LFS: Players didnt listen

[Aesthetic Relic 301]

Telegraph

Chelsea's Luiz Felipe Scolari says players 'didn't listen' against Liverpool

Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was angry to see his players lose patience against Liverpool, and admits they "didn't listen" to his instructions.

After more than four years and 86 Premier League games, Chelsea were finally defeated at Stamford Bridge thanks to Xabi Alonso's early goal.

Against expectations, Chelsea were unable to mount a second-half fightback and failed to recreate the level of performance witnessed in their 5-0 win at Middlesbrough last weekend.

Rafa Benitez was widely accepted to have won his tactical battle with Scolari, and Liverpool now lead the Premier League by three points.

"I didn't want my players to play high balls. I don't need them to put the ball in the box all the time," said Scolari.

"But they lost the confidence to touch the ball and were afraid of not changing the result. This is not the football we play normally. We need to try to play on the ground, not high balls, because I don't have big strikers.

"I said to them 'Look, try to keep on playing' but they didn't listen."

Scolari hopes to have Joe Cole back for their trip to third-place Hull on Wednesday.

"We may have Joe Cole back, maybe," said Scolari. "But Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack need another 10 days minimum."

Scolari is determined the Liverpool shock will not affect the confidence of his players.

"We will have a meeting with the players and start to think about Hull on Wednesday. The Liverpool game is finished.

"We did not expect the result but we need to understand that Liverpool have a very good team.

"In the first half we dominated the game and in the second we had more possession of the ball and passed it well until we got near their penalty area.

"After this we crossed many balls but they had a good defensive line and dealt with every one. We didn't play as we have done in other games because we didn't have the space. We only had space to cross."

[Elliott 7]

Seems that the players panicked... no doubt because the crowd was panicking.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Plenty of time left yet. Liverpool have had good runs and faltered before, I am not convinced that they can mount a challenge yet, its simply too early.