Closed Liverpool 2-2 Chelsea

[Milan 17,835]

Seriously, what kind of an excuse is that?? He wrote it at home, sitting by TV, enjoying dinner. Fuck you, this is never an excuse.

[ulsterchelsea 3,213]

I would ask them to the basics right, like close down a man to not allow a cross to come in. any good?

I suppose we have to blame Rafa at some point, it wouldn't be a match thread without it.

well then rather than make flippant comments like the above tell me how his subs were useful

[enes 153]

You fucking Disgrace!

What a hypocrit. I bet he would do that again and again. Son of a ...

[The only place to be 11,313]

what? Jt wouldnt have been out defending the cross but he sure as hell would have attacked it once it was whipped in. Theory back on!

So you bring on a defender? Who for? A midfielder, so you concede more space in the midfield and can't put as much pressure on them.

I'm not defending his choices, but when you make tactical changes like bringing on a CB for a midfielder it has ramifications further up the pitch.

It was a hopeful lob into the box, and we should've dealt with it better. If you can't do that then you will concede goals, whoever the coach is.

[Hutcho 8,443]

I would ask them to the basics right, like close down a man to not allow a cross to come in. any good?

I suppose we have to blame Rafa at some point, it wouldn't be a match thread without it.

Did rafa say that?

And ok, Rafa isn't the one the blame lies squarely on at all. But surely everyone can see that he made some stupid subs... Unless you want to argue that rafa's subs were beneficial to the team, and understandable decisions to make then of course some he gets some blame. If not for the draw but for the fact he can't do his job propely. He goes on and on about rotation etc, yet torres plays all 97 mins when he has to play on thursday.

2 mates of mine who are tottenham fans both text me LOL Rafa, or words to that affect when he took hazard off for Benayoun. What is he doing there?

Why make it harder for us. Its the time of the season where results are the crucial thing. 3 points anywhichway. We know we are shaky defensively and struggle to see games out as we have been like it all season. Now isn't the time to be worrying about the performances, we just have to get the job done, and draw a line under this season. Why handicap ourselves.

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

https://twitter.com/LiverpoolUnion/status/326012812382048256

This is 100% real - shocking stuff

[ulsterchelsea 3,213]

So you bring on a defender? Who for? A midfielder, so you concede more space in the midfield and can't put as much pressure on them.

I'm not defending his choices, but when you make tactical changes like bringing on a CB for a midfielder it has ramifications further up the pitch.

It was a hopeful lob into the box, and we should've dealt with it better. If you can't do that then you will concede goals, whoever the coach is.

6 mins to go, holding onto a slender lead, dont think its inconceivable to take torres off for jt.

[robdog 2,084]

The facts are we didn't deal with it but I was just responding to you saying it wouldn't have made a difference... We don't know either way.

Serious Question though.

If you are the Chelsea Manager. You have 1 sub left... The game is in the 90th min with a 2-1 lead 6 mins of added time. What do you do?

Don't forget we have a match on Thurs, where one player is fresh (Ba) & where another has been playing alot (Torres). Let's take a quick look at the facts of who has been playing & who hasn't (attacking players that is) in our last 3 matches. Mata 261 minutes. Plays Torres 204 minutes & Hazard for 237 minutes. Ba? 110 minutes. Again you can believe that rotational policy of FSW. I won't.

[Hutcho 8,443]

If I'm Benitez, I don't change the shape. He never does, so what I do is put on fresher players to keep the opposition honest.

Ultimately players missed assignments. Suarez wasn't marked properly and their players weren't closed down fast enough, but I don't know if I can be bothered to blame Benitez for that.

The 11 players on the pitch should've been able to hold out. I criticised him for not bringing on JT against Reading, but that was just stupid defending and individual fuck-ups. That might be down to his coaching in the week leading up to games but I think we have a severe leadership deficiency in our squad right now.

Ok we are going round in circles. I am not saying our defending was great but my point is simply that he can control certain things, through making certain decisions and they didn't make sense. Keeping players fresher in their positions makes sense, especially early on in the second half. So take off torres for BA. Give ourselves an out ball, extra height when defending corners, someone who can hold the ball up and fresh legs. Add to that the Europa league factor on thursday. I am not gonna speak for everyone, because some may disagree, but for me that is such an obvious change, it doesn't even take much thinking about.

[Stingray 9,441]

Well, for once Rafa subbing so early was what dislocated us this time.

Normally he doesn't do shit .... now this ...

Bad, bad call. Bad tactics.

[Special Juan 27,104]

Did rafa say that?

And ok, Rafa isn't the one the blame lies squarely on at all. But surely everyone can see that he made some stupid subs... Unless you want to argue that rafa's subs were beneficial to the team, and understandable decisions to make then of course some he gets some blame. If not for the draw but for the fact he can't do his job propely. He goes on and on about rotation etc, yet torres plays all 97 mins when he has to play on thursday.

2 mates of mine who are tottenham fans both text me LOL Rafa, or words to that affect when he took hazard off for Benayoun. What is he doing there?

Why make it harder for us. Its the time of the season where results are the crucial thing. 3 points anywhichway. We know we are shaky defensively and struggle to see games out as we have been like it all season. Now isn't the time to be worrying about the performances, we just have to get the job done, and draw a line under this season. Why handicap ourselves.

regardless of what you are your mates say or text about like LOL or whatever, fact remains we didn't play for the maximum 97 minutes did we? If we had, we would of won, wouldn't we?

In hindsight, which is always magical it would of been great seeing JT fly through the air to take out the ball and Suarez too, well I have some news for you, he didn't, we didn't and we drew 2-2 because we could not play for the time until the ref blew the whistle. As a kid I was taught to play to the whistle, has anything changed? Can you tell me otherwise?

You said we have to get the job done, we didn't. we have handicapped ourselves by not playing until the whistle went......Simple.

Check and check mate.

[edetarod 2,155]

we got scored on in the 97th minute, a minute past the injury time by a player who was chewing on one of our players earlier in the game

can you believe it...

[The only place to be 11,313]

6 mins to go, holding onto a slender lead, dont think its inconceivable to take torres off for jt.

Then you're just inviting pressure onto you.

With 30 seconds left what you want is a team forced to lump balls into the area because those are the easiest ones to defend.

In theory.

What I don't understand is Torres playing ahead of Ba with Thursday's game in mind.

[bushman 2,043]

There is no doubt Rafa´s subs were questionable. Even an idiot can see it. BA should have come on much earlier, replacing Torres, as I said it right after the 1st half.

As for the extra time. Rafa fucked up here too. As pointed above, 6 minutes to go, the score was 2 : 1 bring Cahill, Cole, JT anyone available to park the fucking bus. What good was Torres on the pitch if the team wanted to defend only ?

[Behemoth 266]

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Utter joke and it's taken me a while to process it. 7 minutes of extra time...why? Forget about the Suarez bite (he really is an animal...this is the second time!) but how could the referee justify that? How?

[The only place to be 11,313]

Utter joke and it's taken me a while to process it. 7 minutes of extra time...why? Forget about the Suarez bite (he really is an animal...this is the second time!) but how could the referee justify that? How?

Our penalty, their free-kick, Oscar's injury, Bertrand tackle and fracas, four subs+Lamps sub in injury time.

[Hutcho 8,443]

regardless of what you are your mates say or text about like LOL or whatever, fact remains we didn't play for the maximum 97 minutes did we? If we had, we would of won, wouldn't we?

In hindsight, which is always magical it would of been great seeing JT fly through the air to take out the ball and Suarez too, well I have some news for you, he didn't, we didn't and we drew 2-2 because we could not play for the time until the ref blew the whistle. As a kid I was taught to play to the whistle, has anything changed? Can you tell me otherwise?

You said we have to get the job done, we didn't. we have handicapped ourselves by not playing until the whistle went......Simple.

Check and check mate.

I'm not saying anything about that. Just a simple point that we were not helped by stupid managerial decisions... Can you tell me otherwise? Substituations are pretty easy for anyone who has a half decent knowledge of the game. How the players play in a specific moment is not something that cannot be easily controlled. Thats my point.

If you want to say that you think Rafa had a great game and made great decisions, then fair enough thats your opinion and we can agree to disagree. If not then my point is still valid.