Scottbot » Sun Apr 27, 2014 7:45 pm wrote:Stu the Red » Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:14 pm wrote:Rodgers got it badly wrong today, naivety at its worst.
Its will be a massive shame if this costs us the title. He needs to learn from this as we may well have blew our best chance in years of winning a league a title.
I disagree. If they had done us on the break when we had numbers forward then maybe, but they didn't. We lost because of a poor error by the skipper that could have happened at any moment in any game. I'm absolutely heartbroken for him.
I guess the alternative way to have approached the game would have been to sit back ourselves and tried to sucker them on the break but I suspect that would not have worked.
Really tough loss, toughest I have known in I don't know how long. To have the title in our own hands with just 3 to play and then to have to rely on others to help us out is demoralising.
It's not the time to be pointing fingers at players or the manager.
I agree scott.... its not the time to be pointing fingers at anyone even remotely associated with the club.
But I disagree that it was not naive of BR. Obviously it is easy to say after the fact as hindsight is always 20/20..... but BR did make a bad error here. I am 100% sure that he will learn from it and only become better because of it.
When it became clear that Chelsea had been setup to defend.... and 2 walls of 4 who hardly ventured over the half way line, is as clear a signal as it can possibly be....... we should have taken a long hard look and realized that a draw would be the best case result here. Extremely unlikely we would have broken that formation down especially knowing full well that is what Mourinho specializes at.
We should have sat back as well and let the stalemate draw out. Instead of us getting frustrated, we may have very well frustrated them instead... If they then start pushing for a result, we could have open up their defense with the speed available down the flanks and the incisiveness of coutinho. Our guys up front simply could not cope with the complete lack of space playing our usual game.
If we had taken the decision to accept a draw, we would have put Man city under greater pressure and be guaranteed at least 2nd place as there is no way Chelsea would be able to overcome a 5 point deficit with only 2 games remaining. Plus, we would not now have to worry about geeing up the team after such a bitter dissapointment. But we chose to live by the sword and i hope that we don't die by it.
Definitely a mistake but one I can understand. So yes, I agree with Stu that it was naive of BR. Such is life. But isn't everything clearer when you are the visionary on monday morning and after the fact? Because if you had asked me before the match, I would have told you to just go for it. But that's because I am a fan and I let my heart overule my head. But BR is the manager.... he should have been better equipped to make the call and have a back-up plan as the game unfolded the way it did. So yes.... a little naive.
But he has done wonders this season already and has my full and utter support... and i am NOT prepared to throw in the towel yet. If arsenal lose today, the bitters will still have all to play for.... and hopefully, they can hold Citeh.