manpe

Respect to Jose for not hiding, but saying exactly what it was - an embarrassment, a failure by him and the players, and a special triumph for the smaller opposition. Shit happens, but I'm really pleased with how he finally assumes responsibility.

We are on the verge of great things, Mourinho leaving would be a disaster and a kick back to the stone age. How long have I waited for someone to rejuvenate us.

Essien and Ferreira spring to mind.

Ok I stand corrected, thanks.

I had one thought - maybe Jose's words were wrongly interpreted? I don't know his exact quotes and I cba to search for them (even then I don't trust papers), but maybe he meant that if we had 25% of the atmosphere that Chelsea fans created at Anfield, that would give enough motivation to the players at home. Perhaps it was a compliment to the away support? Just a thought... All will be forgiven and forgotten once we win the league.

I would rather we keep our current crop of right wingers and reevaluate the situation in the summer with cool heads, wider array of options and probably cheaper prices.. not to mention to also avoid the curse of January. I can see it only being viable if we sold Schürrle, which I don't think is happening. Cuadrado would be a decent patch in case Schürrle left, but for the reported price? He better be damn good, though I'm reserving my judgement, because I've been wrong in the past countless times by judging too quickly. If he comes, welcome and all the best! If he doesn't, I won't miss him (well, maybe a little, new players are always exciting lol).

I wonder if Chelsea fans booed the players, what would Jose say? Would he lash out and tell everybody to support the players rather than bash them? If he did, then that's hypocrisy at its finest, because he's essentially booing the fans with those comments.

Does anybody else not understand why it's become common knowledge that Hazard doesn't do defending? People say Willian is the workhorse and best defender since Maldini, but from what I've gathered Hazard is not a shy defender himself. You often see him dropping back deep, helping out the fullback, collecting the ball from around his own box and dragging it out. You even see him chasing, sprinting, closing down, pumping, nudging, intercepting, tackling. He may not be as good a defender as his counterpart, but to neglect his defensive contribution and effort is also not nice mkay? I am actually proud of him for coming as far in his development as maintaining his attacking threat while also tending to the team's needs effectively, something Mata wasn't able to do.

What you say about Willian is true, he is a wingback despite being a winger on paper. But there's more to it than that. When in positional and possessive offense, we rarely see Willian being the main link in a combination play. We always see Oscar, Hazard or Fabregas taking control of the situation, Willian mostly plays supportive role by providing passing option and being the guy who finds a way to get the ball to them. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I've always felt like Willian is always the wingman, never Barney Stinson. Not sure if tactical instructions, somewhy doubt it, think it's just a matter of confidence and actual skill.

Let me get one thing out of the way now when terms 'proactive' and 'reactive' have become trending. Proactive = closes down early, plunges in? Reactive = backs off, last ditch tackles?

Oh, I thought you were talking about the competition in general.

Not this year, but in a few earlier years I watched some and I remember quite exciting and tense games.

i don't

That's kinda disrespectful towards African nations don't you think? Just because they aren't on the level of Europe's elite means their competitions are waste of space, while every other continent gets to have their own tournaments? I'm guessing that it's a great festive period for the people over there. Though I'm not sure if it should be held every two years. On a different topic, it's actually weird not being affected by the ACoN over a long time.

More likely he done it because he's evasive and cowardly, rather than loving us too much.

No, we are winning (present continuous tense). After extra time we will have won it (future perfect tense, as it is not a presently continuous action anymore.. e.g. after the final whistle you don't say "yay we are winning", you say "yay we won", as the action that we are currently doing will be over by then). How you can say that we are not leading and that this result is a huge blow when in fact if the score stays the same, we will win, I have no idea.

Are you asking me how we are leading when if the round ended with this score we'd win? That is the very definition of leading.

Just Name - A - Line - Up That - Will Win - Us - The Game Subs: If, We, Lose, I, Will, Be, Sad

It was only for a minute? I must have dozed off, I was practically half-sleeping half-covering my eyes by the end. I thought he came on at like 78th or around that.

Please explain how the result was a huge blow? We're leading.

No thanks, he is pony.

Dogshite one day, best striker in the world the other I don't know if it's some special trait of TC or if it's just a reflection of our society's fickleness in general, but it's bloody funny and sad at the same time. My opinion is that Diego is BUTCH

This is what I think: In the league he has to get all the points no matter what, hence take more risks to grab the goals. In knock-out competitions it seems we revert to "there's still the second leg" attitude and in the second leg we go "penalties are better than losing", thus both games are normally very cagey under Mourinho unless we really need to go for it when losing. We usually just look to nick a goal and hold it for our lives to avoid all the ET and peno bullshit. In the league we actually look to improve our goal difference, which isn't important in cups. Yesterday my point was highlighted by the fact that he brought on Azpi for Willian with quite a lot of time left, that was the moment when I realized that Jose just wanted to take the away goal and run with it until we have the home advantage. Playing it safe, but the accompanying performance was horrible for some reason, not a hint of defensive control over the game. Shit needs to improve next game or we're in trouble. This kind of mentality can of course backfire when we play like crap, but it can actually turn out good more often than not imo. Despite yesterday, I'm still confident, because I think there's no way the home leg will be a repeat of what we saw. We're a different animal at home and taking an away goal from Anfield isn't that bad - dont forget, we're still leading. Also, we must remember that cups are the only title hopes Liverpool have and they have extra motivation now for Gerrard to leave with some final silverware. So combine that logic with their habit of raising their game against us, and you get a Liverpool different from what we encounter in the league.

[OT] @CeleryFC, is that you on your avatar? [/OT]