeability that has unlocked English teams at will. Yet of course, we had to face this vile disgusting cretin of a manager in Mourinho, who did not want to play football and set his banks of players deeper than their own goalkeeper.

That essentially, caused our backline to move further and further ahead until Gerrard (being the crux of the midfield) was left in dire positions to which one wrong touch could lead to a baneful mistake, his excruciatingly unfortunate slip essentially caused the title to slip away from our hands, as Ba calmly slotted it past Mignolet, who by the way looked completely clueless for both goals despite the difficulty at hand.

2nd half composed of us facing a deep-set Chelsea remaining organized in their box, stubborn to provide any space to which would of provided us the needed goal. Unfortunately it was a 45 minute space in which Gerrard attempted to redeem himself with poor shots directly towards Schwarzer (seemingly all our shots went straight to him) and us not utilizing an ounce of width to stretch them, our best asset (pace) to trouble them along with any tactical changes of note, again a testament to how Rodger's seems afford Mourinho too much respect on the field.

The final goal being a result of our desperation to score, leading to cavernous gaps in the back, in which Torres was strangely kind enough to provide Willian the goal, rather than rub salt in the wound himself.

How can we continue to rue a match which was product of an incidental mistake? Considering the weakness of this Chelsea XI that was deployed, missing both their starting CBs, missing their finest player, a team days away from their crucial European tie while we only missed Sturridge and Henderson; did we really deserve anything? Redemption for Gerrard's mistake was seldom convincing as we provided little threat in the 2nd half to even carve out that needed equalizer; seeing Sterling thinking that he can playmake, Johnson being Johnson, Suarez being missing (despite the absence of Sturridge forcing him as a 9) etc etc If we cannot win matches such as these, matches in which are the moat to having the title race in our hands; then we deserve absolutely nothing, despite facing the most disgusting team and manager combo in English football history. This was no tactical masterclass, the notion of calling it tactically outwitted is an absolute joke of the finest spectrum.

This loss means that nothing is in our control bar City dropping points as hoping for such circumstance out of our hands is a disgusting emotion; I now concede the title given City face little match day of difficulty while Everton in their loss for Top 4 and the fact that their win could mean our title, will not be exactly the most motivated sqaudron.

Luckily I tempered my beliefs on this title long ago given for the fact that I am not used to fashioning such beliefs given the length of my LFC support, Top 4 in the end was our penultimate target as we are lucky we won't even be in the position to be knocked out pre-CL in the qualification tie.

stevieg8 wrote:RA, all I'm saying is this.  From my perspective, results are impacted by three factors:

1. Preparation (game plan/tactics)
2. Execution (player performances)
3. Luck

That's fair enough.

Honestly, go back 5-6 years ago and I said Mourinho was just a "lucky" manager too. Maybe that was tempered with the feud with Rafa, who knows.

But you can't get "lucky" for almost, if not more than a decade now. He's been like this throughout his whole career, starting at Porto. If you want to break it down against just Liverpool, he's only lost ONCE (Garcia ) out of 9 games; winning 7.

Even this season, he has set up like this every game against the bigger sides, City, United, Liverpool, Arsenal this season and the reason he's in the title hunt IS because of the results against his rivals with the same performances; he stops the opposition game by taking the sting out of whoevers his playing. His nullified the attacking presence against Liverpool and City this season; they're both scored near numbers of breaking the most goals scored in a single season (although it's looking very slim for us right now).

So we'll have to agree to disagree I guess.

Arquitescu wrote: This was no tactical masterclass, the notion of calling it tactically outwitted is an absolute joke of the finest spectrum.

If Rafa or Simeone instructed to play the exact same way you'll be all over them calling them the greatest tacticians the world has seen ffs. (Please don't take this as a dig.)

I mean, we literally played against United the same way at Anfield this season, what were your reactions then? Were we "ruining" football?   

I still dont understand why did we go for glory. I mean we should have played exactly like we played earlier in this season, remember those 1-0 games because draw was also an Option which would have kept things on our Hands and also Teams like City wouldnt have that extra psychological Motivation which they have now because we lost. Meaningless Possession would have been also fine with me

Red Alert wrote:

Arquitescu wrote: This was no tactical masterclass, the notion of calling it tactically outwitted is an absolute joke of the finest spectrum.

If Rafa or Simeone instructed to play the exact same way you'll be all over them calling them the greatest tacticians the world has seen ffs. (Please don't take this as a dig.)

I mean, we literally played against United the same way at Anfield this season, what were your reactions then? Were we "ruining" football?   

.

Whatt, whatttttt, whattttttttttttt

Game day 3.

Manchester United at Anfield.

Take lead after what, 4 minutes from a Sturridge goal (Agger assist)?

Sit back after that, let Moyes to his penis penetration thing.

Don't remember?

Sorry for some reason i thought you were talking about the 3 -0 win.

Even that 1 nil win we didn't play as negative as Chelsea against us, you can't fault Chelsea for doing it won them the game, but i fail to believe that it's some master class by the greatest tactician ever.

There are positives to take from the game. It was just one of those days where a lot that could go wrong did go wrong. Gerrard slipping left me absolutely gutted for the man who deserves better.

73% possession and outshooting by a ratio of 2:1, but it's hard to break the 10 man park and our desire to actually win the game cost us.

Still upset, but not broken up. I had no expectations going into this season and regardless of how this finishes we've seen a season for the ages at Anfield.

Natalie Portman wrote:^ Cheers man. Thankfully, while vital, this slip hasn't proved to be fatal yet. Hope Everton/Villa/WestHam can do us a favour now and we can keep our heads up in our last 2 games.

One day, we'll beat park the bus and make it go extinct from our beautiful game. One day, we'll do it. I am sure.

Very well said. Wish you and your team all the very best.