Was the Chelsea game more important than the Madrid one?

This has caused much controversy among many of the Liverpool supporters over the past week. As a Liverpool supporter, I know what the Champions League is all about. It's about winning. It's about having the opportunity to bring home the most prestigious trophy, IMO, in world football. We never featured in this competition to just turn up and generate good revenue - hell no. We were always in it with a shout to win it.

Who dare wins, and we F***ing dared to sacrifice everything for the Champions league back in 2004/05 because winning silverware was what this club was all about. Over the past seven days it's become seemingly obvious that the Chelsea game was more important than the Madrid game. Is this a sign of 'we cannot win the champions league but so long we qualify for it, that is all that matters'?

Discuss.

Chelsea obviously, result v Real made no difference we still need to beat Ludo and Basel.
Not that we were ever likely to beat Real............

Chelsea obviously, result v Real made no difference we still need to beat Ludo and Basel.
Not that we were ever likely to beat Real............

Hardly, if we'd beat Real either at home or away it would have made up for the three points lost at Basel and kept us second in the group. That being said, I agree the Chelsea game was more important because we needed a morale boost and we probably had a better chance of winning that than Real. I also think Brendan was on a hiding to nothing with the Real game. If he put the same side in that's been failing all season, he's accused of being unimaginative. When he freshens things up with different players, he's accused of throwing the game. It really was a no-win scenario for him.

Been trying to fathom this conundrum out for a while now . Thought the team selected was brave and although didnt get result some individuals basically showed the gaffer what they could do Kolo, Lucas etc. What disappointed me was how the team was then ripped apart and players just walked straight which then said "may as well rest a few going to get beat anyway " Lovren and Johnson should simply not be anywhere the side as a kick up ass although i think Johnson tossed it off a long time ago
 

Between the 2nd and 4th of November, the Real Madrid game was more important than the Chelsea one. Once that was finished the Chelsea game became the more important. Once that finished the Palace game became the most important one.

This has caused much controversy among many of the Liverpool supporters over the past week. As a Liverpool supporter, I know what the Champions League is all about. It's about winning. It's about having the opportunity to bring home the most prestigious trophy, IMO, in world football. We never featured in this competition to just turn up and generate good revenue - hell no. We were always in it with a shout to win it.

Who dare wins, and we f**king dared to sacrifice everything for the Champions league back in 2004/05 because winning silverware was what this club was all about. Over the past seven days it's become seemingly obvious that the Chelsea game was more important than the Madrid game. Is this a sign of 'we cannot win the champions league but so long we qualify for it, that is all that matters'?

Discuss.

Once we'd lost 3-0 at home there was no question that the Chelsea game was more important. I agreed 100% with the idea of trying something knew out, it was an outstanding opportunity that presented itself because unless we thought we had a real chance of winning (which the home game pretty much proved we didn't) we had a game that had little consequence on the final result. Even a draw made little difference so yes the Chelsea game was much more important.

The disgrace was that after having a free look at which players could do what against the best team in the world we decided to drop those that performed well. That will never be understood by me. It only added to the thought that Brendan has favourites and some people are indeed undroppable.

The fact we had no conceivable plan against Chelsea was the biggest shock to me, to go through the Real Madrid exercise you must at least show something extra but no it was the same old sh*te we've seen all season.

So yes, Chelsea game much more important once we realised our realistic chances of getting a win away at Madrid and I backed Brendan before the game on that choice and despite the loss to Chelsea wont change my stance on that.

To me it wasn't a case of which game was the most important, but of being led to believe that we weren't just playing a weaker team against Madrid to rest our best players but that it was in reaction to our performance against Newcastle and also a chance for our squad players to stake a claim for a starting role... something that the Chelsea game proved false. 

Strongest side every time ! Don't be afraid of dropping the big names when they are off form, and be brave enough to field any of the fringe players, when they show a good run of form.
Swapping and changing just because you can, is a recipe for disaster.
By leaving Gerrard and Henderson on when making the subs on Saturday, showed me,  in MY opinion, Brendan bottled it.
He took two of the best 3 players in our side, on the day, off, and that came down to BIG NAMES and No balls.

Between the 2nd and 4th of November, the Real Madrid game was more important than the Chelsea one. Once that was finished the Chelsea game became the more important. Once that finished the Palace game became the most important one.

Agreed.

All I would say is that I feel more players who performed well against Madrid should have started against Chelsea. I do not understand why they didn't, if a player proves themselves and does better than another member of the squad, they should play.

Doesn't matter does it? Lost both now, can't change it. Can only think about the next game.

To me it wasn't a case of which game was the most important, but of being led to believe that we weren't just playing a weaker team against Madrid to rest our best players but that it was in reaction to our performance against Newcastle and also a chance for our squad players to stake a claim for a starting role... something that the Chelsea game proved false. 

In a nutshell Saint.

Those players that were picked against Madrid are now under no illusions that they are part of the 'B' team.

Both important as each other at the time and we weren't good enough in either, simple.

Given that we lost both games it doesn't much matter to me now. Bizarrely the so-called 2nd 11 performed relatively better than our fully rested first choice 11.The strange thing for me was that was that there had not really been any resting of our so called better players for any of the previous Champions League games so to make so many changes for what was the glamour tie of the whole schedule was a head scratcher. Like most of you I am disappointed that some of the better performers against Madrid were not rewarded with a start against Chelsea a few days later. It was a case of repeating what didn't work at Newcastle again the following week and hoping it would work out better next time around. But strangely enough it didn't.