Chelsea vs Liverpool Post Match Thread

[PTP]

great performance great result, topped off with nando having a shocker

[Arn]

Great write up from Oliver Holt

Old romantics rejoice as Torres fails to find any chemistry with new love

By Oliver Holt
Published 23:00 06/02/11

It did not feel right that Chelsea should lose yesterday but there was something sweet about the fact that Fernando Torres did.

The enemy of romance in football found himself on the wrong end of a beating from underdogs who just happen to have won the European Cup and the Champions League five more times than he has.

The £50m striker with the dead soul was beaten by a team fashioned by a manager who has more feeling for his football club than Torres will ever have.

The man who jumped ship because he couldn't wait to start stacking up the trophies with a big club saw the big club defeated by the side he had just deserted.

In the Spain striker's sterile world, upsets like yesterday aren't supposed to happen. But happily for football in general and the Premier League in particular, they do.

When he walked out of the Stamford Bridge tunnel on to the pitch and into his new life yesterday, Torres glanced as casually as he could over at the Shed End to his left.

No romance there, Fernando. You were right about that much.

The Liverpool supporters, who were massed in the corner of the ground, saw him snatching a look at them and gave him the treatment.

They threw the Torres shirts they had once treasured on to the pitch and held up banners they had made specially for his delectation.

"He who betrays will always walk alone," one of them said. Another likened Torres to the blonde actress Margi Clarke. A third reminded Torres of Liverpool's five European Cup and Champions League victories.

That was actually the high point of the Spain striker's afternoon. It went downhill from there. Fast.

No romance for the most expensive player in the history of British football on the pitch, either.

What happened to the law of the ex, the rule that dictates a player lining up against his former club always gets on the scoresheet?

Torres didn't even get close. His first shot as a Chelsea player ended up in Row Z. His second was blocked superbly by Jamie Carragher. His third? There wasn't a third.

In fact, there wasn't anything else at all. Just anonymity. Torres looked like a lost little boy cowed by the intensity and the fury of his former Liverpool teammates.

He had no answer to their passion and their commitment. He was substituted after 65 minutes but it should have been sooner. He was a passenger yesterday.

He will get better, of course. A lot better. He is too good a player to keep labouring like this although the sterility of his performance on his Chelsea debut will fuel the debate about whether his best years are already behind him.

He was not helped by the system that Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti deployed yesterday.

It looked like a selection born of a reluctance to drop either Nicolas Anelka or Didier Drogba but playing all three strikers simply did not work.

Anelka was ineffective in a withdrawn role at the point of the Chelsea diamond and Torres fretted at the margins of the play.

Even if Drogba's power is fading, he will always be the focal point of the Chelsea attack as long as he is selected.

Torres looked like his junior partner yesterday. He looked like a support act. But £50m is an awful lot to pay for a support act.

So Ancelotti has some hard choices to make. He has to make the signing of Torres work and he has to make it work quickly.

That probably means dropping either Drogba or Anelka and playing a more balanced side with Florent Malouda restored to the starting eleven.

And it means doing it quickly. Because Chelsea cannot afford to lose any more opportunities to make up ground on Manchester United if they are to retain even an outside chance of retaining their title.

They have lost seven times now this season, the first time that has happened since the season that brought Claudio Ranieri the sack.

Many more slips like yesterday, in fact, and Tottenham may overtake them in the race for the fourth Champions League place. Liverpool are a threat, too.

Not quite the scenario Torres imagined when he said he was leaving Liverpool for a club on the next level.

It would be wrong to say that Torres's love affair with Chelsea started on the wrong note because Torres does not do love affairs with football clubs.

How about this instead: Torres's strictly temporary financial arrangement with Roman Abramovich did not begin with the step towards personal glory that he was expecting. That will have to do.

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/oliver-holt/Oliver-Holt-s-Chelsea-0-1-Liverpool-verdict-Romantics-rejoice-as-Fernando-Torres-fails-to-find-any-chemistry-with-new-love-article692691.html#ixzz1DGJrWXcf

Sign up for MirrorFootball's Morning Spy newsletter Register here

The big difference between us and Chelsea. We now again let the manager build his team and their manager must change system to fit in players that he may not even wanted in the first place. If you read the interviews by CA before the game about the Torres signing then I'm not really sure he wanted him. Remember that Torres hadn't even talked to CA before he signed for them.

[dww]

Thought the complete opposite of Kuyt. His work rate, even by his standards, was astonishing and normally that's something you can appreciate even more when you're at the game, as you get to see all of his running. He never gave Terry a moment's peace.

Nice game to mark your Stamford Bridge debut with though eh.

Sorry can't agree, work rate is over-rated when you do nothing with it when you get it. I suppose I agree with the hustling of Terry though.

As you say, was a great match for my Bridge debut!

I though Kuyt was key yesterday. His chasing and harrying up front allowed the midfield/defense time to organise. He also chased balls all across the front line when played up to him. Any other player and both Chelsea fullbacks could have pushed up and Johnson in particular would have had a much harder day.

[vlahka]

45 passes today. 40 successful. Almost no short ones. That is excellent stats.

Five interceptions. Excellent, fantastic.

13 tackles. Won seven of them.

Three clearances. One successful.

One block.

Conceded two free-kicks.

Gerrard 54 passes. 36 successful.

Tackles ,nine. Four won.

Interceptions, three.

Clearances, none.

Blocks, one.

Free-kicks, three, two won.


Just to compare.

Meireles.

37 passes, 31 successful.

Interceptions, two.

Tackles, three, two won.

Clearances, one, one unsuccessful.

Blocks, one.

Free-kicks, three, one won.

Simply not true.

Passes 33, 23 successful.

Tackles three, two won.

Interceptions, three.

Clearances, five, four successful.

Blocks, two.

Free-kicks, one, one won.

Agger.

Passes, 41, 32 successful.

Interceptions, two.

Tackles, six, four won.

Clearances, five, four successful.

Blocks, none.

Free-kicks, one, one conceded.

Skrtel.

Passes, 29, 25 successful.

Interceptions, one.

Tackles, one, one won.

Clearances, six, four successful.

Blocks, none.

Free-kicks, one, one won.

Theres only 1 stat performance worth mentioning.




Liverpool

Manager, Kenny Dalglish

[kris90210]

For those having a go at Maxi, he played in mid today, had a 89% pass accuracy, 4 interceptions and 2 tackles. His passing is clever and keeps the ball moving and he rarely loses possession.

He also missed an absolute sitter and played one of the worst passes I've ever seen. Could quite easily have resulted in a goal.

Stats are all well and good, but they don't paint the whole picture.

[Fredo]

Right, finally can post. Was trying to post pictures of the match while I was there but the data network seemed to be down/dodgy.

Great match, Chelsea were pretty dire. Torres completely shackled. Only negative I can draw on is Kuyt. It really comes to light, when you're seeing it in full-view, that his positional play is dire - he never seems to go the right way when someone is booting off a through ball. Nor does he get hold of 4 out of 5 of any long balls that go his way. And as we know, he has a first touch like a one legged monkey.

But shouldn't dwell on that. Support was fantastic - our little pocket of fans were infinitely more vocal than 50,000 Chelsea fans.

I was sitting in the home section - nearly broke my girlfriend's hand when we scored!

He had to chase aeroplanes yesterday. I thought he was excellent.

[Shaggy]

TonyBarretTimes Tony Barrett
Pass completion rate for @LucasLeiva87 today was 89%. Brilliant that at any time but in a game of that intensity it's something else

TonyBarretTimes Tony Barrett
Lucas mom. Gerrard, Carragher, Johnson, Kuyt and Kelly all excellent.

[Fredo]

Lucas was absolutely brilliant yesterday. He's becoming some player now and will still improve. I think he needs a specialist holding midfield player with him though as I'm sure he has it in him to bomb forward and be a threat in the opposition's penalty box. His cameo at the end of the game, knowing Poulsen was holding behind him was brilliant.

[kris90210]

Lucas really has developed into a fantastic midfielder. Tireless running. Intelligent passing. Top, top mentality. He really seems to suit the way we line up now. If he could add a few goals to his game he'd step up another level again. There's no reason he can't either - we've all seen clips from his past. He can strike the ball really well.

I think he'll get better and better under Dalglish as well. Fair play to him. Deserves huge credit for turning his Liverpool career around after the whole booing incident (shameful)

[SB]

Right, finally can post. Was trying to post pictures of the match while I was there but the data network seemed to be down/dodgy.

Great match, Chelsea were pretty dire. Torres completely shackled. Only negative I can draw on is Kuyt. It really comes to light, when you're seeing it in full-view, that his positional play is dire - he never seems to go the right way when someone is booting off a through ball. Nor does he get hold of 4 out of 5 of any long balls that go his way. And as we know, he has a first touch like a one legged monkey.

But shouldn't dwell on that. Support was fantastic - our little pocket of fans were infinitely more vocal than 50,000 Chelsea fans.

I was sitting in the home section - nearly broke my girlfriend's hand when we scored!

Glad the lads put in a great performance for you mate. So where's the pics then ? No excuses now that your home

[tsb]

Pinched from RAWK

[Vermilion]

Thought the complete opposite of Kuyt. His work rate, even by his standards, was astonishing and normally that's something you can appreciate even more when you're at the game, as you get to see all of his running. He never gave Terry a moment's peace.

[Lecter]

I though Kuyt was key yesterday. His chasing and harrying up front allowed the midfield/defense time to organise. He also chased balls all across the front line when played up to him. Any other player and both Chelsea fullbacks could have pushed up and Johnson in particular would have had a much harder day.

Thought Kuyt worked well yesterday but the key to stopping their fullbacks is our own fullbacks pushing on to them

LFC always had this philosophy when Kenny played and managed, its as if we say "we dont care what you think your fullbacks are going to do because they are going to spend a lot of time worrying about ours pushing up and attacking them"

[SB]

Thought Kuyt worked well yesterday but the key to stopping their fullbacks is our own fullbacks pushing on to them

LFC always had this philosophy when Kenny played and managed, its as if we say "we dont care what you think your fullbacks are going to do because they are going to spend a lot of time worrying about ours pushing up and attacking them"

That philosophy would be the end of Roy. His heart wouldn't be able to handle the stress.

[tsb]

LFC always had this philosophy when Kenny played and managed, its as if we say "we dont care what you think your fullbacks are going to do because they are going to spend a lot of time worrying about ours pushing up and attacking them"

Boot Room 2.0