The starting line up was justified based on who was available, how they had performed this season and how Chelsea were lining up. The first goal changed all that. It was an awful goal to give away, mistakes by Spearing and Reina, but the fault for the most part lies with Enrique. Decent player, actually didn't play too badly after that, but got that totally wrong. Sh1t happens. After that goal Chelsea defended in numbers and it was obvious after 25 minutes that we were not able to get past them. I said at the time that Carroll had to come on. We probably waited too long to change it. In the first half only a couple of players showed up....Agger was by far the best player we had. Suarez was isolated. Second goal was soft also. a bit lucky to get it through Skrtel, I couldn't help feeling that it would not have gone thru' Carra, but hey, with Carra there we might have given away goals in other ways.
Carroll had his best spell in a red shirt when he came on....like a man with a point to prove.....and he proved it. Overall Disappointed but glad we showed in the last half hour that we can play decent football.
Post mortem....In a whole lot of games this season we have started to play when we are losing.....whats that about and why are we so cautious from the kick off? Surely that is coming from the instructions/motivation in the dressing room, are they being told to hold your positions, keep possession and be careful and lets see what happens, rather than being told to get after them right from the kick off, everyone closed down the opposition and start with a high tempo. The most disappointing thing this season is that the problems we had last September are exactly the same problems we had yesterday.