Premiership review: Liverpool 2 - 0 Chelsea
Sunday, 21 January 07, 03:05 PM · Comments (16)
Match reports
Independent on Sunday, Steve Tongue: "In 100 Premiership matches, Jose Mourinho has been beaten only nine times, but never can he have approached a game with such resignation as yesterday. The defeatism apparent once he lost a third central defender in Ricardo Carvalho to a virus overnight must surely have spread to his players, who gave probably the least coherent performance of the Mourinho era."
Sunday Times, Joe Lovejoy: "Roman Abramovich didn’t turn up and nor did Chelsea. For the first time the champions’ confidence cracked at Anfield yesterday, when they stumbled their way through easily the worst performance of Jose Mourinho’s two-and-a-half years as manager."
Sunday Telegraph, Roy Collins: "No matter what the formation, no matter the number of players performing in unfamiliar positions, one thing you never expect to see is Chelsea out-fought and out-muscled, as they were here. Nor was there any hint of the stirring recent fightbacks at Everton and Wigan Athletic."
The Observer, Paul Wilson: "Whether Anfield will have the final say on Mourinho's future is debatable, but at this rate it will soon be bye-bye Chelsea. An overnight sickness ruled out Ricardo Carvalho on the morning of the match and brought Mourinho's worst fears into being. For weeks he has been complaining that he has only three centre-backs to choose from and with John Terry and Khalid Boulahrouz injured, suddenly he had none."
Official Chelsea FC Website, Neil Barnett: "Liverpool move five points behind Chelsea and Chelsea must hope for an Arsenal victory at home to Manchester United [today]."
The good
- Petr Cech. It was great to see him back. Could do nothing about either goal. Spent most of the game shouting at the defence. Pulled off a great save from John Arne Riise at 1-0 down which should have been the spur for the rest of the team to pull their fingers out. None of them did.
- Any other good points? We did improve as the game progressed and bossed possession for periods, but what did we do with that possession? Sweet Fanny Adams, that's what. It would be easy to blame our defensive frailties, but what did the six players in front of the back four do to counteract those weaknesses? Very little. Huffed and puffed and put in one of the worst offensive performances under Jose Mourinho. For once I agree with the Independent newspaper: there was an air of resignation from the moment Liverpool scored.
The bad
- It would be easy to list Michael Essien and Paulo Ferreira here, but I'm not going to. Anyone who expected either of them to go 90 minutes up against the human beanpole that is Peter Crouch without coming off second best was misguided. They did improve through the game, but for once Rafael Benitez got his tactics and formation spot on and his players took advantage of Essien and Ferreira's inexperience from the kick-off and within 20 minutes the game was, to all intents and purposes, over.
- John Obi Mikel is no defensive/holding midfielder. While Claude Makelele may not be having his best season in a blue shirt, he was badly missed in this game. The time and space gifted to Crouch et al between our defence and midfield effectively won Liverpool the game. Surely Lassana Diarra, Makelele's understudy and a bloody good one at that, would have been a better bet, despite his relative inexperience? Has he not been punished enough for his tardy timekeeping? I'm sure Mourinho thought Mikel's height would help against Benitez's long ball tactics, but Mikel (and others) stood off Crouch time and again and allowed the lanky forward to link up Liverpool's forward play unhindered.
- The injury to Arjen Robben. I'm not sure what the extent of the injury is, but it couldn't come at a worse time.
- We are not going to see the best of Andriy Shevchenko while Mourinho is Chelsea manager. Of that I am now certain.
- Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack's Keystone Kop-like free kick routine summed up our performance better than any number of words.
Man of the Match
You decide.
Final thoughts
We never looked like recovering from Liverpool's early blitz. Watching the game in the pub, I quaffed more and more lager as time ticked by in an attempt to ease the pain and embarrassment of watching an insipid, resigned performance surrounded by an increasing number of smug Liverpool fans (where do they all come from?).
If this game substantiates one thing, it is that Mourinho's first team squad is too small. His experiment with a compact squad has backfired and it may have cost us a third Premiership title. (If I hear one more pundit or opposition player say, "They have a big squad, they can cope"...)
We have two Cup games against lower league opposition to look forward to in the next seven days. Brace yourselves for more of the same.
Here's hoping the Gunners can do us a massive favour.
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Tony - I wasn't criticising Mikel's overall performance as such, I just feel it was a good opportunity for Diarra. In Makelele's absence we lacked a player to get in the faces of Liverpool's front players. Again and again Mikel et al allowed Crouch and Kuyt too much time and space.
I concur with your decision to award MotM to Essien.
Today's news that the club is close to tying him, Terry and Lampard to long-term contracts is good considering the doubt over Mourinho's future.
I have a horrible feeling that either Mourinho or Shevchenko will be at the Bridge next season. Sadly, I think Mourinho will leave.
It does seem that way doesn't it? I think JM is a man of deep principle and the current situation is very reminiscent of a certain other outspoken managers early career, that of Brian Clough, who left Derby under a clash of principles, a decision that arguably Derby never recovered from but that Nottingham Forest reaped the benefit of.
I'm still having nightmares that Sven is about to park his Volvo outside the Bridge.
JM has said that after the weekend gap should stay at 6 points. Well, JM's best "friend" Arsene took care of it. I just hope we can use it. Gooners kept us alive.
Hmmmmm
Before yesterday's game JM said if the gap was the same after this weekend then he would be happy.
He must have a guardian angel somewhere because we're no worse than before except for the goal difference from which we'd only made up a little on from the Wigan game.
As they say never ever count on somebody else. We had to tonight and suprisingly they did well! ARSEnal won at Bagdad stadium with ManYoo and we are still in it (aren't we?).. It was lucky, but with this performance from The Blues nobody'll predict a success at the end..
Nick, i put my faith into Shev and Jose that they will get through together to the next season.. And really they have to do it, cause both of them want to win everything they can..
I don't know what's going on with Ballack.. He's probably playing his worst in career, i put my faith on him when he scored two headers few weeks ago but now? He should remember that it's not bundesliga, he won't find clubs like mainz or any other (with all respect to them ofcoz) he should run much more, his passing is terrible, only to the back.
Mikel played nice part but not as DM.. Dunno if Diarra would be much better, but i agree that we lacked a person as Claude is!
Up the Chels!
Rather than celebrate the fact that we're still hanging on 6 points and 13 goals behind Man Utd,we should start to realise that unless someone other than Jose recognises the fact our squad is vastly under strength,we will be lucky to hang on to second place.
Arsenal have a better goal difference than us now and Liverpool are only 1 goal behind us.Why is there never any mention of getting someone on loan?It always seems that we have to spend millions,while others like Man.Utd can get players like Larsson.Is our scouting policy lacking in certain aspects or is it just that we can't be bothered.I know Maniche wasn't a great success but surely there are players out there who would jump at the chance to join us and maybe earn a fulltime contract.I really hope I'm wrong but I think that unless certain people get their heads out of the sand and start doing something positive to help the team,and I don't mean taking them to Westminster for a photo op,we are going to struggle badly.It's all very well promoting the club worldwide but if we can't even get 11 players on the field to play in their correct positions,what hope have we got to be a world force in years to come.
16 Comments · Add yours
Our only defender available for the big match was suddently struck down by illness, was it a curse or what? Chelsea probably need to employ an exorcist!
Nick
I'm amazed you found that many good points. In essence I disagree about Mikel who I thought had a good game yesterday, although the point about Diarra is a good one and this would have been a great chance to let him show us he is the new (and overdue) Maka.
If I could pick a MotM then it goes to Essien again, without whom we would have lost by a far greater margin. The man is selfless for the cause and unlike Gallas never complains about being played out of his natural position. He is a real example of the perfect team player. Perhaps some others should follow his lead.
I am also convinced that there is a rift between JM and Sheva. I would have dropped the increasingly ineffective and out of his depth Kalou to go with Drogs and Sheva up front, a combination that worked for the first (successful) part of the season. Whatever others may think the pro's on the pitch know they can't give Sheva time and this makes space for Drogs who has undoubtedly benefited this season from Sheva being around. I was also heartened by SWP who actually fought doggedly like a terrier for the ball yesterday, got past the opponents and held possession - well done, now just keep it up and prove my opinion of you wrong!
Even if Arse beat Manure today we are becoming more reliant on the misfortunes of others than ourselves.
After the Wigan game amidst the chants of "Chelsea are back" and generally thinking normal service had been resumed, my own demeanour (rather like the sourpuss I am) was that of Mr Wolf (Harvey Keitel) from the magnificent Pulp Fiction when he refers to everybody refraining from indulging in oral sex with each other just because they'd had a result that morning thus far, but that they weren't out of the shit just yet. Wigan had been poor, very poor and we had 3 goals gifted to us. We had papered over some cracks, that was all. Yesterday was probably the truest reflection of our form over the past 2-3 months. That was overdue if you like.
Mourinho's experiment with a small squad has failed and he should be big enough to admit this, and the hierarchy of the club should encourage him to admit it, and then support him for next season and increase the squad back to 26 minimum, if not more. That's what's required to fight 4 competitions. And let's not forget that next year is the African Nations Cup, so we would lose Drogba, Essien, Geremi, Kalou and Mikel - imagine that if we'd had the same injury list as now!
I think we may lose our title this year and 3 in a row was always a big test, but we also need to ensure that 2nd is our target to prevent a qualifying distraction during the close season. Folks, even if we win the CL we would only gain entry by qualifying if we finished below 2nd in the EPL!
It's time for some heads to be bumped together including JM and everyone else in the hierarchy. If we beat Wycombe, big deal, it won't mean we're back on song, it'll just mean we beat a team that we should always beat. What we need is to play the rest of the season like champions even if we won't end up being acclaimed as that.