Liverpool Vs Chelsea Round Two.

Mossy Monk

oooooooh

3-1 Joe Cole

MrJoeSoap

Great play by Drogba to be fair. He has done well.

I'm still not convinced but credit where its due.

Lemlin

No way back for Liverpool now. Chelski look unstoppable. Mourinho is going to savour this victory.

They've now beaten two of their three main opponents, with only United remaining, and it doesn't look like they'll pose much of a threat at the minute.

Mossy Monk

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Great play by Drogba to be fair. He has done well

Drogba is looking to get a slap in the face with all his bitching and whining at the referee. for Coles goal it looked more like a terrible shot than a wonderful pass

MrJoeSoap

He cut across the defence well though, good pace, and rounded the keeper. It was a mis-hit shot though, and not a pass.

3 assists for him now.

Lemlin

I've always had respect for Drogba. Yes, he is a donkey but that's exactly the way Chelsea want him to play.

He does alot of spadework for them that is vital for the rest of the team.

MrJoeSoap

4-1! Hate that Dublindude!

Almost another assist for Drogba.

TheMonster

embarassing now

Shred

Well that is that - 4-1 Che$ki

Mossy Monk

Geremi makes it 4-1

KdjaCL

Its a thumping now only in scoreline.


kdjac

mr_angry

Finnan badly caught-out for that one. Drogba out-muscling him at a throw in.

MrJoeSoap

KdjaC wrote:

Its a thumping now only in scoreline.

Nothing else other than scoreline matters really. First time Liverpool have conceded 4 at home in the Premiership.

mike65

Ho-hum, I was'nt watching so I can't comment on the way Liverpool played but I bet it underlined the need for a dedicated right winger! Was anyone playing near Crouch?

Mike.

mr_angry

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Nothing else other than scoreline matters really. First time Liverpool have conceded 4 at home in the Premiership.

Credit to the fans though... they're still singing at the top of their voices.

WhiteWashMan

oh crikey. the chelsea machine roles on.

at least we only lost 2 - 0 at home, and only after a man was sent off

looks like spurs will be second this year, about 70 points behind chelsea!

gimmick

100-1 for Chelsea to win every league game this season.

Lets be honest, Lpool didnt play badly, but Chelsea swept them aside with ease. The league is over. Look at Chelseas stats - played 8, won 8, scored 18, conceded 2 - points 24, GD +16.

Shred

[GRITTED TEATH]Congratulations Che$ki you deserved the win[/GRITTED TEATH] :mad:

cregser

As bitter as it is to swallow this latest Chelsea victory is easiest to accept - because they deserved it. They were just more clinical. Every weekness in the liverpool side was exposed while Gallas was able to struggle 70mins with a tight hamstring (whilst watching 3 of his teamates take an early break) and Riise/Traore never took advantage. It shows the gulf in the sides when Mourinho can casually risk one of his players long term fitness.

The penalty meant Chelsea never had to stretch themselves. Yeah they should enjoy their moment but it hardly makes up for last season CL semi final. They weren't really tested today. The way they celebrated everything... they were like a bunch of 11 Mourinhos walking around.

gimmick

^ It showed great team spirit, and why not celebrate thumping one of your "realistic" title rivals on their own patch.

Roddy23

dying to hear from dublindude, if he did put the €800 down

Kulgan

mike65 wrote:

Ho-hum, I was'nt watching so I can't comment on the way Liverpool played but I bet it underlined the need for a dedicated right winger! Was anyone playing near Crouch?

Mike.

No and its getting tired.


Every time Traore's name is on the teamsheet i worry , how many **** ups is one player allowed?

mr_angry

At the moment, I'm just greatful that Arsenal are back above Wigan and West Ham in the table. 9th place was beginning to have an uncomfortable look about it. Looking up at Tottenham and Charlton still doesn't feel so great though.

MrJoeSoap

This might cheer up the Liverpool fans -

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YNT4D975

Its the 3rd clip.

Pigman II

4-1?!?!? That's a ridiculous scoreline! I don't think Liverpool have ever lost that big at home for as long as I've been following the game?

Chelsea are looking unstoppable tbh. Virtually impossible of course but I'd love to see them do a perfect season and get the maximum 114pts just for the hell of it.

MrJoeSoap

Someone's been brushing up on their 38 times tables.

I can see them going unbeaten, but it will be very tough, every team they play will desperately want to up their game and beat them.

jesus_thats_gre

The final result of 1 - 4 was somewhat flattering to Chelsea in the end but there is no doubt they were deserved winners..

Liverpool were guilty of falling asleep on 3 occassions and Djimi Traore should be convicted of rape. Sami showed that his lack of pace is now, without doubt, a liability. Drogba literally walked around him with the ball. He drastically needs to be replaced in the summer..

At half time, I honestly didn't know what way the game was going to go. There was no doubt that the team had to play for at least an equaliser. Knowing this, it was always going to be 50:50 as to whether we could pull it back or just loose by 2 or 3 goals in the end.. You all know how it ended..

growler

I was hoping for a better game from Chelsea today after a fairly quiet performance on wednesday and certainly got it , was shocked to see Drogba start but Jose got it right, not sure how much he deserved MOTM but he certainly had a huge influence on the game.

It must be really frustrating for Gerrard to witness that kind of performance, Traore ( though he did really well on Wed) is always an accident waiting to happen, Didi played for the penalty but Troare handed Chelsea a goal ( unlucky not to have been saved). But worse than Troare was Hyppia, shockingly bad and at fault for Chelsea chances too often for a player with such responsibility in a (cough) title challenging team.

Anyway the Pool can give up on winning the prem this year, too much not right to compete. Worst home defeat in 20 years or so. Can't be too many complaints from pool fans, Chelsea ripped ye apart and Benitez didn't seem tactically astute enough to make the necessary changes (maybe he just doesn't have the squad), apart from Riise ( who missed a great chance) and Gerrard the rest of the team were distinctly average.

Blues go marching on, boring Chelsea my arse :-)

mike65

I saw the interview with Rafa afterwards and he did'nt do himself any favours, I'd have just put my hands up and said 'they outplayed us'. Instead he went into defence mode. The 606 phone-in chatter was about bad formations and not supporting Crouch, but is he listening?

Mike.

ButcherOfNog

Rafa knows liverpools problems, he still needs that right winger and central defender. The reason pool lost 4-1 was that at 2-1 down they opened up and pushed for a goal, once you give Chelsea space, then any team is in trouble. Was better than sitting in the same formation and losing 2-1 in my opinion.

mad m

Well there goes a tenner out of my pocket tomorrow.Swiftly hand it over and run with fingers in ears.$hite!

Pal

dublindude wrote:

That was me

Nah, not tomorrow. I might stick €800 on under 4.5 goals just to win a free €100...

It does look like it will be another under 2.5 though...

oops

yop

Poor dublindude, some loss!!

Pool taught a lesson in football, the old hit and hope game ain't going to win them the league this year, Chelsea were awesome in fairness, puts last Wednesdays games into perspective

RE*AC*TOR

Some thoughts...
Liverpool need far more than a couple of players...

From yesterday

Reina... ok, better than Dudek... i don't think so...
Finnan... he's fine, solid, one of our better players.
Carragher... our best player.
Hyppia... getting slow, but i still think he has a role.
Traore... abysmal. He makes Phil Babb look good. - I don't see why he would ever start ahead of warnock (or Risse).
Garcia... with his general level of play he needs to pull off a wonder goal every match - which he doesn't. Shouldn't be in the starting 11.
Alonso... fine.
Hamman... getting old and slow - still influential.
Gerrard... he's good, but he's no Roy Keane or Patrick Viera. He can be anonymous for large parts or even entire games.
Risse... not a good enough winger (albeit about the best we have at the moment), not a better full-back than Warnock.
Crouch... shows himself to be consistent, good ground ability, i think to get the best from him he needs to be playing as part of 2 up front. As Benitez doesn't use that system - Crouch probably shouldn't be starting.
Cisse - hasn't done the business for the most part - but has been misused in a most ridiculous way. I think he probably has an attitude problem as well.
Sissoko - another headless chicken - at times he can look great by making some big dramatic tackles, but he is a poor passer and he often misses those tackles.
Pongolle - still hasn't proven anything really, although he does seem to be better out of position (on the wing) than Cisse. His attitude seems better too.

In summary - we probably have an ok defense as long as we don't play Traore. We do need cover for Hyppia/Carrahger. We still have no proper wingers (unless you include Zenden - which i don't). And we have 3/4 forwards who haven't scored a premiership goal between them this season.

My faith in Benitez is waining.


*edit" i thought this was apt (from football365)

"Liverpool resemble the non-scoring version of Wimbledon"

BolBill

Good post mate, agree with 99% of it. Depressing though

p.pete

I got asked this morning if Rafa will last the season by an Everton fan

ButcherOfNog

p.pete wrote:

I got asked this morning if Rafa will last the season by an Everton fan

That would be bottom of the league and out of Europe Everton would it? Pool have lost 1 league game, and are top of their group in the CL. People need to take their heads out of their ar$es.

TheMonster

ButcherOfNog wrote:

That would be bottom of the league and out of Europe Everton would it? Pool have lost 1 league game, and are top of their group in the CL. People need to take their heads out of their ar$es.

only won 1 leage game though and are 2 points off relegation zone

jesus_thats_gre

Form so far has been pretty shocking but it would be foolish to consider anything but supporting the manager...

kleefarr

TheMonster wrote:

only won 1 leage game though and are 2 points off relegation zone

Beat me to it. Going to have to make sure they don't lose many more or they won't finish in the top 10.

PiE

...with 2 games in hand, where winning both would put them joint 7th.

MrJoeSoap

From Mediawatch

Prophetic Rafa Learns A Lesson
For Fleet Street, it was the perfect outcome to an impressive week's work.

Having kept Liverpool v Chelski top of the footballing agenda even at the end of the week by going overboard on Rafa Benitez's claim that Chelski could be "afraid" of Liverpool, Monday morning saw the story reach full circle as Frank Lampard revealed that the Blues had been inspired by Rafa's words.

"We had a big point to prove as a lot of things have been said that we weren't happy about," said Lampard. "It riled us a bit this week. We are not scared of going anywhere."

Cue headlines along the lines of 'Franks a lot, Rafa' and 'Benitez put in his place'.

Those quotes by Rafa were certainly unusually outspoken. But Mediawatch suspects that he regretted saying them the moment they left his mouth during his Thursday lunchtime press conference.

In an apparent bid to nullify his own words, Rafa immediately then declared: "In football, it's important not to talk too much. You can lose the next game 3-0."

Those quotes, unsurprisingly, failed to appear in most accounts, but after events on Sunday suddenly have a certain resonance...

A lesson learnt, eh Rafa?

Chucky the tree

last seasons results.
lost away to boro
lost away to b'ham
lost at home to man united.


Compared to this season:
drew away with boro
drew away at b'ham
drew at home with united.

That 3 points better off compared to last season. That all we could ask from rafa, to improve our performances and position on last seasons and so far he has done that.

Gileadi

chucky its pointless comparing one off matches from last season to this season and saying that rafa is making progress, in the end the points is all that matters not individual performances

PiE

Gileadi wrote:

chucky its pointless comparing one off matches from last season to this season and saying that rafa is making progress, in the end the points is all that matters not individual performances

Yes and if you compare the same fixtures from last season, to this season (even though they happened at different dates), we'd be 3pts higher up the table. How is it pointless? Progress has been made. One setback (admittedly a huge, potentially morale busting one) doesn't warrant crisis talk.

Pepe LeFrits

Apparently this is Liverpool's worst ever premiership ever start? CL glory aside, Benitez will need to start producing better league results before too long. It is pointless comparing their corresponding fixtures this season to the last one. You can't compare the individual matches, they have been played in a different context. It's the points tally that matters, which is disappointing for Liverpool at the moment.

Chucky the tree

kaids wrote:

Apparently this is Liverpool's worst ever premiership ever start? CL glory aside, Benitez will need to start producing better league results before too long. It is pointless comparing their corresponding fixtures this season to the last one. You can't compare the individual matches, they have been played in a different context. It's the points tally that matters, which is disappointing for Liverpool at the moment.

Yes, and we are 3 points up on last seasons performances as PiE has pointed out. How is the points tally disappointing for liverpoool?

Chardee MacDennis

yes it is the points tally that mattters and we are 3 points better off thjan last season, cant comment on the game didnt see it but 1-4 sounds terrible

MrJoeSoap

Chucky the tree wrote:

Yes, and we are 3 points up on last seasons performances as PiE has pointed out. How is the points tally disappointing for liverpoool?

7 points from 6 games is disappointing, even if they have played United and Chelsea. Wigan and Charlton have 6 and 8 points more respectively (having played a game more).

Pepe LeFrits

Chucky the tree wrote:

Yes, and we are 3 points up on last seasons performances as PiE has pointed out. How is the points tally disappointing for liverpoool?

Because Liverpool are one of the biggest teams in the world and a mid-table points tally is ****.

Just checked Liverpool's website, they had 10 points from the first 6 games last season.