Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [25th April - 29th April 2014]
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
The Liverpool players that have been praised so highly this season just didn't turn up IMO. It wasn't really B-Rod's fault apart from making a poor sub when he decided to bring Aspas on.
This was my opinion i posted on BookFace earlier.
"The problem comes when they are called "masterclass tactics" & him being called a "tactical genius". That must mean some of these lower end mangers are tactical geniuses too if parking the bus is a masterclass in tactics "
Don't like the way Chelsea play or Mourinhos tactics, It is almost as boring as watching Villa or Spurs play
Fair enough they came away with the win but my god if I was a fan of Chelsea with all that money etc I'd at least want to see some football.
It is really negative football in that you set out not to lose and if you score a winner on the break then that's a bonus. The whole two banks of 4 playing deep just makes it difficult to break down. It forces players to play the ball wide for crosses which is infinitely easier to defend than through balls in the channel.
I agree, not pretty to watch but even as a neutral, Jose did a number, he stopped Liverpool scoring early on. He set out to block the channels that Sturridge, Suarez and Sterling would play in.
Best example would be when Liverpool beat us at Old Trafford, 1st goal (pen) was a ball played right in behind Rafael. His choice was turn and close or wait and let Suarez run have the space. With how Jose set up today then the RB would have been in the space where Suarez got the ball and the midfielder would have covered the gap. Its percentage football at it' finest.
BOOM!
did the peel find it's way onto the anfield pitch?
no one will think you are insane if you think that, far too far fetched, one step from the pencils up the nose and underpants on your head
Caporegime
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Alves response to press asking him about the banana incident
racist fan getting owned completely by Alves tonight.
racist fan getting owned completely by Alves tonight.
well done to Alves, if you get upset the idiots win, only one winner there
Because for Chelsea to win, they need BOTH of City and Liverpool to drop three points in their remaining games. A draw won't do for either side, due to goal difference.
It's conceivable that City could lose against Everton, but I don't really see where Liverpool will drop three points in their remaining two games.
It's still mathematically possible for Chelsea to win, but there's little hope beyond that. If Chelsea had beaten Sunderland last weekend then they'd be in the driving seat. But they didn't, and now they need both of their rivals to slip up in order to win the league.
Soldato
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Quoted just to make sure everyone see it this morning.
So what are the possible scenarios now?
I think Mourinho should be given an enormous amount of credit for his coaching and the humility of his tactics.
He knew his team would get owned if they ventured forward as Liverpool have been most dangerous when they have sucked teams out of their defensive position and then turned over possession exceptionally quickly. Liverpool also rely on width from their wingbacks.
I think it shows quite a lot of humility to for Mourinho to have accepted that he needed his defenders to play incredible narrowly PLUS two defensive midfielders just to cope with Liverpool's main attackers who are normally very narrow. He then coached two ostensibly attacking players to play as traditional wingbacks in order to deal with Flanagan and Johnson.
Mourinho playing a 9 man defensive unit and also coaching it so that it didn't get picked apart (as so many other attempts at this approach have been) if pretty impressive. He came for the draw and got the win (Chelsea's attacks were prudent but sufficiently resourced to be threatening); of the two teams, Chelsea looked like they knew what they were doing far more than Liverpool.
I don't think it was genius but I do think Mourinho should be credited for how well drilled the team was, how he got players to function outside their traditional positions and his foresight on how to manage the match.
Parking the bus doesn't work without a very well drilled unit. Parking the bus but still having some attacking threat is even harder because players need to know who is staying back and who is going to counter attack (which is a split second decision)
He knew his team would get owned if they ventured forward as Liverpool have been most dangerous when they have sucked teams out of their defensive position and then turned over possession exceptionally quickly. Liverpool also rely on width from their wingbacks.
I think it shows quite a lot of humility to for Mourinho to have accepted that he needed his defenders to play incredible narrowly PLUS two defensive midfielders just to cope with Liverpool's main attackers who are normally very narrow. He then coached two ostensibly attacking players to play as traditional wingbacks in order to deal with Flanagan and Johnson.
Mourinho playing a 9 man defensive unit and also coaching it so that it didn't get picked apart (as so many other attempts at this approach have been) if pretty impressive. He came for the draw and got the win (Chelsea's attacks were prudent but sufficiently resourced to be threatening); of the two teams, Chelsea looked like they knew what they were doing far more than Liverpool.
I don't think it was genius but I do think Mourinho should be credited for how well drilled the team was, how he got players to function outside their traditional positions and his foresight on how to manage the match.
Parking the bus doesn't work without a very well drilled unit. Parking the bus but still having some attacking threat is even harder because players need to know who is staying back and who is going to counter attack (which is a split second decision)
Away goals dont count extra in the EPL - imo they should have tried harder to get the away goal last week in Madrid
The humility of his tactics. The man would sell his own mother if he thought it would get him the result he wanted. He couldn't care less if he has to play with 11 men on the goal line to get the result he wanted. There is not one iota of humility in Mourinho and his tactics.
He got lucky yesterday and was in all likelihood playing for a 0 - 0 draw. They won because of a single mistake by Gerrard. The second goal was completely down to Liverpool need to get a goal to at least draw the match.
He has shown time and time again that he sets him team up to completely kill games when he is playing an opposition he thinks is better than his team. He revels in beating superior teams by parking the bus. He genuinely enjoys it and thats why he loves Chelsea. There has been no better team over the past 10 years at doing that than Chelsea.
If I was a Chelsea fan I don't know if I would be happy about that being the way we won things but on the other hand, he wins things so you can't complain too much.
Mourinho never worked at Madrid because his philosophy didn't sit well with Madrids ethos. I am torn about yesterdays result as I don't want Liverpool to win because most of their fans are complete tools but on the other hand, they deserve to win it for their football and Stevie G deserves a league title.