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Some thoughts on Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0 by Paul Natton


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1. We were the better team last night and the result was a rip off. I know it’s been a season-long mantra, but put Daniel Sturridge in that team and we’d be on our way to Wembley.

 

2. We suddenly look really well organised, defensively. Yes, I know Balotelli was awful at that set piece (more on him later), but our shape and coordination on the back foot looked superb last night.

 

3. Controlled aggression is probably the thing I love most about my favourite Liverpool teams and players from over the years and this team has it in spades. It’s there in the closing down, the tackling, the tracking back and even the passing. Everything is fast and tough, the way it should be at Liverpool.

 

4. The other thing that occurred to me last night is that this side probably plays more one touch passes than any I’ve seen since the 80s. This is especially noticeable at the back where we play fast triangles around players to get the ball out. The mental strength it takes to do that is immense as concentration and confidence levels are equally important.

 

5. Lucas is currently in the best run of form I’ve ever seen him have for Liverpool and he seems to save the best of the best for playing that lot. His work rate and aggression were there for all to see last night, but what I’m particularly enjoying from the 2015 version of Lucas is his intelligent positioning and movement allied to genuine leadership. He looks a real player to me now for the first time in his career.

 

6. Whisper it, but Simon Mignolet is improving: his kicking, his command of his area and his confidence are all noticeably better and he made some boss saves last night.

 

7. I think I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon in Jordan Henderson: he appears not to require oxygen. That can be the only explanation for the relentless pace and intensity of his game.

 

8. If our young talents could finish, we’d be unstoppable: Henderson, Sterling and Coutinho would all be top or even world class players if they added consistent numbers of goals to what they already possess in terms of attributes. Let’s hope they practice finishing at Melwood then.

 

9. Brendan knows how to beat Mourinho; he just hasn’t had the tools to do it yet. Which tells me that…

 

10. He will win the league if we can get our signings right.

 

11. Speaking of tools: Mario Balotelli is rubbish. Not misunderstood, not eccentric, not a maverick, he’s just rubbish. He does two things well: run into a group of opposing players and lose possession or blast the ball at a group of opposing players and lose possession. Brains. Of. A. Rocking. Horse. (And feet to match).

 

12. Diego Costa is a pantomime villain with studs, but he’s no hard man. Hendo had him off a week ago with one look; he’s all about the snide, Costa, and he therefore fits the Mourinho mould perfectly.

 

13. Two Chelsea players have been rightly lauded this season and Courtois is awesome, without proviso. However, superb though he undoubtedly is, Eden Hazard isn’t quite as good as the hype suggests, in my view. Or rather, his end product isn’t. If he played for Liverpool, Brendan would turn him into the top scorer in the country. Mourinho, however, seems to want him wide and deep, rather than in and around the six yard box all the time. Obviously that’s good for us, but he could do Suarez levels of damage if he was utilised properly.

 

14. English referees remain universally awful. Except for Clattenburg. Maybe. Oliver deffo is though.

 

15. West Ham is a must win game now. That pot of European gold gets significantly bigger next season and if we’re to ride the FFP wave to glory we need our slice.

 

16. Come on you Reds!!!

 

Paul Natton

@OxtonSoulBoy

 

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2. We suddenly look really well organised, defensively. Yes, I know Balotelli was awful at that set piece (more on him later), but our shape and coordination on the back foot looked superb last night

 

Zonal marking.

 

 

5. Lucas is currently in the best run of form I’ve ever seen him have for Liverpool and he seems to save the best of the best for playing that lot. His work rate and aggression were there for all to see last night, but what I’m particularly enjoying from the 2015 version of Lucas is his intelligent positioning and movement allied to genuine leadership. He looks a real player to me now for the first time in his career.

 

 

His "intelligent positioning" made him took too much last-ditched clumsy tackles in the first place and he's not a very good tackler, he also stopped playing after yellow card as he always tends to. He was decent but also him and Gerrard looked knackered almost half the time. But that's up to Rodgers, should have subbed LL/SG for Manquillo and play Can in the middle. Yet he played Johnson when HIS 20mil of a LCB was on the bench when Sakho's got injuried, and HIS 25mil of a attacking midfielder was on the bench too when Gerrard couldn't catch a breath. 45mil on the bench and he brings on Johnson, Lambert and a striker he neither likes nor knows how to use. 

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5. Lucas is currently in the best run of form I’ve ever seen him have for Liverpool and he seems to save the best of the best for playing that lot. His work rate and aggression were there for all to see last night, but what I’m particularly enjoying from the 2015 version of Lucas is his intelligent positioning and movement allied to genuine leadership. He looks a real player to me now for the first time in his career.

 

He was better in that period under kenny before his injury, he got around the pitch better and was doing more impressive long range forward passes.He still gives away needless free kicks and as I cant accept the yellow card as an excuse, players in that position need to get stuck in and be able to control themselves when booked.

 

10. He will win the league if we can get our signings right.

 

This was clear from last season when we had goalscorers in the team.

 

11. Speaking of tools: Mario Balotelli is rubbish. Not misunderstood, not eccentric, not a maverick, he’s just rubbish. He does two things well: run into a group of opposing players and lose possession or blast the ball at a group of opposing players and lose possession. Brains. Of. A. Rocking. Horse. (And feet to match).

 

He ran past a group of opposition players atleast twice from my memory, playing off someone he was contributing to attacks, next time with a proper striker ahead of him and his team mates not being dead on their feet we might see even better.

 

12. Diego Costa is a pantomime villain with studs, but he’s no hard man. Hendo had him off a week ago with one look; he’s all about the snide, Costa, and he therefore fits the Mourinho mould perfectly.

 

I like that kind of striker personally who ruffs up defenders and if it was a 1 on 1 between him on hendo I know who my money would be on, obviously I dont like the stupid obvious shit like the stamping though.

 

 

 

 

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Mourinhois so anti-football that he uses Hazard in a deeper role so as to get free kicks and break up play. All his players try it on, but Hazard is their go-to player for this - if he can't run with the ball he'll dive at the slightest excuse. Only Mourinho would use talent that way.

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Mourinhois so anti-football that he uses Hazard in a deeper role so as to get free kicks and break up play. All his players try it on, but Hazard is their go-to player for this - if he can't run with the ball he'll dive at the slightest excuse. Only Mourinho would use talent that way.

 

Don't forget the kick it past you and run right into you trick also. He does it constantly, he makes no effort to round the defender, he just runs into them, falls down, free kick!  

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Good post Paul. I didn't agree with a lot of it, but perhaps a bit of euphoria doesn't go amiss from time to time. You let Brendan off lightly, imo, going OTT over Lucas, Hendo and Sterling - none of them would get in the opponents team, (perhaps Sterling would get a game) and The bar is set very low for Lucas - when he has a good 45 minutes, which he did against Chelsea, we look at it like a worldie. The rest of the game he was pretty dire and essentially bypassed as Chelsea bossed the middle of the park.

 

We were beaten, and I've noticed a growing tendency on here to praise the manager and the players for 'performances' despite results. It started with United, and continues across some pretty average results. I understand this to an extent, particularly after our terrible start, but it doesn't sit quite right with me, this plucky loser lark, particularly when we are the architects of our own downfall.

 

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1. Game was very closely balanced, we were better over the two legs, but to say we were better at plastic bridge is a bit of a stretch, to call the result a rip off is borderline silly. Disappointing that we lost an intriguing close game to a horrible bunch of Shithouses where we put in a good performance, but yet again our inability to take chances and our inability to deal with simple set pieces fucked us up, yes - a rip off, no.

 

8. If i was a multi millionaire I wouldn't have to get up at stupid o'clock everyday, fight with a bunch of ignorant twats on overcrowded trains and do a job that at best bores me and at worst pisses me off. I am not though in the same way that our lads aren't natural or accomplished finishers.....some power in shots would be a start, not hitting them at the keeper would also help. Expecting or hoping for major improvement here is folly in my opinion we aren't talking about 16 year olds here these are players with fundamental flaws in their shooting techniques who are not good finishers, to be fair their job isn't really to be relied on to be our main finishers anyway but because we totally fucked up replacing our top scorer and our other goal threat is made of weetabix these lads have had to try and fill the void rather than just be expected to chip in with 8-10 a season. We need our proper goal threat back and at least one other proper goalscorer adding and the pressure taking off these lads to score and let them do what they are good at, creating and building and dictating play.

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Good post Paul. I didn't agree with a lot of it, but perhaps a bit of euphoria doesn't go amiss from time to time. You let Brendan off lightly, imo, going OTT over Lucas, Hendo and Sterling - none of them would get in the opponents team, (perhaps Sterling would get a game) and The bar is set very low for Lucas - when he has a good 45 minutes, which he did against Chelsea, we look at it like a worldie. The rest of the game he was pretty dire and essentially bypassed as Chelsea bossed the middle of the park.We were beaten, and I've noticed a growing tendency on here to praise the manager and the players for 'performances' despite results. It started with United, and continues across some pretty average results. I understand this to an extent, particularly after our terrible start, but it doesn't sit quite right with me, this plucky loser lark, particularly when we are the architects of our own downfall.

This plucky loser lark gets on my nerves, and it is defo creeping in here.

 

We lost this tie because of the things that we have been shite at all season shite at taking our chances and shite in conceeding soft goals. I get it that we played alright, weren't a comedy in the main at the back and created chances, but that is the least we should expect.

 

Progress is being made, yes - but whilst we get patted on the head by shitcoat, whilst we tell ourselves how we are getting there chelsea are off to Wembley, chelsea are riding high in the league and we are playing plucky losers again, the moral winners....fuck that.

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This plucky loser lark gets on my nerves, and it is defo creeping in here.

 

 

So, the only way to handle a loss is just to bitch and whine? Looking for positives in a loss is akin to accepting it?

 

If you can find one Liverpool fan on here who is happy when we lose, I'll happily accept I'm wrong. Otherwise I'm calling bullshit.

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So, the only way to handle a loss is just to bitch and whine? Looking for positives in a loss is akin to accepting it?

 

If you can find one Liverpool fan who is happy when we lose, I'll happily accept I'm wrong. Otherwise I'm calling bullshit.

 

I never said that - what I said or what I meant was there is a growing trend for people here to take the "ah we played well, we created chances, its better than it was" view after we have yet again failed to turn over a top side.

 

This is in my view edging towards a plucky losers mentality.

 

Nursing hard ons because our keeper wasn't a total spastic, or because Lucas looked alright for 60 minutes etc. or because Hendo gave Costa a "look" just sits a bit uncomfortably with me personally.

 

Of course it shouldn't be all bitching and whining and progress should be identified and praised.....but we have gone backwards this season at an alarming rate after investing a fortune in the squad. We finished above Chelsea in the league last season and this season we trail them badly. We made progress last season it would seem and where has that taken us - we find ourselves further back from the top this....

 

I realise it was total shite for months and there has been an up turn of late, but once again we failed the big test when up against one of the big boys, our supposed rivals - and we failed it for the same reasons we have been struggling all season and are likely to fail again because of when push comes to shove.

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I never said that - what I said or what I meant was there is a growing trend for people here to take the "ah we played well, we created chances, its better than it was" view after we have yet again failed to turn over a top side.

 

This is in my view edging towards a plucky losers mentality.

 

Nursing hard ons because our keeper wasn't a total spastic, or because Lucas looked alright for 60 minutes etc. or because Hendo gave Costa a "look" just sits a bit uncomfortably with me personally.

 

Of course it shouldn't be all bitching and whining and progress should be identified and praised.....but we have gone backwards this season at an alarming rate after investing a fortune in the squad. We finished above Chelsea in the league last season and this season we trail them badly. We made progress last season it would seem and where has that taken us - we find ourselves further back from the top this....

 

I realise it was total shite for months and there has been an up turn of late, but once again we failed the big test when up against one of the big boys, our supposed rivals - and we failed it for the same reasons we have been struggling all season and are likely to fail again because of when push comes to shove.

 

In an ideal world Chelsea would be our rivals. Reality dictates something quite a bit different.

 

I do see what you are saying, though. But personally I think there is a difference between being satisfied with a loss and looking for the positives within it. The op is about highlighting positives stemming from a disappointing loss; the positives didn't exist a few weeks ago. Quite a bit removed from the 'plucky loser' tag now being chucked around by some. In my view, anyway.

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In an ideal world Chelsea would be our rivals. Reality dictates something quite a bit different.

 

I do see what you are saying, though. But personally I think there is a difference between being satisfied with a loss and looking for the positives within it. The op is about highlighting positives stemming from a disappointing loss; the positives didn't exist a few weeks ago. Quite a bit removed from the 'plucky loser' tag now being chucked around by some. In my view, anyway.

Fair do's and as always the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of opposing viewpoints/gets a bit lost in translation.

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