If Arsenal cracked the Chelsea bridge a few weeks ago, Liverpool certainly knocked it down on Sunday.
Are the blues down and out? Absolutely not. But they do need one h*ll of a rebound to reassure fans and owners of their legitimate claim to the title challenge. But how did they lose this game? Let's break down the match-ups to give you an idea of what went wrong at the bridge -
Lineup - Chelsea
Not having ex-Liverpool players in the starting 11 was a big mistake on AVB's part. Abramovich bought Torres for one reason and one reason alone - watching him play. He did not make a 50 Million Pounds investment only to watch him play for the last 8 minutes. Besides, Torres has endured an on-going battle with Liverpool fans who felt he disrespected the club by running to Chelsea. The one opportunity he had to shut people like me up was denied him. Raul Merieles departure from Liverpool to Chelsea a few months ago was also ugly. He was also denied a chance to express himself against his old club.
Lineup - Liverpool
Credit to Kenny for dropping Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson to the bench. Kenny recognized that this game required a different set of personnel - a more experienced crew who would not throw caution to the wind, but still dangerous enough to capitalize on Chelsea's mistakes.
Defenders - Chelsea
David Luis - Not a big game defender. Better suited for smaller teams, where he can marauder forward and not be caught with his pants down.
John Terry - His lack of pace is really catching up with him. He needs a reliable co-central defender to elevate his game back to International levels (where he enjoys more reliable partnerships). Alex should have been the choice to partner Terry in a big game like this.
Branislav Ivanovic - Had a much better game than his defensive colleagues. Handled the pressure of containing Maxi (despite the goal), and eventually rendered him useless.
Ashley Cole - Really struggled against Glen Johnson's runs. Was at fault for the winning goal by Glen Johnson
Defenders - Liverpool
Jose Enrique - caged Juan Mata all afternoon.
Glen Johnson - struggled defensively dealing with Chelsea's runs on the left wing, especially Malouda's run for the Chelsea equalizer. Glen made up for his defensive lapses with his forays into the Chelsea half, one of which resulted in the winning goal.
Skrtel & Agger - Solid pair. Had a few lapses, but were bailed out by an agile Pepe Reina in goal
Midfield
Surprisingly, Liverpool won this battle with Lucas, Adam, Maxi and Kuyt crowding the middle and not letting Lampard, Ramires and Mikel find any room. in a 4-3-3 formation, they were out numbered by Kenny's men. Adam in particular frustrated Ramires, hustled and robbed Mikel of the ball to create the goal. Lucas was a professional nuisance, ensuring that he got in irritating tackles on Chelsea's attempts to create. Lampard was missing in action. He's most prominent appearance was when he and Terry tried to double team Bellamy in a verbal fight. I don't know why anyone would want to tangle with Bellamy. I'll take him in a fight against Terry and Lampard any day!
Attack
Kenny's strategy to use quick feet, experienced crew of Bellamy, Suarez, Kuyt and Maxi worked in the first half. In the second half, Suarez still maintained a dangerous presence despite's Chelsea's domination of the period.
Villa Boas on the other hand held on to Drogba for too long. Should have deplored Juan Mata in an attacking midfield role to support Torres vs. playing him wide to make room for an aging Lampard. Sturridge is still a selfish player and that could ruin his special talents in future. Super sub Solomon Kalou was missed
Where does Andres Villa Boas go from here?
He needs to get Torres back in the lineup pairing Sturridge. Play Mata, Merieles, Ramires and Mikel holding in the midfield. Yes, bench Lampard. Don't play David Luis against the big clubs, he's not ready yet.
BTW, AVB should stop saying it's too expensive to fire him. Abramovic doesn't give a sh*t about money! Also stop calling Phil Neville stupid for calling David Luis style 'Playstation' football. While we agree with the Liverpool-hater on his Luis comments, we already knew he was stupid!
No comments:
Post a Comment