[quote author=Ryan link=topic=36270.msg957654#msg957654 date=1254699106]
Hmmmm, some strange responses on here in my opinion. I thought we were pretty shit to be hone, and don't agree that a 0-0 would have been fair. But for a few intermittent spells, Chelsea did all the pressing, played a higher line, and were more inclined to win the game. Yes, the goals came out of our own mistakes, but I think it was a clear how it transpired - 3 players harassing Mascherano. Contrast that to the freedom of London we afforded Essien, and you've got the game encapsulated in a nutshell.
While we're on it, I'm obviously a Mascherano critic, but even I wouldn't lay too much blame upon him for this one. It pretty much demonstrated our attacking inadequacy that Masher had to resort to trying to dribble through opponents near the halfway line. If you get the chance again, have a look at the options and movement offered from Masher's teammates before he decided to take it on - cos if you can see any you've done better than me.
This is gonna rile, but I felt today exemplifed the loss Alonso is/was. Everything we did was disjointed, attacks coming sporadically and without fluidity, absolutely no pressure on the Chelsea ball-carrier (usually Essien) and a gap bigger than Watford's between the forwards and midfield (hence the lumped balls to Torres for 90 minutes). In a side that was crying out for leadership from the central of the park, Chelsea offered it all.
You can't blame Lucas for not being Alonso, I thought the Brazilian had a fine game, put himself about and rarely gave it away. But he doesn't dictate games, he doesn't control the pace and flow the way Alonso could. A telling point in all the games we won last season late on in matches was how Alonso's influence grew. He was the fulcrum for all attacks, and so so many of our late goals came as a result of him lifting and bossing the game's tempo. We miss that badly. It's ok to blow shit like Hull away, but against good sides we're unbalanced and lose something badly in centre midfield. And before people start - Gerrard doesn't have to start in a central midfield position to actually go and fucking do something in centre midfield. It's not a case of 'well I wasn't on the tactis board in that role, so this Ghanian cunt in blue can do whatever the fuck he pleases'.
Ancelotti got it about right yesterday. Play experience in centre midfield, drag Mascherano out of position, and get numbers in the centre to overcome Lucas. They didn't really look like threatening (mainly because everything was played in front of us), but they were the ones forcing the issue. As I expected, our attacking thrust came from the wings, but generally I was disappointed with Dirk and Riera. Riera in particular. He saw an incredible amount of the ball, and did precious little with it, espeically against a pretty raw right-back in Ivanovic. If you can't take the game to him, then you're not really the World's best left-winger are you? How many times did he get in behind him? Zero was my count. Dirk too, far far too worried about Cole's influence from left-back. This held Glenjo back too, and it was only really in the second half when we got forward through him.
And finally a word on our substitutes bench - makeshift. Chelsea could afford to leave Joe Cole and the 18M (I think) Zhirkov on the bench yesterday, my how we were crying out for someone like Cole. Benayoun's a great impact sub, but that's all we've got. Look at the options we've got off the bench week in, week out, and they're just not enough to scare teams. When our starting 11 aren't doing it, we just don't have enough quality on the bench to change games. Whacking the ball over to Yossi for the last 30 minutes and expecting him to create something out of his are, whilst all fucking others stand by and watch him, is shit and unfair on the Israeli. Maybe that's unfair on our bench strength, and more of a reflection on the distinctly ordianry performances put in by our bright-lights yesterday. If that's the case, then Rafa's rebuke that our 'senior players aren't performing well enough' from a few weeks back needs revisited.
Disappointing all round.
[/quote]
Agree with your comments on Masher, Lucas (1st half), Riera & Bench (but then what do you expect when Chelsea have spent ...blah blah blah).
However Chelsea certainly didn't dominate the game and you are failing to give credit where it is due.
Also of course we naturally didn't flood through the centre of midfield, the Chelsea diamond virtually packs 4 players into the centre with FB's providing the width when they can get forward and with either Anelka or Drogba drifting wide too whilst the other moves into the centre.
Obviously Masher & Lucas were there to prevent them moving forward as a unit - and this they did, for the most part, very well. Rafa's tactics were to play up the wings thereby bypassing the centre of the pitch (and Chelsea's strength) as much as possible. It worked well as the stats show, especially so considering we were the away team and we never go to SB and dominate:
Shots (on/off/blocked) : Chelsea 17 Liverpool 17
Corners : Chelsea 5 Liverpool 7
Passing Success : Chelsea 77% Liverpool 76%
Tackles : Chelsea 31 Liverpool 31
Tackles Success : Chelsea 71% Liverpool 71%
Possession : Chelsea 52% Liverpool 48%
Territorial Advantage : Chelsea 48% Liverpool 52%
Time spent in 1/3 s : Chelsea's 33% Centre 45% Liverpool 22% (this is half time as I can't find the stat for the whole match but considering the 2nd half was much like the first due to their early period of dominance and then our later encampment in their half I don't think that will be far off even - a slight advantage to us).
Hmmmm, some strange responses on here in my opinion. I thought we were pretty shit to be hone, and don't agree that a 0-0 would have been fair. But for a few intermittent spells, Chelsea did all the pressing, played a higher line, and were more inclined to win the game. Yes, the goals came out of our own mistakes, but I think it was a clear how it transpired - 3 players harassing Mascherano. Contrast that to the freedom of London we afforded Essien, and you've got the game encapsulated in a nutshell.
While we're on it, I'm obviously a Mascherano critic, but even I wouldn't lay too much blame upon him for this one. It pretty much demonstrated our attacking inadequacy that Masher had to resort to trying to dribble through opponents near the halfway line. If you get the chance again, have a look at the options and movement offered from Masher's teammates before he decided to take it on - cos if you can see any you've done better than me.
This is gonna rile, but I felt today exemplifed the loss Alonso is/was. Everything we did was disjointed, attacks coming sporadically and without fluidity, absolutely no pressure on the Chelsea ball-carrier (usually Essien) and a gap bigger than Watford's between the forwards and midfield (hence the lumped balls to Torres for 90 minutes). In a side that was crying out for leadership from the central of the park, Chelsea offered it all.
You can't blame Lucas for not being Alonso, I thought the Brazilian had a fine game, put himself about and rarely gave it away. But he doesn't dictate games, he doesn't control the pace and flow the way Alonso could. A telling point in all the games we won last season late on in matches was how Alonso's influence grew. He was the fulcrum for all attacks, and so so many of our late goals came as a result of him lifting and bossing the game's tempo. We miss that badly. It's ok to blow shit like Hull away, but against good sides we're unbalanced and lose something badly in centre midfield. And before people start - Gerrard doesn't have to start in a central midfield position to actually go and fucking do something in centre midfield. It's not a case of 'well I wasn't on the tactis board in that role, so this Ghanian cunt in blue can do whatever the fuck he pleases'.
Ancelotti got it about right yesterday. Play experience in centre midfield, drag Mascherano out of position, and get numbers in the centre to overcome Lucas. They didn't really look like threatening (mainly because everything was played in front of us), but they were the ones forcing the issue. As I expected, our attacking thrust came from the wings, but generally I was disappointed with Dirk and Riera. Riera in particular. He saw an incredible amount of the ball, and did precious little with it, espeically against a pretty raw right-back in Ivanovic. If you can't take the game to him, then you're not really the World's best left-winger are you? How many times did he get in behind him? Zero was my count. Dirk too, far far too worried about Cole's influence from left-back. This held Glenjo back too, and it was only really in the second half when we got forward through him.
And finally a word on our substitutes bench - makeshift. Chelsea could afford to leave Joe Cole and the 18M (I think) Zhirkov on the bench yesterday, my how we were crying out for someone like Cole. Benayoun's a great impact sub, but that's all we've got. Look at the options we've got off the bench week in, week out, and they're just not enough to scare teams. When our starting 11 aren't doing it, we just don't have enough quality on the bench to change games. Whacking the ball over to Yossi for the last 30 minutes and expecting him to create something out of his are, whilst all fucking others stand by and watch him, is shit and unfair on the Israeli. Maybe that's unfair on our bench strength, and more of a reflection on the distinctly ordianry performances put in by our bright-lights yesterday. If that's the case, then Rafa's rebuke that our 'senior players aren't performing well enough' from a few weeks back needs revisited.
Disappointing all round.
[/quote]
Agree with your comments on Masher, Lucas (1st half), Riera & Bench (but then what do you expect when Chelsea have spent ...blah blah blah).
However Chelsea certainly didn't dominate the game and you are failing to give credit where it is due.
Also of course we naturally didn't flood through the centre of midfield, the Chelsea diamond virtually packs 4 players into the centre with FB's providing the width when they can get forward and with either Anelka or Drogba drifting wide too whilst the other moves into the centre.
Obviously Masher & Lucas were there to prevent them moving forward as a unit - and this they did, for the most part, very well. Rafa's tactics were to play up the wings thereby bypassing the centre of the pitch (and Chelsea's strength) as much as possible. It worked well as the stats show, especially so considering we were the away team and we never go to SB and dominate:
Shots (on/off/blocked) : Chelsea 17 Liverpool 17
Corners : Chelsea 5 Liverpool 7
Passing Success : Chelsea 77% Liverpool 76%
Tackles : Chelsea 31 Liverpool 31
Tackles Success : Chelsea 71% Liverpool 71%
Possession : Chelsea 52% Liverpool 48%
Territorial Advantage : Chelsea 48% Liverpool 52%
Time spent in 1/3 s : Chelsea's 33% Centre 45% Liverpool 22% (this is half time as I can't find the stat for the whole match but considering the 2nd half was much like the first due to their early period of dominance and then our later encampment in their half I don't think that will be far off even - a slight advantage to us).
