Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:57 pm**

stmichael wrote:Good post Jonny. Agree pretty much with all of it. I know it sounds ludicrous to say, but as brilliant as Schevchenko is, I still think Drogba is more suited to the way Chelsea play.

I don't care what anyone says. Chelsea WILL NOT win the Champions League even with Schevchenko and Ballack because their manager isn't up to it tactically when it really matters.

Mourinho likes to play the 4-5-1 formation with a forward that holds up the ball. This has become evident in Chelsea's play and that's why Drogba was bought in by Mourinho. Most of Chelsea's goals come from midfield with the likes of Lampard and Robben.

I personally think that Mourinho's bought Shevchenko in to improve their woeful European form; (altho most Chelsea fans will say getting to the Champions League semi's twice in the space of three years is some sort of achievement). Shevchenko has a fine European pedigree having played in the competition time after time for AC Milan down the years, plus he's been in two finals, so he's a vetern at the competition.

It's no surprise that Roman want's to win the Champions League and claim back some of the money he's lost over the three years. And it comes as no surprise that every time Mourinho fails in Europe he drifting into the red zone. So that's why I think Shevcehenko has been bought in.

You say Mourinho isn't tatically prepared to do well in Europe, I disagree I think he is he just lets his arrogance and "special one" status cloud his football judgement, I think next season we will see a different Mourinho with a very different attitude because if he fails to land Chelsea the Champions League for the third time in a row then I'm pretty sure he'll get sacked.

_Edit_

Lets not forget he won the trophy with Porto as well. So he knows how to win it and what he has to do to win it, the only question is will he win it?

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:04 pm**

stmichael wrote:to be honest i think we should keep dudek and just play him against the chavs next year. shevchenko will have nightmares.

He probably does.

"Oh how did he save that, I can't believe I missed a penalty"

Just stick a large cardboard cut out of Dudek and place it behind the goal.

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:11 pm**

Real Madrid currently boast the best squad of individuals in world football and yet win zip. Liverpool will win the league next year no matter what.

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:25 pm**

Shevchenko will in my opinion fail to live up to his high standards in this country for the same reason as Crespo.
Crespo was without doubt, until now, the classiest player they had. Top class player with fantastic movement and a great finisher, but because of the way they play, and the fact that all of their midfielders are greedy or lack the ability to open thing up with passes, his movement was all but wasted.

Sheva will be the same and he will end up as unhappy as Crespo. As for talk of them also going for Carlos, this is clearly just Abramovich wanting galactico's and excitement and not really knowing what he is talking about.

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:26 pm**

noseybonk wrote:Real Madrid currently boast the best squad of individuals in world football and yet win zip. Liverpool will win the league next year no matter what.

Easier said than done, anyone who writes off Chelsea is a fool. There is no doubt that the gap in terms of points is closing between Liverpool, United and Chelsea, not to forget Arsenal. However Chelsea still have that good team chemistry and Mourinho hasn't really made any major changes to the team, therefore they won't need to gel only Ballack and Shevchenko and I presume Kalou will all need to, that's about it.

I'm not saying we can't win it because judging from Mourinho's signings he's looking to concentrate on conquering Europe with Chelsea for the first time, so he could well take his off the league which would be at the other top three clubs advantage.

But even you must admit that Chelsea will walk into this season as favourites and rightly so, they finished 8 points ahead of United and 9 points ahead of us, they've won it twice in a row.

All we can do is focusing on finding a right winger to give us more options on the right and we need to sign at least one (I'm hoping we sign two) prolific strikers. If we are able to capture the signatures of two prolific strikers than we'll no doubt put more of a challenge on.

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:32 pm**

stmichael wrote:Shevchenko will in my opinion fail to live up to his high standards in this country for the same reason as Crespo.
Crespo was without doubt, until now, the classiest player they had. Top class player with fantastic movement and a great finisher, but because of the way they play, and the fact that all of their midfielders are greedy or lack the ability to open thing up with passes, his movement was all but wasted.

Sheva will be the same and he will end up as unhappy as Crespo. As for talk of them also going for Carlos, this is clearly just Abramovich wanting galactico's and excitement and not really knowing what he is talking about.

I agree but perhaps Mourinho is going to change his formation and tactics next season. That could well be a possibility and with Crespo looking dead set on leaving, he's probably bought Shevchenko as a replacement for him and as a tool to help him capture the Champions League, but you do raise good points. The Chelsea midfield do seem to be the main force within the Chelsea squad and it's no surprise they lose when teams are able to keep their midfield quiet.

Does Roman actually incharge of what players come in and go out? Because I thought Mourinho had total control over every aspect of the managerial side of things?

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:33 pm**

hes building two teams. a premiership winning team and a cghamps league wining team. the players will not be happy

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:41 pm**

0asis wrote:I agree but perhaps Mourinho is going to change his formation and tactics next season.

I think he'll use the diamond next season..

---------Ukelele--------

-Fat Frank------Essien---

---------Ballack------------

Sheva-----------Drogba---

What would happen to Robben, Duff, SWP and Joe Cole etc.??

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 4:50 pm**

Well I'm guessing he'll use a squad rotation system against teams like Charlton, Wigan, West Ham etc. Altho I don't think Shaun Wright-Phillips or Damien Duff with feature much this season, if at all. I can see Robben and Cole being used as super subs, Joe Cole has a habit of coming off the bench and changing the course of the game. And I can't see Chelsea selling anyone, especially when they don't need to, I can't see them selling to other English clubs. So it looks like they are stuck at Chelsea. I think next season could see major bust ups in the Chelsea camp.

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:16 pm**

Good news for the Chavs on their quest for that elusive Champions League trophy. You know the one we won with an injury ravaged squad and our worst strikeforce in 40 years?

From football365:

Unlike ManYoo, Arsenal and Liverpool, Chelski will not be seeded for the group stages of next season's Champions League.

While their Premiership rivals are set to be included as three of the eight seeds, Chelski will be placed in the second pot of teams and can therefore expect to be pitted against either a Spanish or Italian heavyweight.

Although Jose will no doubt plead anti-Chelski conspiracy, the seedings are based on the club's coefficient from results in Europe over the past five years.

According to The Daily Telegraph, 'If Inter plus Liverpool and Arsenal are successful in the third qualifying-round, the top eight seeds will be: Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United.'

'In the second group, Chelsea will be joined by Lyon, Porto, PSV, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Valencia if the last two clubs win their third qualifying-round ties.'

:laugh:

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:19 pm**

Excellent

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 5:47 pm**

I look forward to disappointing Sheva a few more times now that he's on his way to England. Do the Dudek....!

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:12 pm**

I think there are many Chelsea fans that know what they've achieved recently has a lot to do with the bottomless pockets of Abramovich. Other clubs spend big on players, especially Man U, but the difference is mistakes like Veron and to some extent Rio take years to sort out. For Mourinho he just goes to the next on the list. At the end of the day, Chelsea's success is articifial and therefore transient. The bubble will bust either through funds being cut off or internal strains.

But, while it lasts, Chelsea will continue to have an unfair advantage over other clubs. Nobody can match them if they perform like they did last season, so we have to pray for a drop in their standard. Buying Shevchenko doesn't point to that happening any time soon.

I know many people will say it's sour grapes from a set of fans that had glory years at the expense of other teams and their fans, but the difference is that success was built on the abilities of the players and the manager only. How they played and how they identified talent and brought it on (or in if necessary).

I certainly would not feel anywhere near the glory I felt after Instanbul if we'd done it with megabucks journeymen coming to the club to boost the squad.

Now Chelsea have gone down this road it's inevitable that other clubs have to follow, or disappear into the crowd of alsorans. It's dragging the Premiership into a very depressing direction.

I just hope the cracks start to appear next season when so called 'stars' don't get a game every week. Otherwise we'll get 86+ points and still come second.

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:34 pm**

i think theres too much moaning about chelsea. blackburn did it, manure did, and now chelsea do... albeit to a far greater extent.
we cant change what they are doing, just gotta keep doing what we are doing. the media (who liverpool fans always say are biased) are actually far nicer aboutus, gooners and manure than they are about chelsea. everyone knows what chelsea re doing and that its not the achievement it could be with different resources

Posted: **Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:42 pm**

dawson99 wrote:i think theres too much moaning about chelsea. blackburn did it, manure did, and now chelsea do... albeit to a far greater extent.
we cant change what they are doing, just gotta keep doing what we are doing. the media (who liverpool fans always say are biased) are actually far nicer aboutus, gooners and manure than they are about chelsea. everyone knows what chelsea re doing and that its not the achievement it could be with different resources

Agreed and Chelsea will do what the class of Real Madrid from 99-02 did and have their blip of success and then fail miserably after that as they have bought in replacements.

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