Liverpool FC Forum

[Greavesie]

Anyway .................back to the game.

Sometimes you just have to hold up your hands and admit we were beaten by the far better team on the night after a bright start.

This was quite posssibly the first time we have played them in the CL where we were marginal favourites but on the night Chelsea were immense and even their fringe players (Malouda, Kalou etc  ...) had very good games but in Michael Essien they possessed the best player on the pitch by a mile. He nullified Gerrard, hardly missed a pass all night and gave as good a performance as I've seen from an away team player at Anfield for a long long time.

And all the time whilst Chelsea were playing at the top of their game many of our lesser players were off theirs. Arbeloa, Riera, Lucas (again), Dossena, Babel and Skirtel were all found wanting at this highest level.

It's a big ask to overturn such a deficit and I'm not sure we can do it especially if Chelsea play anywhere near the level they played at tonight

It's a big ask but it's 11 v 11 and we won by a higher margin at Utd so it's not impossible. Howwever i can understand how it might look impossibe after tonight.


I wonder now how Rafa will approach the Blackburn game. Will he rest players or concentrate on the league now?

I'm afraid he's going to have to accept our chances for the CL are slim now so he will be forced to name a strong side on Saturday and go for it.

The more I think about this the more it hurts

[ste123lfc]

I blame the defeat on Dundalk for starting the thread instead of Bermenstein. 

[burjennio]

Chelsea got there tactics spot on tonight, man marking SG and constant pressure on Alonso and Lucas winning posession 40yards out and being able to get behind the LFC back line. their equaliser was straight of the training ground, something clearly seen by Hiddink or hos scouting staff that the run made by the Russian kid near post coming across the blind side of the LFC defenders was on all night. Kinda similar to Rafa picking out the Agger short free kick against them in 07.

Mascherano was a huge loss tonight in the midfield battle as we were overrun time and again by the strength of the chelsea midfield. I know the 1st 2 goals came from set plays but for me it was the constant pressure that caused the hesitation at the back. Tho ive been one of his biggest supporters in the past I think Rafa was far too slow in addressing the issue and the game was lost in the 1st 20mins of the 2nd half ( in all honesty it could have been curtians at half time), sadly before his usual 65min mark.

Positives are few after a result like tonight but Terry is banned, Liverpool dont know when theyre beaten and will NEVER play as poorly again. an early goal and the pigs may just be taking off from John Lennon come next wednesday.

Oh well. back to wining number 19

[Kharhaz]

Anyway .................back to the game.

Sometimes you just have to hold up your hands and admit we were beaten by the far better team on the night after a bright start.

This was quite posssibly the first time we have played them in the CL where we were marginal favourites but on the night Chelsea were immense and even their fringe players (Malouda, Kalou etc  ...) had very good games but in Michael Essien they possessed the best player on the pitch by a mile. He nullified Gerrard, hardly missed a pass all night and gave as good a performance as I've seen from an away team player at Anfield for a long long time.

And all the time whilst Chelsea were playing at the top of their game many of our lesser players were off theirs. Arbeloa, Riera, Lucas (again), Dossena, Babel and Skirtel were all found wanting at this highest level.

It's a big ask to overturn such a deficit and I'm not sure we can do it especially if Chelsea play anywhere near the level they played at tonight

Essien is very good at what he does, as he showed tonight but even so its seemed a lot of players just didnt have the pace to keep up with chelsea. As much as the fitness of the united players is catching up with them, it would appear the same is happening to us. Who knows how much that game against fulham took it out of the players? Its a tricky one for rafa now against blackburn. Does he play his first team or rotate for the return against chelsea?

[Greavesie]

Nanny I honestly believed we could have done both, now I'm doubting even winning one

[NANNY RED]

I know this might sound mad because i still have hope , but if we dont make it , there could be a little brightness on the horizon .our owners might feck off, No more money coming in

[europian-kings]

i think at the bridge we need to take out skrtel and put in eiter agger (for his attacking play with feet) or hyypia (maybe we can nick a goal from the best headerer of the ball there is).

All or nothing, lets just give it a go!

YNWA 96

[GYBS]

you still got to believe greavsie

YNWA

[Greavesie]

I know this might sound mad because i still have hope , but if we dont make it , there could be a little brightness on the horizon .our owners might feck off, No more money coming in

Im gutted, feck the mancs and feck the chavs, this is my club and I love it to pieces. those lot will never know what it is to be loyal to a club.

Somethings gotta give...its been too long and the 96 deserve something on the 20th anniversary

[J*o*n*D*o*e]

sometimes not even a bit of pron can cheer you up, goodnight peeps im off to bed...






























to sleep, you t****

[JoeTerp]

even if it weren't for the goals off of corners, Chelsea looked a lot like scoring from several different moments in open play. 

I think their third goal was actually offside, and that is the one that really puts us up against it because I could think 2-0 would be possible.

However, there were a couple moments where we could have gotten the 2nd goal when Torres was free, and that I think would have changed the whole match around, especially if we would have gone up 2-0.

I think that Ivanovic's goals were more down to them executing perfectly, and us executing poorly, not so much the system itself.  On the first one Ivanovic had to work really hard to get into the space that he scored from, and his run was timed to perfection to reach his spot, and it was a really good delivery as well right in between the Skrtel and Riera zone.

[Dalglish]

Anyway .................back to the game.

Sometimes you just have to hold up your hands and admit we were beaten by the far better team on the night after a bright start.

This was quite posssibly the first time we have played them in the CL where we were marginal favourites but on the night Chelsea were immense and even their fringe players (Malouda, Kalou etc  ...) had very good games but in Michael Essien they possessed the best player on the pitch by a mile. He nullified Gerrard, hardly missed a pass all night and gave as good a performance as I've seen from an away team player at Anfield for a long long time.

And all the time whilst Chelsea were playing at the top of their game many of our lesser players were off theirs. Arbeloa, Riera, Lucas (again), Dossena, Babel and Skirtel were all found wanting at this highest level.

It's a big ask to overturn such a deficit and I'm not sure we can do it especially if Chelsea play anywhere near the level they played at tonight

Essien is very good at what he does, as he showed tonight but even so its seemed a lot of players just didnt have the pace to keep up with chelsea. As much as the fitness of the united players is catching up with them, it would appear the same is happening to us. Who knows how much that game against fulham took it out of the players? Its a tricky one for rafa now against blackburn. Does he play his first team or rotate for the return against chelsea?

Blackburn are scrapping for every pt they can get so don't expect them to be easy at all on Saturday.........

Early K.O. as well and like you said a few players didn't appear to have the legs tonight.

I don't think Benitez will struggle tactically on Saturday but can you imagine the uproar if he "rests" a few key players and we don't win ! 

"Possibilities" is a word Benitez loves to use but I suggest he thinks on another word "probability" and picks a team that wins Saturday and puts some pressure on the Mancs cos the CL is gone .............IMHO

[oreilly]

chelsea were immense tonight in fairness........time to put our hands up and admit.........

Was thrilled to hear our fans singing YNWA......we'll have lots of more wonderful european cup nights

[Liverpool442]

I decided to calm down before posting but for what its worth I thought we lost the fixture for the following reasons:
1) Chelsea played better.
2) Lucas is not half the player that Masch is and it showed against three world class midfielders.
3) Zonal marking as a system can work, however because the way Benitez uses it with our whole team back in the box, the following happens, there is no threat on the break and as such they pushed forward Alex, Terry and the right back who scored ivanavich to support Drogba and Ballack abd Skirtel and Carra simply could'nt cope. Also with so may players in box everything become cluttered and with that many big blokes in there it become a lottery.
4) When Chelsea decided to Man mark gerrard and it became evident he could'nt influence the game we lacked a cutting edge as other players simply do not have enough quality, Benitez failed to address this quick enough and when he did make subs our bench was sub standard. This may always be the case as with oe up front we rely to much on the Gerrard / Torres partnership

[JoeTerp]

I would think the more likely game to see rotation would be the Chelsea match, ESPECIALLY if United slip up at the weekend.