Closed Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea

[BlueLion. 21,491]

A - José's negative tactics almost, almost cost us. They were there for the taking; their best performance of the season and they still couldn't beat us. He owes Courtois a fucking blow job for bailing him out tonight.

B - besides Willian (who basically did Ivanovic's job for him tonight), Hazard (in the first-half he was great, poor after the break) and Thibaut, the whole team was poor. You'd have thought we'd lost 5-0, not won 5-0, on Saturday.

C - what the fuck was the point of the 90th minute substitutions?! He must be planning on changing the whole fucking squad for Bradford now. Courtois, Ivanovic, Terry, Willian, Hazard, Costa, Fabregas, Matic all out - Cech, Azpi, Zouma, Schurrle, Salah, Remy, Ramires, Oscar in, you'd think.

d - Cahill had a very good first half but was back to his usual tricks in the second. Consistently poor, week in week out.

[Elran 58]

Wow very negative reaction here. With the knowledge that you play a semi final over 2 legs a 1-1 away result is not bad at all.. But if you read the reactions here you would think that we've lost 5-0. People tend to forget games easily, we just won 0-5 away at Swansea but 3 days later Mourinho is 'pathetic in away games'. We opened up against Spurs (and earlier in the season Everton), we got 5 goals against us. For me that justifies his tactic in away games or at least I can understand it (in a two-legged semi-final).

One thing that worried me was the space between defence and midfield. You would think an extra DM (Mikel) would solve this, but with the goal Sterling had a lot of space to make his run. Matic trying to save, but was too wide and therefore too late (not saying that is his mistake). Maybe even he was too wide because we had two defensive midfielders.. And also when Gerrard hit the post, I think both defensive midfielders where within a few yards of the goals. And no one at the edge of the box, not the first time that happened. I think there is too much space in that area, it must be possible to improve that.

[Nero 1,794]

Steven Gerrard Gerrard

He slipped on his ****ing arse,

He gave it to Demba Ba,

Steven Gerrard Gerrard

[DYC. 7,542]

Chelsea has a lot of slow players, there's almost no way that team can cope with high pressure and tricky fast players.

If Mourinho used Fabregas in pivot, there wouldn't even be a need for the 2nd leg. Would have been another massacre.

The difference in the quality and speed of the build-up play from the back and overall level of play with Fabregas in the middle compared to what the Mikel-Matic combo provides is like night and day. But if you're not planning on playing, then yes, Mikel and Matic is the better combo.

Personally, I still prefer Ramires though. Crazy how he's gone from full trust to 0 in one summer.

[zolayes 14,489]

The difference in the quality and speed of the build-up play from the back and overall level up play with Fabregas in the middle compared to the Mikel-Matic combo is like night and day. But if you're not planning on playing, then yes, Mikel and Matic is the better combo.

Personally, I still prefer Ramires though. Crazy how he's gone from full trust to 0 in one summer.

Zero is still better than minus 5 which is what Mikel brings

[thekid9 418]

Why does Mikel need 20 touches everytime?

It hurts my eyes

[xPetrCechx 13,547]

Why does Mikel need 20 touches everytime?

It hurts my eyes

he's thinking slowly...

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

What!!!

Liverpool were shite and we made them look even fucking better than they are

Seriously enough of that bollox - Liverpool are average and we made them look massively good because we could not string two passes together

I'm not having the overreaction - that was shite and people are rightly calling it.

The Manager and Players need a long fucking hard look at themselves

We're all dissapointed in one way or another, but you have to chill out, this was just a cup game.

You see this Liverpool team, all these decades of failure have made them play this kind of games like it is the fucking Champions League final.

They are desperate to win some silverware, no matter if it is the McDonalds cup, some friendly tournament in the US or the Capital One Cup. I bet they would even go full strenght in the Emirates Cup should Arsenal let them participate in it.

They know they have no chance at winning EPL and UCL. The FA Cup is another competition they barely get a sniff at, so Capital One is their last hope at silverware.

Not that they are some experts in winning this competition, but at least the big boys don't give a shit about it.

This is why I was sure Liverpool would put up a fight tonight and give all their best.

Chelsea will get the job done at the Bridge and the best thing is that you get to crush their dreams after you have been dog shite and they've outplayed you at their own place.

This hurts more than a 0-5 aggregate score and there is no better sight in world football than watching those deluded cunts fail again and moan about atmosphere and how many chances they've had.

[zolayes 14,489]

he's thinking slowly...

and he turns slower than a super tanker

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Tibo is MOTM obviously.

Such an embarrassing performance. This team has been so poor in the big games, I can't think of one high pressure game we played great in. Even against Spurs, they completely dominated us for about 30 minutes before capitulating.

No bottle to hold on to results and we can't impose our game on teams. This Cesc in attacking midfield shit has to stop, he clearly isn't one. Either play Oscar or Ramires in a 3.

Cesc was the best AM today. Doesn't say much, considering they all looked out of ideas, but Cesc created most of our half-chances today, including the penalty. Eden was okay too but looked very tired, misplaced many passes and got bullied. They all looked tired though.

Matic was probably the poorest player on the pitch. Mikel was better.

[Sheva. 5,373]

The difference in the quality and speed of the build-up play from the back and overall level of play with Fabregas in the middle compared to what the Mikel-Matic combo provides is like night and day. But if you're not planning on playing, then yes, Mikel and Matic is the better combo.

Personally, I still prefer Ramires though. Crazy how he's gone from full trust to 0 in one summer.

Yes it is, but Fabregas is not a DM and will leave more spaces to exploit in front of the defence.

Ramires when fully fit is a better option than Mikel and then we can play legit 433.

[hamad138 190]

We've seen how good Messi and Ronaldo are when their team is either disjointed or playing in a defensive manner, or both, in the national team. No attacking player can perform under these circumstances and forcing a win for your team in this set up is a once in a blue moon thing.

You'll never see Barca and Real play like this and that's why they can produce at a high rate.

Robben did at world cup. He forced the whole attack, he was the only attacking player in netherlands, and he drove them to semi final( almost final if mascherano didnt made that hero save)

And messi obvious for Barcelona

[thekid9 418]

and he turns slower than a super tanker

He has the turning circle of a hummer

[Azpinator 2,325]

Whoever voted Hazard MOTM should be ashamed

He let Markovic rule him all evening - this is why Hazard can't be rated as one of the best.

I've seen Messi and Ronaldo single handedly take a game and force the win.

Hazard spent more time laying on the floor.

Wow!

He is 24!! Doing great for his age. Plus, he was heavily marked. Even Messi and Ronaldo struggle, not invincible whatsoever.

Yor critique of Hazard is way over the top.

[BlueSunshine 672]

Awful, awful performance. If i wasn't so pissed during the match, i would feel sorry for our players. At times they looked so helpless and desperate as if they were children playing against men. The only good thing is that the scum didn't win, the bad thing is that we didn't rest any key players.

[Barbara 15,149]

The only player worth mentioning is Courtois. What a match. If it wasn't for him we'd lose by 2-3 goals.

Mourinho has been stubborn. He needs to stop taking such cowardly routes... we have City next week. It was crucial for our LEAGUE progress to have killed this match today. We made Liverpool look decent.

[Hybrid Angel 2,130]

I voted for Cahill for MOTM because he convinced me he has eyes in the back of his head with his confident back to goal play.

[Pizy 17,860]

Yikes. Sort of glad I missed this one.