Well done Chelsea you won the game by pouncing on a mistake by Gerrard, but I will not abide by this opinion that BR got schooled by a Jose Master class.
BR is getting blamed for not going for the draw. Well without that slip from Gerrard Cheslea were being totally outplayed and we had a shot cleared off the line.
The ONLY shot they had on target for in the first half was due to that slip. You can't tactically account for a mistake like that.
Jose used the tactics he thought would get him a result and it did, it wasn't pretty, but for anyone saying that he totally out classed BR is just being foolish.
Without that slip there was only one team that was looking dangerous, so to say the tactics were wrong is not correct.
I hope we win, we need help from Everton, but even if we don't I am not going to jump on the back of our players/manager just because of one mistake. We play a high risk high reward game, if you have been enjoying the big wins, get behind them in the set backs as thats all this is is a set back.
Jose Master class?
posted on 29/4/14
You keep saying we played too narrow - are you suggesting we should have kept pumping crosses in? Because if you are, I dont think that would work - Chelsea would soak them up all day long!
posted on 29/4/14
I never said you had to cross it in did I, unless you think I said to cross it in?
What I said is that you played narrow. The highlights showed that you just played i front of Chelsea and never really stretched them...helped them keep compact
posted on 29/4/14
What I said is that you played narrow. The highlights showed that you just played i front of Chelsea and never really stretched them...helped them keep compact
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I think that’s a perfectly valid point....I’m not sure what BR could have done differently with the type of players he currently has, but if an opposing team parks the bus, it's an understood convention that the onus is on the other manager to break it down. Rodgers acknowledged that in his Press Conference, when he said “we have to deal with that”.
But as several other teams have tried it at Anfield this season and failed, it wasn’t unreasonable for him to try more of the same. On this occasion it failed, and maybe he’ll learn from that, but an inability to deal with teams parking the bus has cost Jose more points this season than it has cost BR.
If Gerrard hadn’t slipped, there’s a good chance it would have ended 0-0, and then it wouldn’t have been a masterclass, because Chelsea would have been conclusively out of the title-race, and Liverpool would still have been favourites. On such small margins does all this hindsight-wisdom hinge.
posted on 29/4/14
Play Stirling out wide, go three at the back?
I lobve that people still use Jose's "park the bus" line.
They just played to the strength of the side they could put out. I never realised they played a guy getting his first league start at CB in the PL....Should have targetted him
posted on 29/4/14
I lobve that people still use Jose's "park the bus" line.
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It's not strictly his. It was a common expression in Portugal, and he coined it in English. It's a succinct desctription of a particular tactic....I can't even remember what expression we used to use for it.
posted on 29/4/14
we didn't play narrow
both Johnson and sterling (on both flanks) tried repeatedly down the flanks
Jose had a full back 4 + the wingers playing as fullbacks
it was all out defence - we tried the middle, we tried the flanks, we tried crosses we tried chips behind the back 6
it was just an absolutely brilliant defensive display for 99 minutes.
posted on 29/4/14
If you watched the excellent analysis from Neville and Carra yesterday, the mistake we made was putting too many aimless crosses into the box. With no height in the centre we were always going to lose out to 3 centrebacks. We put more crosses in to the box in this game than in any other. We also had more shots from outside the area than in any other game this season. What we actually needed to do was play our normal game; play the ball into feet in and around the penalty box and make their defenders nervous. Heading out aimless crosses is easy for PL defenders.
Even the best teams in Europe would struggle to break down a ten man Chelsea wall. This isn't West Ham or Stoke putting men behind the ball, where eventually our quality will shine through, this is one of the top teams in Europe with a very good defence putting 10 men behind the ball. We tried to change our formation, we tried to change the way we played, we made substitions. It was still always going to be difficult getting through that 10 man wall.
posted on 29/4/14
comment by Arouna Jagielka oooh I wanna take ya, Heitinga Nikica come on pretty mama (U1308)
posted 11 minutes ago
Play Stirling out wide, go three at the back?
I lobve that people still use Jose's "park the bus" line.
They just played to the strength of the side they could put out. I never realised they played a guy getting his first league start at CB in the PL....Should have targetted him
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You can only target one defender if that team is playing expansive football. Both Liverpool and Everton targetted Monreal for example. Martinez put Lukaku on the right, we put Suarez on the on the right. Both managers knew that that side was a weakness for Arsenal, and with the expanive football that Arsenal play it is possible to target a defender's weakness.
When a team plays like Chelsea though, you can't target one particular defender. Kalas didn't venture out of the defensive third, he took no risks, he barely had the ball at his feet. on top of that Ivanovic and Cole were no more than 10 yards away from him at any point. Then you had Mikel and Matic sat in front of them. They defended very well as a unit.
posted on 29/4/14
Arouna
What I said is that you played narrow. The highlights showed that you just played i front of Chelsea and never really stretched them...helped them keep compact
Sorry - still not sure what you are suggesting we should have done?! Are you saying we should have played behind chelsea? Knock it over the top and run on? If so, knocking it over the top would have been a goal kick every time as they sat back to far!
'Play Stirling out wide, go three at the back?'
We went 3 at the back - it didn't work! How would Sterling out wide have helped?!
'I never released they played a guy getting his first league start at CB in the PL....Should have targeted him'
Targeted him? He had 2 other people stood within 2 foot of him at all times!
posted on 29/4/14
I think in the 2nd half we got too impatient and crossed or shot too early, but other than that there is not a lot more we could have done.
At times the tempo of our passing was a little too slow as well.
Had we played well I think we could have broken them down 2nd half, but we didn't play well. Part of the reason we didn't play well though was because of frustration, which was all a part of what Chelsea did do well.
It's a compliment to us that they played like that, and luckily we won't play them at Anfield too often, though if we become a regular fixture in the CL again inevitably we will draw them at some stage.
Also as City also lost home and away to Chelsea you can't really say we lost anything by doing the same, unless Chelsea end up finishing above one or both of us.
Should we finish below City on GD or points it will be the other 34 games that have made the difference, not the games vs the other top 2, it's purely the timing of this game at the end of the season which makes it seem a lot more important.