Al, we played against the same manager midweek. With Sturridge and Shaq up front...hardly a pressing team.
Our defence had so much less cover.
Our offence was just as wasteful/unlucky.
Yet the response is far different. No whingy BS today. Which is a good thing.
I am not sure what relevance playing against the same manager in mid week has mate.
They were two totally different games. Willian and Mane were the only ones of the pacey wide players to start both games and Chelsea had a totally different philosophy. In mid week they were able to dominate possession because of the fact that if you make mass changes to a gegenpressing team then it isn't going to work. For the first half hour Fabregas dropped into the pocket and had the freedom of Anfield.
We dropped off and doubled up in the wide areas and they went through the middle. They looked for Morata's movement off Lovren and looked for Kovacic to go box to box.
Today was completely different, Chelsea looked to play a tighter 3 in midfield with Willian and Hazard taking turns to tuck in and make it a four with the other one looking to make 3rd man diagonal runs in behind. Our full backs were caught in between pushing up and looking for parity in midfield and looking to track runners.
The full backs were exposed because both teams were playing on the cusp.
The TV commentators for me coloured the debate because they over emphasised Chelsea breaking our defensive line because they were creaming themselves over Hazard whilst completely ignoring the fact that Salah was getting more joy at the other end.
Was it a case of our full backs making errors or was it just good play by Chelsea.