Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea: In game and Post Match discussion

Diego - last time we played Chelsea, we beat them too.

Rush - the performance was of course better than recent weeks, but what I'm saying is we've seen good performances before. We have the tendency to up our games for the big ones.

Sure, the point is better than nothing (especially given that penalty save), and yes we have our players back and ready, but we still appear to be facing the same problems: a lack of goals, and a likelihood of making key mistakes. That makes it more difficult for me to believe that we will suddenly be fine and able to win games. The fundamental problems still appear to be there, and the key change has been the return of Mane who suddenly we are reliant on.

I don't mind hoping and looking for the positives, but a bit more realism wouldn't go amiss.. 

I don't think anyone is burying their head in the sand Dan. But I agree; it's all well and good looking for positives in our performance, but if nothing is done to turn good performances into great performances, then there's something wrong.

1 point is better than none, and before the game it looked like it could be another loss. It wasn't. Relief all round, but that doesn't make it acceptable that we didn't get the win.

I read the exact same comments after the Utd match. Instead of looking at the win that ought to have been our, I read numerous posts congratulating the lads on the draw. It was a game that was going to turn us around, and send us on our way to winning the title. Myself and a couple of other guys pointed out that it was not acceptable to draw when we ought to have won, and things were not so rosy.

Jump forward a couple of weeks to last night, and all of a sudden, because of our atrocious form going into the game, a point is heralded as a great point. It's claimed that we will use this game to go forward with a run of game to have a go at the title. Hold on..

Before the game, the "title" talk relied on us beating Chelsea. Now all of a sudden, the plan is that we draw with Chelsea and go on and beat Hull and Arsenal. Let's stop changing things based on another poor result. We should have got the 3 points last night. There's no changing that reality. It is yet again another disappointing result. Let's not pretend that it is a sign of things to come, because we've seen those signs before.

Again, Can is playing. Again, Firmino is our sole centre forward - playing through the middle and all that. Again, key substitutions are too late - I mean, what was Origi going to do with 3 minutes? Nothing has changed. It is another case of points lost.

Are we all of a sudden likely to beat Hull and Arsenal when we couldn't beat Swansea and Chelsea?

Win, lose or draw we aren't and weren't going to win the title fella, that's the brutal truth of it. People are happier because it was a good performance that belied our recent form against a side who have been playing very very well. The positive reaction of most posters in this thread was based around that I'm sure. Also, it is only natural for fans to then 'hope' we beat Hull and Arsenal such is the nature of being a football fan.

As for Origi coming on at the end. I suspect that move was made as a defensive precaution had Chelsea got themselves another set piece before the final whistle (they had just looked dangerous on one moments before he came on).

Well that was an improvement and to some extent I was quite happy with our performance.  We didn't let Chelsea play, we swarmed around them every time they had the ball. I thought our energy levels and work rate was fantastic last night.

While in possession I thought we were out of ideas at times and still struggled a bit, but this is Chelsea we were playing who are obviously a very good side and are very good at putting men behind the ball and counter attacking.  The equaliser eventually came and it was thoroughly deserved, we worked hard to get that goal.

I haven't seen any of the replays or highlights yet but from where I was it seemed Clattenburg had a terrible game and he was giving them everything. So we had to cope with that too.

In my opinion, a draw was probably a fair result in the end. Although we were the better side, I don't think either team did enough to win the game and we sort of cancelled each other out. 

Mignolet - I'll have to watch the free kick again but he looked all over the place and it seemed he wasn't concentrating or switched on for it. Maybe I'm wrong?  His distribution was poor at times and I cannot stand all this passing it around to the back four bollocks putting us under pressure.  That said, I gave him MOTM for his penalty save because at the end of the day, if Costa scores that then we lose.

Clyne - I thought Clyne had an excellent game. Defended superbly and got forward well too.

Matip - Looks very rusty on the ball at the moment. Usually he's so calm but I counted a few times him giving the ball away. Apart from that he defended fairly well and kept Costa quiet.

Lovren - Defended well for most parts but him and Mignolet together put us under some real pressure at times. Somebody needs to tell Lovren to just get rid of the ball sometimes.

Milner - It was a typical James Milner performance really, gave it his all, battled for 90mins. He made a few mistakes and lost the ball similar to Matip and Lovren, but in general played well.

Hendo - A captain like performance. Covered so much ground and worked his socks off. Always looking to get on the ball too. His crosses into the box caused Chelsea all sorts of problems and one we scored a goal from.

Wijnaldum - He too covered so much ground and worked his socks off. I think his second half was much stronger than his first and as the game went on he just grew into it more and more. Pleased to see him get on the score sheet he needs to chip in with more goals and assists.

Can - Hopeless. He really is garbage and Klopp needs to drop him. The crowd are really starting to get on his back now too. His decision making is dreadful and he has no quality anyway. He was the only player who I thought had a poor game for us last night.

Lallana - He doesn't give the opposition a minutes peace. As soon as they have the ball its Lallana who is the first one to close down and the rest of our lads follow him. Worked very hard last night, thought he played well.

Firmino - Much better in the middle than he has been out wide. He might have missed a sitter, but he battled and battled all game. When he tracked back and won the ball with a slide tackle was fantastic. His link up play at times is just pure class too. He needs to start in the middle for us every single game.

Coutinho - Showed the same work rate as the other lads but wasn't his night on the ball really, struggled to make things happen.

Klopp - Apart from starting with Can or taking him off in the game, he got everything right. He quite clearly put a rocket up everybodys arse and we were well up for this game. His record against the top 6 side remains unbeaten.


Just like to say I thought the atmosphere was great last night too. Shame it isn't like that on a Saturday against Wolves, Plymouth, Hull etc.  There was a real buzz around the place though, it was class.

To summarise, although we didn't create that many chances, we deserved something out of the game just from our work rate alone. I said in the post Wolves match that wolves wanted it more than we did which was so disappointing to see, well last night we wanted it more than Chelsea and we out fought and out battled them. That's all you can ask.  If each player gives 100% then no matter what happens whether we win lose or draw I will walk away happy.  So well done lads, it was a great effort.

One last thing, when I was leaving the ground last night it appeared that somebody had suffered a heart attack in the upper centenary. There was a real panic with several stewards etc rushing to him. I don't know if this has been mentioned anywhere but I hope the guy is safe and well.

Diego - last time we played Chelsea, we beat them too.

Rush - the performance was of course better than recent weeks, but what I'm saying is we've seen good performances before. We have the tendency to up our games for the big ones.

Sure, the point is better than nothing (especially given that penalty save), and yes we have our players back and ready, but we still appear to be facing the same problems: a lack of goals, and a likelihood of making key mistakes. That makes it more difficult for me to believe that we will suddenly be fine and able to win games. The fundamental problems still appear to be there, and the key change has been the return of Mane who suddenly we are reliant on.

I don't mind hoping and looking for the positives, but a bit more realism wouldn't go amiss.. 

Not many teams have created as many clear cut chances as we did last night against Chelsea, there is a reason they have the best defence in the league.

But I get your point we have seen this before so yes lets not get carried away and see what sort of LFC team turns up against Hull.

Apart from their goal we defended pretty good. Lovren needs to wisen up though played like a 10 year old against costa.

Why oh why can't we try and beat anyone than the top 6 ?

Not sure if already posted but I loved his post match presser and some on here should pay heed to his words. Enjoy the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XPD2QwJFSE

Loved the "nobody can beat us" bit.

He's a great interviewee isn't he? No bullsh*t, no politics, just talk about the game honestly.

I thought his comment about people keeping their nerves and remembering it's still football was spot on. A lot has been made about our dry January, partly down to injuries/absentees, partly down to other teams deciding to park the bus...natural challenges if we want to win the league, but I think part of it has been that because we have been playing rock and roll football for a while, and the lads have gotten used to winning in style, it's been a bit of a shock that it could change.

I think the players have been caught by surprise and possibly started to feel the pressure that has been building up due to high expectations they have given the fans themselves this year. Klopp is right, keep cool and keep playing football.

Game raised, now let's see what Hull brings.

I can't stand Costa, but if he was wearing a Liverpool shirt, I think I can change my feelings. Nine times out of 10 in front of goal, he scores, plain and simple .

Agree.

Its natural to hate him because he plays for them but I'd have him here in a heartbeat.

He's a c**t and we don't have enough of them in our side right now.

Hard fought point, pretty low on quality from both teams. Got mixed feelings about the result. One the one hand we did quite well to get a point from a game where we were struggling a bit for confidence and everything seemed to go against us. On the other hand we missed 2 great chances to win it. The fact we didn't win means we only have a real long shot at the title now, but the draw should hopefully steady the ship a bit confidence-wise, and we are still obviously well in the fight for top 4.

Thought Hendo, Wijanldum and Clyne were our best players. Not sure what's happened to Matip the last couple of games. Glad Mig redeemed himself with the penalty save.

The FA need to do something about diving. Hazard was at it all night. The problem is he's very good at it. When somebody's coming in to tackle him he does this wee splay of his legs, but he does it along with a sort of shimmy of his upper body so it looks like the leg splay is a natural part of his run - as if it's part of an attempt to beat his opponent, when all he's actually doing is banging a leg into the would-be tackler and then going down. He does it all the f**king time, and it means it's nearly impossible to tackle him,  cos it looks good and the refs nearly always buy it. ( Costa did something similar for the penalty - basically ran onto Matip, but Matip did momentarily stick his leg out so technically I suppose it was a pen.)

I'd like to see somebody really drawing attention to it ( like Purpleface did with Suarez, who was nowhere near as bad as Hazard), cos f**k knows how many points it is going to be worth to them by the end of the season.

Anyway, ok point, decent battling performance in the circumstances - hopefully we can get a bit of our zip back during a quieter February. Going for Gini as MOTM.

Well that was an improvement and to some extent I was quite happy with our performance.  We didn't let Chelsea play, we swarmed around them every time they had the ball. I thought our energy levels and work rate was fantastic last night.

While in possession I thought we were out of ideas at times and still struggled a bit, but this is Chelsea we were playing who are obviously a very good side and are very good at putting men behind the ball and counter attacking.  The equaliser eventually came and it was thoroughly deserved, we worked hard to get that goal.

I haven't seen any of the replays or highlights yet but from where I was it seemed Clattenburg had a terrible game and he was giving them everything. So we had to cope with that too.

In my opinion, a draw was probably a fair result in the end. Although we were the better side, I don't think either team did enough to win the game and we sort of cancelled each other out. 

Mignolet - I'll have to watch the free kick again but he looked all over the place and it seemed he wasn't concentrating or switched on for it. Maybe I'm wrong?  His distribution was poor at times and I cannot stand all this passing it around to the back four bollocks putting us under pressure.  That said, I gave him MOTM for his penalty save because at the end of the day, if Costa scores that then we lose.

Clyne - I thought Clyne had an excellent game. Defended superbly and got forward well too.

Matip - Looks very rusty on the ball at the moment. Usually he's so calm but I counted a few times him giving the ball away. Apart from that he defended fairly well and kept Costa quiet.

Lovren - Defended well for most parts but him and Mignolet together put us under some real pressure at times. Somebody needs to tell Lovren to just get rid of the ball sometimes.

Milner - It was a typical James Milner performance really, gave it his all, battled for 90mins. He made a few mistakes and lost the ball similar to Matip and Lovren, but in general played well.

Hendo - A captain like performance. Covered so much ground and worked his socks off. Always looking to get on the ball too. His crosses into the box caused Chelsea all sorts of problems and one we scored a goal from.

Wijnaldum - He too covered so much ground and worked his socks off. I think his second half was much stronger than his first and as the game went on he just grew into it more and more. Pleased to see him get on the score sheet he needs to chip in with more goals and assists.

Can - Hopeless. He really is garbage and Klopp needs to drop him. The crowd are really starting to get on his back now too. His decision making is dreadful and he has no quality anyway. He was the only player who I thought had a poor game for us last night.

Lallana - He doesn't give the opposition a minutes peace. As soon as they have the ball its Lallana who is the first one to close down and the rest of our lads follow him. Worked very hard last night, thought he played well.

Firmino - Much better in the middle than he has been out wide. He might have missed a sitter, but he battled and battled all game. When he tracked back and won the ball with a slide tackle was fantastic. His link up play at times is just pure class too. He needs to start in the middle for us every single game.

Coutinho - Showed the same work rate as the other lads but wasn't his night on the ball really, struggled to make things happen.

Klopp - Apart from starting with Can or taking him off in the game, he got everything right. He quite clearly put a rocket up everybodys arse and we were well up for this game. His record against the top 6 side remains unbeaten.


Just like to say I thought the atmosphere was great last night too. Shame it isn't like that on a Saturday against Wolves, Plymouth, Hull etc.  There was a real buzz around the place though, it was class.

To summarise, although we didn't create that many chances, we deserved something out of the game just from our work rate alone. I said in the post Wolves match that wolves wanted it more than we did which was so disappointing to see, well last night we wanted it more than Chelsea and we out fought and out battled them. That's all you can ask.  If each player gives 100% then no matter what happens whether we win lose or draw I will walk away happy.  So well done lads, it was a great effort.

One last thing, when I was leaving the ground last night it appeared that somebody had suffered a heart attack in the upper centenary. There was a real panic with several stewards etc rushing to him. I don't know if this has been mentioned anywhere but I hope the guy is safe and well.

Agreed, well summed up. One real difference is I gave Hendo MotM, I thought after a pretty poor first 10 minutes he grew into the game and by the end was the clear pick, but certainly understand your reasoning for Migs.

Someone mentioned that Ambramovich brought on Pedro and Fabregas as subs. He's also looking to spend 30 million on Dembele as backup in the midfield. Chelsea aren't a team they're a Russian Oligarch and their place in history is well documented.

Only saw the highlights, really good to pull that one from the flames, will put us on another run I reckon.

Yet another gifted goal to the opposition, when is this kind of thing finally going to fade out of our play? When we have the players.

Not a bad night all in all . Chelsea play Arsenal early on saturday , we will know the result before we play , so if we don't go all out ( i mean throwing the f***in kitchen sink in ) to beat Hull , then we will know once and for all that a lot of these players need moving on in the summer or this kind of bouncy , bouncy form will continue.

Gifted goal, oh do you mean from the referee who gave the freekick? Yes Migs should have been more alert but that freekick caught everyone unaware and I think it probably would have gone in even if Migs was ready, it was a superb and very clever freekick. As to the rest of the game both sides created plenty of chances, they should have won it with the penalty and we should have won with Bobby's late header but this is football and overall a draw was a fair result and shows that we are capable of playing good football again after a horror month. If we can now beat Hull on Saturday then I see no reason why we can't go on a proper run for the remaining games of the season. Couts will only get better from here on out, we have Mane back, hopefully Bobby will remember how to finish at some point soon and Lallana also needs to get back to his best. Personally I still think there is a chance of winning the league as I think Chelsea might run out of steam a bit plus start to be found out by other teams, but if not then top 4 is very achievable.

He's a c**t and we don't have enough of them in our side right now.

At least one c**t is essential.

What he said.

But he is not on the end of the abuse.. 

Mine was an observation.
Not paragraphs of player bashing.

What I see is a manager who doesn't believe, and probably justifiably, that outside of an XI he has the players to do what he requires of them when the chips are down.

Sturridge's pace is gone.
Origi isn't the World Class striker we need.
Mane was only back from AFCON.
I wouldn't trust Moreno to put the bins out never mind defend under pressure.

My only grievance is that we all know this.
Klopp surely knows this.
Would could have addressed some of this in January.
We haven't and that's effectively destroyed any title challenge and left us fighting to get momentum back in a difficult Top 4 fight.

Given this was the first game since November that Mane, Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana & Sturridge were all available I'll remain somewhat positive for a top 4 challenge, but make no mistake the squad is paper thin.

All you need to do is look at who Chelsea brought on at the end. Cesc & Pedro.
Big difference in options. Summer will need 3 or 4 quality players brought in, but we've been saying that for years and last summer the club turned a profit in transfers.

Can and Sturridge will most likely go to drive new recruitment but then we're up to needing those players replaced and the 3 or 4. Effectively a spine of a squad.

Disappointed really, that we didn't pick up the 3 points.
Another story of missed chances, but on the plus side, creating clear cut chances against chelsea is not easy.

We looked really up for this, but with Coutinho still finding his way back after injury, and Mane not ready it was always going to be difficult.
I'm hoping that Firmino's form in front of goal picks up, with Mane and Coutinho taking some of the pressure off him in the coming weeks. His all round game has still been pretty good, but those missed chances!

Gifted goal, oh do you mean from the referee who gave the freekick? Yes Migs should have been more alert but that freekick caught everyone unaware and I think it probably would have gone in even if Migs was ready, it was a superb and very clever freekick. As to the rest of the game both sides created plenty of chances, they should have won it with the penalty and we should have won with Bobby's late header but this is football and overall a draw was a fair result and shows that we are capable of playing good football again after a horror month. If we can now beat Hull on Saturday then I see no reason why we can't go on a proper run for the remaining games of the season. Couts will only get better from here on out, we have Mane back, hopefully Bobby will remember how to finish at some point soon and Lallana also needs to get back to his best. Personally I still think there is a chance of winning the league as I think Chelsea might run out of steam a bit plus start to be found out by other teams, but if not then top 4 is very achievable.

Even if a corner or free kick are awarded wrongly , you still need to defend them. It was a good strike but if the wall and the keeper do their job , i don't think that ball goes in.

Disappointed with the result TBH. Thought we did just about enough to deserve the win, although some very poor finishing from Bobby is to blame for that. Hugely mixed bag from the keeper, but the penalty save cancels out the first half blunder. Still need new keeper in the summer though. Didn't want to mention the ref, but he was awful. Supposedly the best ref in the world. Didn't look particularly neutral to me. Suppose he's given Chavs enough abuse over the seasons to "justify" his generous attitude toward them...

A marked improvement over last few games, but as January has been just awful, that doesn't say a lot. Just hope we can batter Hull away at the weekend. But they have a good new manager now and a new belief has set in there. Going to be hard...

One last word. Hazard F**k off to another league. Or another sport preferably. Football is supposed to be a contact sport. But every time he's touched, the c**t falls over. And the ref buys it. Great talent. sh*t attitude...

Even if a corner or free kick are awarded wrongly , you still need to defend them. It was a good strike but if the wall and the keeper do their job , i don't think that ball goes in.

The wall did their job, the ball went over it, and honestly that freekick would have needed one hell of a save to keep it out.

The wall did their job, the ball went over it, and honestly that freekick would have needed one hell of a save to keep it out.

Possibly, but if Migs had been standing where he should have been, I personally think he would have got to it, instead of doing his Dumbo,  trying to take off impersonation.

4 points out of a possible 6 against those cu*ts isn't a bad thing, should of been 6 but I bet no other cu*ts in the League get those results against those cu*ts.