Not everytime a league cup quarter final would be such a crucial match. With the gap among the top four really reducing, every trophy matters, including the less celebrated league cup. As early as December, either Avram Grant’s team or Rafa Benitez’ team would get eliminated from a cup competition. Every defeat against top four will bring some bad news to Rafa. With the transfer window getting nearer, he needs to have a good purchasing power and ammunition for negotiation. Victories against top oppositions will help him in that. For that reason he is not going to take this match lightly.

It is crucial for Avram Grant because of various reasons. Last season Chelsea was in all competition until the first day of May. That was despite the most devastating injuries and all the evil boardroom politics. So he has a very tough benchmark to achieve. Also, his only two defeats has come against the top four teams. If he is to lose to Liverpool, it will be hard for him to get out of the tag of ‘top-four-choker’, because he’d have then lost to each of the top teams when he first played them (I won’t hold him responsible for the Old Trafford defeat though!). Also he has to prove that he is tactically sound, by winning against such top teams. Against smaller oppositions, the Chelsea football machine would go through the
motions and come back with three points.

Above everything, our home league record will be put to test. This would be the real challenge at home for some time. Generally, when we face bigger teams at the Bridge it is in the premier league matches. You can settle for a draw or even purposefully play for a single point, if you’re too keen about the home league record. For some seasons, we did not have a knockout match played against a top four opposition at Stamford Bridge. The biggest test to our home league record would this match tomorrow night.

We should play 4-3-1-2 with Sheva and Kalou upfront and Pizarro playing behind the strikers. I’d drop Joe Cole and SWP. Our midfield maestro Michael Essien is back. With Mikel maturing and graduating nicely, I’d love to see the Essien-Mikel combination in every match. They are a joy to watch. My midfield for this match will be Lampard, Mikel and Essien.

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Playing 4-3-1-2 with more central midfielders is much better than playing 4-3-3 with poor wingers. Joe Cole (the ‘Liverpool slayer’ as some say) has had memorable matches against the Reds but we need to change the formula. SWP and Joe Cole were poor against Arsenal. Let them pay the penalty for poor performance, and not the team. If required, Kalou can move to the left wing, with either Sheva or Pizarro moving to the right. Also, with Essien back in the team, it gives us an enormous boost as he can adapt and adjust to requirements of the team based on match situations. I hope to see Sinclair and Ballack on the bench. Ballack should play for atleast half hour. I wouldn’t mind even if Sinclair starts, at the expense of Sheva.

There is flexibility in this formation and team selection as it would suit for both attacking and defensive set ups. In defence, I’d have Alex and Paulo in the centre, with Wayne Bridge and Belletti on either sides. With Mikel and Essien, we have enough protection behind. Belletti and Bridge are very impressive in the flank attacks. If our midfield has another good day in office, we can pretty much bring Liverpool down to nothing. We saw how they played against Man Utd last Sunday. The last 30 minutes, the only thing they were doing was playing long balls to the box where Rio and Vidic were so comfortable in heading them out. If they resort to such tactics against Chelsea, probably they’d get the same result.

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Out of the top four teams, I’d rate Liverpool’s defence as the worst (read it again, out of the top four teams) based on quality and form. I’m also including the quality and form of the goalkeeper here. That should match nicely with the capabilities of our attack. With Sheva, Kalou and Pizarro, we might have just enough to nick a goal or two. Expect Riise to be crappy. Expect Carragher to give away a penalty. Expect Aurelio to play us onside. Expect Reina to ugly-parry a save. It’s obvious for you that I’m expecting a defensive error from Liverpool.

The two key men in Reds starting eleven would be, unsurprisingly, Gerrard and Torres. Steven Gerrard, more for his spirit, energy and leadership that can keep the team going irrespective of the situation and Torres for what damage he can do with this goal scoring prowess. I’m not undermining Gerrard’s capabilities but just confident that we would handle him very well. Whereas Torres is on fire and is scoring at will. But he couldn’t really shine against Man Utd. Rio and Vidic were too professional to be fallen by his tricks. When Gerrard is switched off and Torres is taken care of, I don’t see where else the threat can come from. I’ll be really worried if Rafa starts with Torres and Crouch. That would be a difficult combination to handle. If Rafa’s team selection, powered by his infamous rotation policy, keeps Crouch out, we can start with a smile.

One thing we need to be wary of, is their attacking set pieces. Rafa has been a specialist of developing successful attacking set piece manouvres. We’ve been on the receiving side a couple of times (in the FA Cup and the Champions league SF). I’ll go bonkers if they again score through a free kick. That said, our free kicks should not be wasted. Lampard’s free kick skills are deserting him slowly. As a responsible captain, he should hand over the responsibility to Sheva or Alex.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/7w333s9zSuSbZcNS5[/video]

The last time they played at the Bridge, we owned them. That was the first leg of the champions league semi final when Carvalho, Drogba and Joe Cole combined for a brilliant counter attacking winning goal. We should have finished the match 3-0 or 4-0, which would have sealed the tie, but poor finishing and tough luck kept the score at 1-0. Rafa would also be pleased that he won’t have to plan for Drogba. Sheva missed a golden chance to be the hero on Sunday. But within the same week he’d get another, this time at the home ground.

Ok, prediction time! I guess it would be a 1-0 for Chelsea and the match could end with just 20 players on the pitch. It won’t be a high scoring game for two reasons: both teams will be cautious due to reasons mentioned in the earlier paragraphs and tactically we have been canceling out each other of late and I think that would continue.