Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea: Bad Play, Bad Ref, Bad Result

Having managed to prevent European giants Real Madrid from scoring more than one goal in midweek, Liverpool fans went into the game against Chelsea with a fair amount of confidence. Chelsea came into the game unbeaten this season, but there was some optimism that we could perhaps break this run, or at least take a point away from the match. Unfortunately the majority of stand-out performers from midweek were left out of the starting eleven, and we were consequently treated to another terribly mediocre performance. Chelsea played much better than us and created more chances: on balance, they certainly deserved to win. However, we would probably have snatched a draw had it not been for the failure of the referee to miss a blatant Cahill handball in the box just minutes from time.

The team made a promising start. Mario Balotelli was making some good runs in behind the defence for once, and although he was getting caught offside too often he was definitely causing the Chelsea defenders some problems. They looked uncomfortable whenever a Liverpool player ran at them; the direct style of Coutinho and Sterling carved open gaps in the blues’ back line. It was this positivity that resulted in the reds taking the lead after 9 minutes – Emre Can was not closed down, and his ferocious drive deflected off Gary Cahill and into the net past a helpless Courtois. Sadly, the lead didn’t last long. Chelsea won a corner, and what happened next was totally predictable. Despite outnumbering the Chelsea players in the box by two to one, the hapless defending led to a failure to get the ball away. Mignolet was forced into a good stop from a Terry header, but the ball came out to Matic. There was a hint of handball about his layoff to Cahill, but it looked accidental. The centre-back then smashed the ball goalwards, and despite Mignolet’s best efforts the ball was adjudged to have crossed the line by Hawkeye technology.

There was a brief period after the equaliser where the game really opened up. Liverpool were absorbing a lot of pressure, but they were also springing dangerous looking counter attacks. Balotelli even managed to get the ball in the back of the net with a tidy finish past Courtois, but he was just offside. By the half hour mark, this Liverpool threat seemed to have faded somewhat. It became an exercise in defending, and past experience should have served as a warning that this could never end well. Whilst we managed to keep Chelsea from taking the lead for the rest of the first half, it was really only a matter of time. It took until the 67^th minute, but Mourinho’s men did finally take the lead. Like the first there was a touch of controversy about the goal – Azpilicueta took the ball round Coutinho, but looked to have run it off the pitch in the process. Replays were inconclusive, but it looked like a fraction of the ball hadn’t crossed the line. His subsequent drilled cross was parried away by Mignolet, but it fell to Costa. He made no mistake with the finish.

Despite bringing on Allen, Borini and Lambert, Rodgers had no success whatsoever in changing the tide of the game. Although we were the trailing side there was a complete lack of urgency and intensity, and we frankly didn’t deserve a goal. However, into added time, Liverpool worked their way into quite a threatening position. The ball came out to Gerrard on the edge of the box, and he aimed to roll back the years with an extremely powerful effort. It may have been heading for the corner or going just wide, but we never got the chance to find out; Gary Cahill lent into the ball with his arm. It was pretty blatant: Steven Gerrard certainly thought so, clearly incensed at the referee’s choice to wave away the penalty claim. This was the last incident of note, and Chelsea comfortably weathered a late period of weak pressure to finish the game 2-1 victors.

We can rightly point to the referee as the reason we didn’t get a point – had Anthony Taylor seen the handball, we would most likely have scored the subsequent penalty and got the draw. However, it would have been undeserved; factors other than the referee have to be considered to get to the root of why we put in such a lacklustre performance. Rodgers has some serious questions to answer: why, for example, was Kolo Toure left out? He certainly earned a place based on his performance at the Bernebau, and his leadership and experience would surely have been invaluable against Chelsea. However, 20 million pound signing Dejan Lovren was preferred; it’s fair to say that he and Skrtel were quite poor throughout. Rodgers’s assertion that we don’t need a defensive coach also has to be questioned. At the corner which led to the first goal, the two centre backs were seemingly marking each other on the edge of the box. With only four Chelsea players up for the corner and eight Liverpool players in their own box, there is no way we should be conceding.

This stubbornness in our manager is extremely worrying. Last season it was ‘assuredness’ which was ‘great to see in such a young manager’ – it’s all well and good when we’re getting the results, but his refusal to change the formation and personnel is costing us dearly at the moment. He is blindly standing by his summer signings to the detriment of the team, and unless he swallows his pride soon then our results will continue to be disappointing. We now find ourselves in a position where we could well be in the bottom half of the table by Monday, and unless Rodgers bucks up his ideas then we might even end up in the wrong half of the table come the end of the season. This is admittedly a worst-case scenario, but hopes of the top 4 are definitely fading rapidly.

-James Martin

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