Liverpool 1 Chelsea 4 (Prem) - Oct 2 2005

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 1 Chelsea 4

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Steven Gerrard Half Time - 1-2 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 2 Oct 2005 Star Man - Steven Gerrard

 

 

 

 

 

Just what can you say after a defeat like this? The 4-1 scoreline wasn't a reflection of the game, but that's no real consolation. We had to endure the sight of those despicable, cheating arrogant pricks celebrating on our hallowed turf at the end, and whether the score flattered them or not doesn't change that.

It would be very easy for me to turn this report into a viscious, anti Chelsea rant. Very easy indeed. God knows I want to, as I'm sure it would offer some sort of thereputic comfort and maybe make me feel a little better. I'm not going to though, at least not here. You can be sure there'll be an article on those classless, cheating cunts in the next issue of TLW, but for this report I'm going to try to concentrate on us, not them.

We'd been the better side in midweek, and given how the last three games with them had gone, I fancied us big time to win this one. Much had been made about how Rafa knows how to play against them, and that he has some kind of Indian sign over them. After this scoreline, that claim now looks a bit silly, but I still feel it's true.

Before the CL game last week, Benitez had his players watch a few Chelsea games from this season and last. He also told them about certain statistics on how they're goals are scrored. Those stats revaled that 81% of all Chelsea goals come from set pieces, or from mistakes by the opposition. 100% of their goals against us last season were from set pieces.

Chelsea are efficient rather than exciting. Steely rather than spectacular. If Arsenal are the Rattle Snake that can kill you with deathly speed and accuracy, Chelsea are the Boa Constrictor who just slowly strangle the life from you. You can't argue with the results, but if I'd given a manager a quarter of a billion pounds of my money to build a team, I'd want them to be more Barcelona than Bolton.

But I said I wasn't going to focus on them, and I intend to stick to that (the occasional lapse aside of course, which is inevitable when discussing these reprehensible turds). The point of all this analysis of their game is not to run them down, it's to emphasise what went wrong for us in this game.

As I was saying, Rafa had spoken to his players about how to play to Chelsea, and what he basically told them was that if we don't make mistakes, and mark up properly from set pices, CHELSEA CAN'T SCORE AGAINST US. He's right too, as was proved in the previous three encounters. Unfortunately, if you do make mistakes you will be punished.

Chelsea didn't demolish us, as the scoreline suggests. What they did do, is ruthlessly capitalise on the mistkes we made. Chelsea may struggle to break teams down on their own, but credit where it's due, they are fucking ruthless when it comes to punishing mistakes.

I haven't watched the highlights of the game, seeing it once was bad enough. But off the top of my head the only chances I can remember them having are the ones they scored from. And from our point of view, all of them should have been avoided. The bottom line is that Rafa was right when he said that Chelsea can only hurt us if we make mistakes. He was proved right in the most emphatic way, as we defended awfully and paid a heavy price.

The warning signs had been there even before Traore's calamitous decision to needlessly dive in on Drogba and concede a penalty. There had been signs before that of all not being well in our backline. Hyypia was not at the races at all, and seemed to be targetted by Chelsea as a weak link.

There was one occasion when Sami collected the ball off Reina, and suddenly three Chelsea players charged from the midfield to put him under pressure, resulting in a terrible ball which could have led to serious danger. It was clear that they had been instructed to pressure him when he was in possession, as it happened a few times.

Hyypia looked uncomfortable all game, and I heard he even said at half time that he just didn't feel right. He was replaced early in the second half, but it should have been sooner as he was a liability. Last season Hyypia was brilliant in the CL, but was rested for a lot of Premiership games. Pellegrino may have been shite, but at least his presence raised Sami's game through allowing him to put his feet up and stay fresh for when he was needed.

Sami simply can't play every week anymore, his legs just aren't up to it. Drogba gave him a torrid time, yet four days earlier Sami had dealt with him with no trouble at all. I think that's what hurt me most about this defeat, the fact that Dogpoo gave us so much trouble. He's fucking shit, and is the snidiest, most horrible.... No, I'll keep that for the fanzine. Let's just say he isn't very good and shouldn't be causing us any problems. For him to have a hand in every goal really makes this hard to swallow. It's embarrassing in fact, like when Ian Marshall scored the winner for Leicester at the Kop end a few years back.

The first goal came out of nothing. Drogba charged down a poor Traore clearance with his hands, but was allowed to continue on into the box. Graeme Poll couldn't have seen that, but the linesman on the Main Stand side should have. Even so, for Traore to compound his initial error with a reckless lunge which left Poll no choice but to award a pen was almost unforgivable.

Traore has split opinion amongst the fans. Some will always see him as a gangly, error prone, accident waiting to happen, whilst others think he's a class act who will get better and better. I'm somewhere in between. On the whole, I think he's a good defender, but I can't fully trust him and it's always in the back of my mind that there's always a major fuck up in him somewhere.

In his defence, those mistakes have been few and far between since Burnley, but every time he does something like the Drogba foul, his critics will say 'I told you so'. Even before he committed that lunge, he'd had a few problems with Joe 'cheating little shithead' Cole, and his confidence appeared to be affected, hence the Drogba incident.

There's been little to choose between Warnock and Traore, but the Frenchman seemed to have nudged ahead after Warnock was left out following his unfortunate own goal at Birmingham. After this, Warnock can surely expect a recall for the reds' next match.

Lampard despached the penalty, just. Reina should have saved it, as it was a poor penalty. The moon faced dickhead milked his celebrations in front of the Kop and Centenary Stand, and earned a booking for it. I hate the prick as much as anyone, but I don't blame him for giving it loads after scoring, because he was getting stick from us. You give it out, you have to expect it to be thrown back at you if the player in question gets a goal. That didn't make me hate him any more, as to be fair it isn't possible for me to hate anyone more than I do this despicable fucker.

Going 1-0 down to such an unnecessary goal really put us up against it, and I have to admit I didn't see any way back. So it was a great surprise when Gerrard's unnerringly accurate shot found it's way through a tiny gap to nestle in the corner of the net at the Anny Road end.

I thought we would go on and win it, and maybe the players did too. They seemed to get more ambitious, and we tried to get more men forward in support of Crouch. Ironically, that was probably what cost us the game, as Finnan was caught upfield as he tried to get forward, and Chelsea exploited the gap he left behind.

I haven't seen the replays of the goal, so I may have gotten this wrong, but from what I can remember, Drogba turned Sami with embarrassing ease and the ball found it's way to Duff who produced an excellent finish into the bottom corner. Credit to them, they worked it well but Sami should never have been beaten so easily.

That was a hammer blow, and once again I didn't see us recovering from it. At half time I would have taken Sami off, and moved Traore to the centre with Riise going left back. Ideally, I'd have subbed Riise as well, as once more he was fucking woeful. With no Warnock on the bench, options were a bit limited though.

Rafa made no changes, although the temptation to put Sissoko on must have been great. Hamann and Alonso were doing ok though, it wasn't in the middle of midfield where we were having problems so Momo was forced to wait.

Garcia had done very little, but a minute or so into the second half he split the Chelsea defence with a perfect ball to Riise, who had made a run across the line. It was a glorious chance, but the one footed prick refused to take a swing with his weaker foot, and tried to let it run across him onto his left. He missed the ball completely, and I lost my rag big time.

It's not often I have a go at players at the game, but I couldn't help it this time. If he's taken the shot with his right foot and missed I wouldn't have minded. I have a big problem though with a professional footballer, who earns thousands each week and who plays football for three hours every day (and has done more or less for the last 15 years), not being able to kick a ball with his weaker foot.

I'm shit at footy, I'm not even local Sunday League standard, but I can and will use both feet. I've hardly played any footy for about five years, but I still know my weaker foot is more useful than Riise's. Actually that's perhaps not quite true. Riise's right foot might not be too bad, but there's no way of telling as he never fucking uses it. He's the only player in our squad who will NEVER use his weak foot. It's fucking embarrassing.

I got a few looks from people sat round me when I gave him a verbal volley, but a couple of minutes later when he once again passed up a shooting chance as he tried to work it onto his left foot, everyone was on his case.

We huffed and puffed a lot, and things were looking fairly encouraging in the early part of the half. We weren't creating much, but as Rafa likes to say, we were controlling the game. Then bang, out of nothing it's 3-1. I don't even remember how it came about. I think it was from a throw in (although that may have been the fourth).

Drogba got away, made a balls up of his shot but Cole was there to tap in the loose ball. Sickening, as it was another easily avoidable goal. I thought at the time it was offside, but I wasn't in a good position to judge and as far as I know there have been no complaints from anyone about it so maybe it wasn't.

Crouch had a great chance when he skilfully brought the ball down on his chest before lifting it over Carvalho's head and into the area. It was the moment when he could realy have made a name for himself, but he skied his shot well over the bar. Crouch was superb in the midweek game, but he found it tougher this time. He did some good things, and some bad things. He needs more support though, and it's surely time to revert to 442.

It's blatantly obvious Rafa doesn't trust Cisse, and the decision to only give him 9 minutes in this game speaks volumes. I don't think Cisse will prove to be good enough long term, and we can do better than him I'm sure. However, at this moment in time we need him because we just don't look like scoring. Cisse has his faults, but despite the obvious weaknesses in his game I'm sure he will get goals if he's given a run alongside Crouch.

He's finished at Liverpool though, it's obvious. Benitez wanted to sell him in the summer, but was left frustrated due to not being able to tie up a deal for Owen. Cisse's body language has been awful of late, and maybe that's why Benitez doesn't trust him. It could easily be argued that Cisse's body language is so bad because of how he has been treated. Either way, it's clear his future lies elsewhere.

The game was virtually over when Cisse came on, and he hadn't even touched the ball when Chelsea made it 4-1. Drogba got away again, and crossed into the middle where someone (Robben I think) completely missed his kick but the ball broke to Germei at the back post who had an easy finish. Another spawny goal which could have been prevented, but by now we were becoming desperate and throwing men forward, so it was inevitable we'd concede chances on the break.

4-1 wasn't a true reflection of the game, but the inadequacies in our game are there for all too see. To match Chelsea all eleven players have to be on top of their game. That didn't happen, and we were punished. Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Alonso, Hamann, Gerrard and Crouch performed to a satisfactory standard, but others never. We have no quality out wide, no cover for Sami, and no 20 goal a season striker. Until those problems are rectified, we won't be in any kind of a position to challenge Chelsea.

Unfortunately for English football, no one else is in a position to do anything about it either. Until Abramovich either gets bored, or gets whacked, this is how it's going to be I'm afraid. From our point of view, there's no point even looking at what Chelsea are doing. We need to get our own house in order first.

I wrote after the United game that it was hard to say what kind of a start to the season we'd had. Was it good or bad? I said we'd know more after Birmingham. Well two games later I think we can safely say it's a bad start, our worst in a long time in fact. Throw in the worst home defeat in many a year and it's pretty depressing.

The failure to bring in the re-enforcements we required suring the summer is proving very costly, and January can't come quick enough.

On the plus side, we're still European Champions, and in a few months we could add the title of 'World Champions' to that. We're going well enough in the CL again, and bizarre as it seems, that's probably our best chance of winning something this season. We're a different side in Europe to what we are domestically.

The fixture list in the coming months looks to be fairly kind, but right now I wouldn't bet on us beating anyone as we just don't look like scoring goals. Rafa clearly likes the 451 system, and it does have it's place. We just don't have the personnell to make it work though.

I'd like to see a chance to 442 with Gerrard right midfield, Momo and Xabi in the centre, Garcia on the left and Cisse up front with Crouch. That should be enough to beat most sides in the Premiership, and at least we may start scoring again.

As for the star man, I'm going for Gerrard just ahead of Alonso. Gerrard's work rate and commitment had been faultless in the midweek game, but I felt his performance could have been better. I think he is maybe trying too hard against them now, as he appeared anxious at times and his final ball often lacked its usual quality. Maybe I'm being over-critical, but I expect so much from him that when he isn't at his brilliant best it can be disappointing. I'm just waiting for him to put in a really world class display against these bastards, so we can finally put all the crap from the last 12 months or so behind us all.

This wasn't quite that performance, but it was very good, and he wanted it badly. He can play better, but he was still our best player for me, and hopefully this goal will have excorcised a few demons. Maybe losing 4-1 will make him start to hate these pricks as much as the fans do, not to mention some of his team-mates.

The Gerrard/Chelsea love in that we witnessed last season is hopefully a thing of the past. Just because they play together for England doesn't mean they have to be all up each others arses when they play against eachother. Look at the way Carra tried to put Lampard off with the penalty. Carra absolutely fucking despises Chelsea (Drogba and Mourinho in particular it seems), and it shows when he plays against them. Ditto Alonso. Xabi is the most mild mannered player in the world, but even he gets riled by these cheating fucks.

If Gerrard can develop the same kind of hatred for Chelsea that Xabi and Carra have, I'll be a happy man indeed. What I'd give to see him twat the likes of Cole. Fuck all that respect for England colleagues bollocks. Where was that respect from Cole when he flung himself to the turf pretending he'd been elbowed in the face by Gerrard? Stevie needs to look at that incident, as well as the way his pal Terry had a go at Xabi the other night.

Chelsea are there to be hated, there's no point fighting it, and it's about time our skipper fell into line with the rest of us. For what it's worth, I think he may be coming around to our way of thinking, and next time we play them I hope to see him showing a lot more aggression. He's our captain, and if they start pushing any of his players around he needs to be in there sticking up for them, whether he has mates in the Chelsea camp or not.

So that's the report out of the way, I'm off now to write that rant for the next issue. . . . .

Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia (Sinama-Pongolle), Traore (Cisse); Alonso, Hamman (Sissoko); Garcia, Gerrard, Riise; Crouch: