8 Nov 2014

Chelsea Fail: BR reveals £27m 'game-plan' & claims it worked 'very well'. Agree?

Things go from bad to worse for Liverpool. Today's loss makes five defeats in seven games for the club, and if results go the wrong way tomorrow, the Reds could end the weekend in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

After the 2-1 home defeat - Liverpool's 5th league loss of the season - Rodgers revealed his 'game-plan' for beating Chelsea. He told reporters:

"We had a game-plan today, which was to look to keep Cesc Fabregas quiet.

"We had Jordan Henderson in a marking role and he did it very well. The influence from Fabregas in the game was limited. We needed him [Henderson] for that energy to do that over the course of the 90 minutes".


Perhaps Rodgers would've been better served by coming up with a game-plan to keep Diego Costa quiet. The Brazilian is Chelsea's deadliest player, and he inevitably got on the scoresheet yet again.

Once again, though, Liverpool were sabotaged by the same old problems:

* Moments of shambolic defending/lapses of concentration leading to goals.
* Persisting with Mario Balotelli as a lone-striker
* Persists with 4231, when it clearly isn't working.

There's no point even discussing these issues as they've been analysed to death, and the only person who (seemingly) doesn't see the problems is Brendan Rodgers. Some other post-match reaction:

Dietmar Hamann

"Liverpool beaten fair and square, no complaints. Chelsea by far the better side. Long way to go but Sturridge needs to come back soon".

Jamie Carragher

"Chelsea defend for their lives brilliantly. Hazard is a star. Lfc caused themselves problems all day playing from the back. Blatant handball so not much luck but another set piece goal against and only one top save from Courtois that I can remember from Sterling".

Daniel Sturridge

"Shame about the result today. Deserved something from the game. Looking forward to resuming full training next week".

It's all well and good moaning about 'blatant handballs', but the harsh reality is that Liverpool never looked like winning the game, and after spending £120m in the summer, Rodgers is now under extreme pressure to arrest the slump.

The manager continues to dig his own grave, but a little perspective is needed. It's no disgrace to lose Real Madrid and Chelsea, the European Champions and the current league-leaders respectively. Both teams are in the midst of imperious form, and whether the doom and gloom brigade want to accept it or not, there were positive elements to both LFC performances.

Things need to change quickly, though, and it remains to be seen whether Rodgers is capable of pulling the season out of the fire. It's only November, and despite the atrocious results, Liverpool remain within touching distance of the top four.

When all is said and done, that's the only target this season, and it's still eminently achievable.



Author:


55 comments:

  1. we lost at home .........Only Rodgers could see that as a tactical success ,im beginning to wonder who actually selects the team and tactics at anfield because they are bordeing on farcical.What must kolo and lucas or any other fringe players think about breaking into the team ...is there a point in performing is there a point to being MoM if you get dropped ..i may as well just pick up my pay check and sit in the stand.Brendan Rodgers the great motivator of a large squad or a guy who just picks his favourites , ill let you decide

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  2. Seems last year Rodgers was a little more humble, willing to change often when things needed changing. This year he is a little over confident and doesn't change much of anything. He says he wouldn't change anything (from the last few games), but we are struggling...
    I know I'm starting to worry. I hope it works out, but poor transfers and a stubborn manager are starting to make me wonder. Still behind the team and manager but something needs to change quick.

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  3. was just about to say that fabregas was almost invisible today. so that worked yes. but we still managed to lose by playing football that was painful on the eyes. whats worse is that i dont see a dramatic improvement when sturridge comes back in. surely it would give the team a lift but thats the most we can hope for with his return. and lastly looking at how almost all teams other than chelsea and southampton are unimpressive i dare say that we still have a very good chance of finishing top 4.. if we find our feet before them that is...

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  4. last yr also around october november we struggled..in december suarez went off to a flying start after sturridge got injured..we carried that form til the end..hopefully it repeats when sturridge returns in december.. and surprisingly even suarez is sucking at barca..

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  5. hmm two more assists tonight... not sure what he is sucking at...

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  6. his overall touch is looking poor.. considering barca's standards and especially when he s next to MESSI..messi's pass to him 3 days back in CL that he didnt finish was like him 2 years back

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  7. Would take him back in a heartbeat

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  8. maybe being out of the game with a ban for so many months had something to do with it. this despite providing three assists in only 4 games he has played for barca.

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  9. We lost at home to the best team in the League by a mile, no disgrace there, we were at our best last year, and we lost to them also. Too much doom and gloom for me. We are what we are.
    Kolo had a good game midweek, (except for the part he played in their goal), but does that really promote him automatically, ?
    Remember some of his glaring mistakes last year I do.
    The loss of Suarez and Studge will take time to fix, there is no quick and easy way unless you have Chelsea or City money, and we dont.

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  10. He's sucking at Barca, better than biting.

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  11. the first line tells you all you need to know about where the next few paragraphs are headed...

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  12. oh contre johnny rodgers has had plenty of money but wasted it ...remember we finished above Chelsea last year but this year its okay to lose at home to them ? even though we have spent 100m plus

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  13. hahah you took the words right out of my mouth

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  14. might as well get a new name for his new team while he's at it...

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  15. Listen, noone is saying a defeat is palatable but rather than recycling the 'even though we have spent 100m' over and over, why can you not see things with a bit of perspective? It is easy to sit about and bitch and moan but is that really why you support Liverpool? If at the end of the season our position warrants serious thought then I am sure that will happen but surely you recognise that things need to play out first? I have faith in Rodgers, 18 months of consistent performances testify to that, but whatever you're feeling now, it will all be clear by the end of the season.

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  16. sturridge is needed, but there is a huge chasm that even he will not be able to cover. if our defence worked in a normal job, they would be on final written warnings for poor performance. in fact, they would be out. what is happening at our club is nothing short of disgraceful especially from a blinkered manager who is, week by week, drowning in his own ineptitude. brendan, god bless him, selects his 'first team' and yet again the 'first team' get smashed. play the 'reserves' and lets see how they get on, eh?

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  17. i hear we are in the market for a miracle.

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  18. now thats a potential buy i can get behind..

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  19. city aren't exactly pulling up trees, similarly that is down to their manager too.

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  20. What kind of perspective? Sure, we lost Suarez, but we we were supposed to mitigate the significance of that by spending over 100 million, so we wouldn't end up in a position like this. Not only did we do that to negate the effect of losing Suarez, it was also to create some depth. The fact we now rely one one particular player to make us click is extremely worrying.

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  21. Good article Jaimie, pretty much agree with all that

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  22. I will never get used to seeing us lose at Anfield

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  23. Remember last year we had Suarez and Sturridge, and still lost to them Twice, thats my whole point, if we could'nt beat them with those two, how are we gonna beat them without them.
    BTW, Chelsea signed Fabregas, Costa, Matic, Drogba, Filipe Luis, and others, spending about the same as us.

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  24. too long...couldnt read

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  25. Liverpool are a very naive team. Fair play award last year in PL

    Nice guys come last.

    On multiple occasions today Liverpool players allowed an opponent to dispossess them, and run away into dangerous positions. Chelsea players would NEVER do that.

    Jose wouldn't allow it. Yellow card offence is mandatory in such situations.

    Ivanovic vertical Klinsman impression when nudged by Sterling. Costa feigning injury to coincide with his substitution - uses up 3 minutes......

    Jose drills his players in the dark arts. It's so blatant, but seemingly within the rules of Football. I don't even get too annoyed by it any more but it's ruining football.

    Fifa could fix it with mandatory 2 minute sideline injury assessment Windows for any player that causes the game to be stopped.

    I watched Ireland beat South Africa in rugby afterwards, and the overriding feeling was shame for the game I love, soccer.

    One more point, Skrtel's reaction to being barged by Costa was brain dead. He jumped up and pushed Costa,s allowing the referee to take no action. Chelsea players would have feigned injury, forcing a yellow card.

    It's not pleasant, but that's modern football. There's no honour at all. It saddens me.

    The late penalty shout would only have masked the hammering we took.

    BR could honestly be in danger soon. Were we really a one man team? I remember predicting our demise to mediocrity when certain people were calling for Suarez to go.

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  26. Spending about the same as us but look a the quality of their signings to ours

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  27. Well the doctors gunna fix ya with a bottle of this here elixir gunna feel good gunna feel good gunna feel good

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  28. First of all I disagree the goal this season was to finish inside the top four. That may be the only feasible goal now but it wasn't before the season. We challenged for the title last year, we invested 125 million, so we should not aim for anything less this time around. Admitting top four was the goal before the season is admitting last season was a fluke only achieved because of Suarez. Second of all, how can the tactic of marking Fabregas out of the game have worked if we lost? It either was the wrong tactic to begin with because we lost in spite of applying it perfectly (Rodgers words) or our goal before the match was to keep Fabregas quiet and not necessarily win the game, which seems a bit weird. So it's a ridiculous suggestion that the tactics worked well. Rodgers is running out of excuses fast and that's why they become worse and worse. He sounds clueless as to what is needed to get us out of this. Sure, the players will tell you he's a great manager but they did that with Benitez, Houllier and Dalglish as well days before they got the sack. There may have been positives from this game but the question remains, are we getting enough return on a 200 million pound investment? The answer is no. Not even close.

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  29. When we lost to Chelsea last season - BR made a point that it was easy to coach players / team to defend but much more difficult to coach a team to play expansive fast paced football (the way LFC were playing last season).....well....can BR simply start doing the simple things - teach the team to park the bus - keep a couple of clean sheets & restore confidence - then with the Studge back we can focus on expansive football

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  30. Not sure if that's true...I'd rather be a biter than a sucker!

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  31. But we'll probably send it out on loan or let it rot in reserves!

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  32. Toure may have made mistakes last but the other two are making them now. Yes Lovren no way deserves his place above Kolo. Skrtel either.

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  33. Dis they not spend money too? Are they missing their best player? Or have loathe best player of last year?

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  34. Look at the money they are on.

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  35. He had more time to prepare and practice. He has never had European football before Liverpool. I think thesis a factor. If you haven't got a lot of time to practice other ways of playing you can understand a reluctance.

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  36. "It's no disgrace to lose to Chelsea" you chirp after spending £120million? You are having a laugh. The way Southampton is playing and getting results and they way clubs like man utd and the arsenal are grinding results will get rodgers fired at the end of the season. The simple question is why have his signings failed to perform so dismally? He clearly failed in the market compared to the business done by arsenal Chelsea and man utd. I will give him to the end of the season. But if we are not in top four I say goodbye BR

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  37. yes but not as much as us by a huge ammount? two of there best players yes ? and there 3rd one is injured

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  38. If you want quality you have to pay the price, its that simple

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  39. Agreed but do the owners agree?

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  40. I think they might, look at Suarez's contract.. they know top players get top money

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  41. Huge amount? I don't think so. Two of their players cost sixty odd million. They spent ninety in total which is like twenty seven million less but they didn't lose their best player and they signed Matic in Jan for twenty one as well as Salah and Zouma. In the last two windows they have outspent us in the last three way outspent us. Who are these best players who are injured?

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  42. None of their best players were I jure when we played them.

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  43. Yeah but I am not sure they are willing to offer the bigger bucks. Our wage bill is not even top four right now and most of Chelsea's players are on more than our top earner.

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  44. Look at their baseball franchise, look at what contracts they dish out there, they are prepared to pay that is obvious

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  45. But there are no fees in baseball. Are they willing to pay thirty million for a player then a hundred grand a week? I've seen no evidence they will.

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  46. Then even more of a reason to stop over paying on average players just because they are British, that way we can bring in real quality and pay the going rate, at the end of the day we need quality or the manager needs to utilise his signings and gamble in the correct way to at least give them a chance, but he wont as its looking very obvious that he doesn't know how to

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  47. Maybe not but look at the contracts they hand out they are ridiculous amounts

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  48. then I think they should quit..its the demand of most of the top players and this club is too big for the mediocre stock

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  49. Time BR packs up and go before we start fighting relegation. He is abusing Mario by playing him as a lone striker, abusing Stevie by playing him as a CDM, abusing Kolo, being Man of the Match the previous game and then getting dropped the next

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  50. The 1st game we lost bczo of poor refereeing-evrybody knows that, the second-poor strategy from you know who, now we lost to them bcoz of poor strategy from you know who? Even if we get Messi and Suarez back, BR cant sort out his defensive philosophy which starts from wrongly playing SG as a DM especially a central one too. No amount of money will help BR address his defensive philosophy.

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  51. Yes, they do. they wouldnt have given BR that now infamous 100m plus, if they ddnt

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  52. Saw on The Guardian, BR is now aware that he may lose his job if he keeps on losing like this.

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  53. Our defense needs to be covered by two proper CDMs not Gerrard. For all his ability to create miracles and be our captain fantastic, he cant do that form that CDM position where BR is killing him at, covering up his transfer failures. FSG must not give him any money in Jan, if he lasts that far

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  54. Rodgers isn't the one doing the deals mate. They were willing to pay for Sanchez but who else? Rodgers doesn't compile the list of players. Lallana was our most expensive player and that didn't get close to breaking the thirty million mark. Chelsea went out and bought two thirty million players.

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