Second best . . . after Kenny Dalglish!

It was Fernando Torres who said romance in football is gone. Ask Liverpool fans today. Victory would never have tasted sweeter than today for the Kop. Fairplay to them. They deserved to win – not because they played better – only because they were less erroneous and stronger tactically. Not mincing words here, they got the win they deserved. What about Chelsea then? That’s the point of this whole article mate.

For me, there were two surprises in the line-up. One – Torres was really starting. Two – No Ramires even on the bench. I was surprised by Torres starting because I thought Carlo would be a bit more conservative and subtle about Torres’ introduction at Chelsea. Secondly, I was hugely disappointed to know that Ramires wasn’t in the line up only to find that he wasn’t even on the bench. There was no news about what happened to him either. The official website completely missd out on reporting what happened with him.

We started with a certain version of 4-4-2 diamond with Anelka in the hole. Liverpool played in a 3-5-1-1 which is more like a 8-1-1 when they’re off the ball. The intent was clear. Liverpool wanted just a point. They came with limited aspirations. Their plan was to frustrate Chelsea and hit them on the break. They did it very well. Actually we made it a bit easy for them to defend.

Anelka was this time officially in the attacking midfield role which he anyway takes up most matches. This time around he had two world class strikers waiting for service. It’s pity that Anelka hardly connected with Drogba or Torres. With so many Liverpool defenders crowding at the back, it was always going to be difficult to find Drogba or Torres in space but kind of gave up and never properly tried. We played with this old formula of stretching their defence with the wide players and thereby creating space in the middle for the strikers. This wasn’t happening as Liverpool had stationed three centre backs and was letting the five-man midfield deal with Chelsea’s wide play.

With no creativity in our midfield and in our attacking play, we were never going to beat an eight-man wall. We had to quickly do something after the initial 10-15 minutes as soon as the direction of the match was evident. We didn’t do much. We kept on pondering, creating hardly anything. There was no excuse for us not to play better in the second half – surprise, surprise – we did the exact same things, only in a slightly better tempo.

I’d say the Liverpool defence and midfield weren’t tested. They never got to their top gear. The central defence had to make only one block – Carragher on Torres. I hardly saw Pepe Reina. Did he even have to make a save? Yes, we should have got penalties – two of them. But I wouldn’t say we would have deserved our win then. The result is not in our control, our effort is. Fans go by the efforts. The owners could go by the results. I’m certainly not the owner and I saw no efforts.

With Man Utd and Arsenal slipping, with the new signings coming in, you don’t need to motivate this team for this match. We should have come out all guns blazing. We should have pressed them all over the pitch. We should have passed and moved like champions playing at home. We did none of that. We were slow. We paid too much respect for a Liverpool team that was severely lacking in quality and would have happily taken a draw.

Yes, they did communicate!

We had culprits all over the pitch. Cech was at fault for the goal. Period. That’s his area where there was a confusion and a resultant goal. Few minutes earlier, Cech and Ivanovic had a miscommunication and blew it off on each other. For this cross from Gerrard, Cech was unsure of what to do. He should have either gone totall committed into punching the ball or should have let the centre backs deal with it and stayed on the line. He did neither. He went for the ball half heartedly and Meireles knocked in the loose ball from the confusion.

I need to talk about the build up of the goal too. I think it was Carragher who rounded Ashley Cole to pass to Gerrard on the right wing. I was wondering what Ashley was doing so up on the pitch leaving Gerrard in the space behind him. It wasn’t even a counterattack. Lampard tried to block but couldn’t get a touch on the ball. Playing with a single striker against strong Chelsea centre backs, they might have known that the goal needs to come from the wings. All they had to do was to attack Bosingwa and Ashley Cole. Our left back made it a bit too easy for them.

Our defenders played well individually but as a unit they didn’t. The goal that we conceded was a joke. No way in hell that should have been allowed. That was an opportunistic ball from Gerrard aimed at no one but misunderstanding between our centre backs and the keeper meant a free grab from Meireles. Luiz was very impressive. He is young, fit and was up for the fight. Next match, he should pair with Terry while Ivanovic moves to right back.

Our midfield was poor – Lampard, Essien, Mikel – all of them. Lampard was not involved in the match. He wasn’t really wanting the ball. Essien was very error prone – poor passes and heavy touches. Mikel – picked up a yellow under 1 minute and lost the ball 4 times in the first 10 minutes. There was no creativity from the midfield. At times, Anelka was also moving back and forth creating some congestion in the middle.

Our midfield may not have produced chances but they weren’t even able to find our strikers. We went back to our boring and unyielding style of stereotypical wing play. They knew our every move before we could make it. Our midfield failed.

Deadly double – Disconnected from the midfield

Torres did fine. I didn’t expect him to come and score on his debut against Liverpool. Sheva scored on his debut and that was against Liverpool too. Scoring on debut is just for some media drama. I’m only concerned about his contribution in a season rather than this little dramatics like scoring against the old club or scoring on debut. I was hoping that he stays for all 90 minutes but he came off for Kalou.

Drogba was pathetic. He’s been like that for weeks and months now. He’s off his pace. His focus and concentration are poor and that shows in attacking play. He is not giving his best. What’s now left is only his physciality which is helpful sometimes in defence. May be it’s time for him to get the axe. Truly, his contribution to the team has been dwindling. Even today, I felt as if we were playing with 10 men. Granted, the service was poor but his movements were sluggish, touches were bad, losing every battle with the defender and poor body language. He’s completely out of sorts. He should be step aside for next match.

Anelka was good. He was trying hard but I guess he wasn’t really playing the role he was supposed to. Well, he was in the right zones on the pitch but he had no chemistry with the forwards. I don’t think he set them up even once. But at least he tried hard, unlike Drogba. I never thought I’d ever say this in my life – Anelka tried, unlike Drogba!

Finally, Ancelotti. He was outwitted by Kenny Dalglish. Kenny had done his homework beautifully well. He knew what he wanted his team to do and he played by their limitations. He set his team up tactically well and shut us out. On the contrary, Carlo hardly changed anything. We went back to December. I’m fine with a poor first half performance but the second half? I had expected Chelsea to come out all guns blazing and knock them out of the park in the first 15 minutes. Carlo wasn’t ready to take risks.
Our 4-1-2-1-2 looked like an untested product. This formation with full backs charging down the wing doesn’t work with slow midfielders. Our full backs were pacy and were in the opponent half many times but our midfield is not quick enough to deal with any sudden counterattacks. Probably, our midfield was afraid of giving away counterattacks hence they played in a very subdued fashion. There was no ball-wise interaction between Lampard and Essien. They had to work together but they hardly did. Carlo had to make a change in the midfield. By the time he made a change we lost precious time and with it the momentum.

The only occasion a Chelsea player bothered Pepe Reina!

I hate it when we play like we’re out of ideas. With this kind of squad this can’t be happening. I hate it when we go through the motions over and over again to be met with the same result. I hate it when we become brain dead and it becomes obvious with more than a half to go and you know ‘it’s not happening today’. Carlo needs to shake things up. I’ve been saying this for many weeks now. He should take more risks. He should be lot more adventurous. He wasn’t brave enough. It showed in our team as we were nothing special today.

Even in the second half, we hardly showed any urgency. We weren’t passionate enough. We didn’t show the desire to beat them, at Stamford Bridge. For me, I understand a manager based on how his teams play. We were laid back, we played like it’s okay if we don’t win. We didn’t play like a team that badly wanted to close the gap with the leagu leaders and pull themselves back into the title race. For me, this was a reflection of Carlo Ancelotti. May be he had given up on the title, even before this match.

If Carlo doesn’t believe that we have a chance to win the title, all that he needs to do is to settle for a top four finish. If top four finish is what we want, he can afford to experiment and take some little risks. He can afford to drop some big names and play some new names.

If I were him, I’d not play these players in the next match – Drogba, Mikel, Essien & Lampard. What’s the worst thing that could happen? We might lose, right? We’ve lost seven times already this season and we have only 13 games left to close a 10 point gap. If this is Chelsea leading Man Utd by 10 points at this stage, you know what chance we’d have given them – zero. That’s almost what we have now. We may not do the double over Man Utd. It looks like a himalayan task now. Even if Man Utd were to slip, we’re not the only team to be benefitted by that. We need Man Utd, Arsenal and Man City to slip for us to have a go at the title.

Quite possibly, Carlo is only looking at the champions league. Interestingly, we are stronger than many other teams in the champions league with the new signings. I’m happy for Carlo to fully focus on the champions league provided he doesn’t play his first choice in the premier league week in week out. Carlo has decisions to make. A win today would have given him some sweet problems. Not anymore. The focus and direction should be clear now.

In a way, we’re like Liverpool now. Trailing by 10 points in February and all that’s left is champions league. They won it a few times and Carlo has too. Not many get as luck as Carlo. He’s got a world class striker in the January window that he can use in the champions league. C’mon Carlo, you can still win the double, only that premier league may not be one of them.