DROGBA, Diver says RAFA.

[chadrtc]

trouble with drogba is it might be better him rolling around on the floor like bambi on ice. for as he has shown against us in the past, if he stays on his feet he can be deadly. we aren't too bad defending direct free kicks so maybe on this occasion we should let him continue his despicable ways. didn't damage us on tuesday night, just gave us something to laugh at

The funny thing is he wasn't doing it at all against the scum yesterday. He seems to save it for games against us.

[marcus50bucks]

So, the mind games begin.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article3822758.ece

RAFAEL BENITEZ has added extra spice to the midweek game between Liverpool and Chelsea by suggesting Didier Drogba is a diver. Ahead of the Champions League semi-final second leg on Wednesday, Benitez called for a strong referee to be appointed to curb the antics of the striker.

The Liverpool manager was furious about Drogba’s behaviour in the first leg at Anfield on Tuesday and said he was “really disappointed” at the sympathetic view taken of Drogba’s regular falls by referee Konrad Plautz.

“He is amazing because he is massive (and yet goes down). It is very impressive,” Benitez said caustically. “With Drogba it is important to have a good referee. You can’t do anything (to stop him going down) but I will say it because it was so clear.

“Drogba was given seven fouls and Fernando Torres three. Torres has bruises all around the body. So from the first minute I was disappointed by the referee.”

Uefa do not reveal the identity of referees for Champions League matches until 48 hours before they are played, but Benitez said he hoped an official for the game at Stamford Bridge will be from a European country with a big league, unlike Austrian Plautz.

He felt Plautz’s willingness to keep blowing for free kicks whenever Drogba hit the turf contributed to the five minutes of stoppage time during which Chelsea scored their crucial away goal in the 1-1 draw.

Benitez is so vexed by Drogba that he revealed he possesses a “lowlights” video, featuring what he feels are instances of the striker play-acting dating going back several seasons. “I have a lot of clips about him,” the Spaniard said. “We played against Chelsea 19 times since I came to Liverpool and every time I have collected clips. I have shown them to some of the players. I think that (Martin) Skrtel and Carra (Jamie Carragher) were really good against him.”

Never imagined words like that would be used by journalists. That's slang at it's best.

[Norbs]

SINKING TO FERGIES LEVEL????

That's precisely what he's done. I've got no problem with Rafa 'sinking to Ferguson's level' if it negates a threat that could, in turn, get us in to the CL final.

It's a bit childish to get sarcy about the ref being oblivious to Drogba and the diving. Making it THE topic of the tie is exactly the right thing for Rafa to have done, it takes the press off Riise and our team which is just what Rafa wants.

[Roboklopp]

Never imagined words like that would be used by journalists. That's slang at it's best.

[RedReet]

SINKING TO FERGIES LEVEL????

To be fair, he hasn’t really said anything new. Anyone who has publicly commented on the match has said more or less the same.

[Red_hot]

Have a look at yesterdays game when Vidic and him collided before Vidic was taken off with a tooth through his lip. You can blatantly see Drogba about to go down with the pained look on his face until he realises that Vidic is actually hurt and he stops! He is one cheating horrible ****!

[RedsFan83]

anyone just been watching the sunday supplement? cos apparently drogba isn't a cheat. in fact, he is one of the bravest players in the league. bull****

[Yozza]

anyone just been watching the sunday supplement? cos apparently drogba isn't a cheat. in fact, he is one of the bravest players in the league. bull****

yeah it was Patrick Barclay who until this season was a pretty good reasonably neutral writer...

Since Grants come in (one of his old pals') he's been up The Chavs arses week in week out... sad to see really

Drogba is one of the biggest cheats I've ever seen. ****.

[Parm]

Rafa playing the Ferguson card.

and why not, has worked for Fergie for years

[RedsFan83]

All of this is taken from RAWK (including the comments at the bottom). Just wanted to pass them along cos the article is more revealing than the one above:

This week Liverpool, driven by a powerful sense of injustice over the antics of the Chelsea striker, fancy their chances as underdogs to reach their third Champions League final in four years. Duncan Castles reports
If nursing a sense of injustice can help a club into a Champions League final then Liverpool should start embroidering the jerseys for their third in four years. If you judged Chelsea to be a tad fortunate to escape Anfield with a 1-1 draw or were unimpressed by Austrian referee Konrad Plautz's handling of Didier Drogba, Liverpool would like you to multiply those thoughts by 10.

Take Ryan Babel's reaction to the injury-time moment of idiocy with which John Arne Riise transmuted an almost stereotypically efficient Liverpool performance into Chelsea's away-goal advantage. The Dutch winger strode across the technical area to his countryman Henk ten Cate, Chelsea's assistant coach. 'I told him that they are lucky,' said Babel. 'He didn't agree - but then he never agrees.'

Ten Cate would doubtless dispute Rafa Benítez's re-assessment of the first leg. Reviewing the game on video and sleeping on the result had done nought to temper his anger towards Plautz: 'We knew before: six games, just one victory for the home team. Now seven.' As for Drogba, Benítez labelled him a diver in every way possible without using football's taboo word. 'Drogba was given seven fouls and Fernando Torres three. Torres has bruises all around his body. From the first minute I was disappointed by the performance of the referee.

'With Drogba it's important to have a good referee. You can't do anything [to stop him going down], but I will say it because it was so clear. He is amazing because he is massive [yet he goes down]. It's very impressive. I have a lot of clips of him from over the years and he surprises me. After four years I expected it. It's very impressive.'

This may sound like trash-talking bravado from Liverpool, who have yet to register a goal at Stamford Bridge under Benítez's stewardship and who have enjoyed their own share of luck in big Champions League matches in recent years. But this Liverpool side are structured, settled and confident. Since February's home victory over Internazionale there have been consistent three-point Premier League hauls; Arsenal have been thrice out-thought and eventually eliminated from this competition and now Chelsea have been outplayed on home turf. The sole defeat - away to Manchester United - was cheekily explained away by Javier Mascherano's ref-rage red card.

Less than six months ago Steven Gerrard was filling the pages of the club magazine with carefully phrased doubt over Benítez's championship-winning credentials: now there is a new unanimity of belief in their ability to better England's best. 'If they didn't have Petr Cech in goal then we might already be through,' was Gerrard's analysis of an evening on which the Czech goalkeeper had been Chelsea's best player.

'It is the game of the year for us,' said Dirk Kuyt, the one man to find a way past Cech. 'We have a strong belief we can do something out there. We know we haven't scored there for a long time, but we also know we can score anywhere.' Babel argued that 'this Liverpool is a different team than the Liverpool of other years' - to his manager's approval.

'After four years and three times in the semi-finals and twice in the final in Europe we have a big name again, and the top players want to come here,' said Benítez in a message with as much relevance to the club's warring owners as to their Champions League campaign. 'I received some messages from the Spanish press and they told me that in the semi-finals we were the best of the four teams. The players know we are contenders and they know we have good players and can beat anyone. I think we are different now.

'I feel positive. In some sports the best team always wins, but in football you never know. But we were much better than them. I think they need to attack. You know what it is like with supporters, when you are waiting and playing counter-attack at home, and you concede a goal and lose ... supporters will kill you.'

While Avram Grant is perhaps the only man who would argue that Chelsea are a more powerful, effective or better prepared outfit than the one that narrowly ceded two previous Champions League semi-finals to Liverpool, all parties concur that a Benítez side with Torres at the point of its attack is a considerable step up on earlier incarnations.

'They are a stronger team this year and I think that's mainly down to the one man,' said Chelsea's Frank Lampard after the Anfield game. 'Torres is an absolutely fantastic, world-class goalscorer, and that's something they've been crying out.'

Yet Torres, as much as Cech and Riise, was responsible for Tuesday ending in stalemate instead of a decisive Liverpool win. Though the intelligence and pace of the young Spaniard's running was a constant problem for John Terry, when twice propelled free on Cech he failed to apply a top marksman's finish. Torres's first season in English football has been remarkable, but there is still promise that requires fulfilment. Of his 30 goals this campaign, only seven have come away from home - and three of those were in the League Cup at Reading. Delivering Benítez's first Stamford Bridge goal would underpin his manager's message that 'Torres is very strong, mentally, don't worry'.

Torres's performance is less of a concern to Liverpool than Drogba's is to Chelsea. Few within the Chelsea camp were more angered by the manner of José Mourinho's dismissal than the Ivorian, and the season of a footballer who could have been voted England's finest last year has reflected that discontent ever since.

From October to November Drogba reprised his best form, scoring eight times in eight matches. Then came further knee trouble and a fight with Chelsea to be operated on in time to captain Ivory Coast at the African Cup of Nations. On his return from Ghana, the physical problems returned, the goals dried up and Drogba's desire to exit Stamford Bridge became increasingly manifest.

Benítez, though, still recognises the African's ability to perform majestically when the moment takes him - and unhinge defences with a 'studied' application of physique. Hence the propaganda campaign of this week. 'We've played against Chelsea 15 games and every time I have collected some clips of Drogba,' Benitez explained. 'I have shown them to some of the players. I think that [Martin] Skrtel and Carra [Jamie Carragher] were really good against him the other day, the only problem was the referee was giving fouls. And it was not the same with Torres.'

Also noted was the anti-Drogba strategy employed by Roberto Ayala in Benítez's final game as Valencia coach - the 2004 Uefa Cup final against Marseille. The Argentina defender applied a quick, hard kick to the striker. 'With Ayala you don't need to say anything. He knew what to do,' said Benítez.

All this talk of luck and malpractice does Chelsea a disservice, especially on the evidence of yesterday's performance in the 2-1 defeat of Manchester United at Stamford Bridge which will put them in good heart for the run-in. If ever a club deserved a stroke of Anfield fortune it was Chelsea, who had succumbed to Luis García's infamous 'ghost goal' in 2005 and José Reina's penalty shoot-out excellence two years later. Moreover, the fact that they will go into May still in contention for the two main prizes is a testament to the qualities of a group who have spent most of the season working under a manager for whom they have limited respect.

So far only Tal Ben-Haim has publicly spoken out against Grant, saying of his former national team coach: 'I knew that nothing good would come with Grant as Chelsea coach.' The defender was told to train with the reserves, only for the punishment to be rescinded.

On Wednesday at least, though, the Israeli will benefit from the resilience of the squad he inherited from Mourinho, the self-belief his predecessor instilled in them, and the fundamentals of playing shape and style that Steve Clarke has worked to preserve on the training ground. That may well prove enough to take Chelsea to the Champions League final that eluded Mourinho in his three years at the Bridge. If it does the lucky one will be Avram Grant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


From that i read Drogba's gonna get a nice Skrtle induced Kick to his knee early doors...

And Rafa knows that a few of his Big Named Targets want to join in the Rafalution