Post match: Chelsea v Liverpool (EPL 2/1/22 4.30pm)

I actually don’t think there is much in it between him and Alisson at present. I think Kelleher is now marginally a better shot stopper. Ali’s standard has dipped a bit of late.

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And Rudiger, same with any other Prem defender, is allowed to wrap his hands around Mo with impunity.

On the bright side, at least Curtis has returned from his brief loan spell at Wolves. The spell at left back, and keeping Mo quiet, will keep him in good stead with the defensive side of his game.

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Kind of surprised with most of the comments. Were people really expecting a better performance with all the problems we’ve had lately?

The real downer is the fact that we managed to drop another two points after leading by 2 goals, which is nothing new and it’s one of the reasons that we are falling behind.

It’s been the biggest disappointment of the season.

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There was gamesmanship of course. Its the way teams try to play against Mane. Get very close to him before he spreads his arms to elevate…

Atleti started it years ago and you can see the teams/players/managers who have copied this tactic: Arteta, Azpi…

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Something I noted was the gap that was present between our midfield and our back line. Chelsea had players in that gap constantly and it basically took our midfield out of the game.

Other than that our ball retention was awful. You need to control games like this. We didn’t, not by a mile.

I wonder if Milner hadn’t given away the free kick which ended up with them getting back into the game. A lot of moaning about they being better than us, against Leicester we dominated them and lost, it’s goals that counts and their keeper made two brilliant saves in the second half.

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Good points, but our press was so disjointed with experienced pro’s out there who know the system and our complacency in defending is sometimes irksome

Kante bossed us IMO what I would give for us to have a player like him

Yep, silly free kick to give away especially as he’d already had a nip at him. With Mount and Pulisic as the other forwards, and Kante and Kova in midfield, we should have bene happy for them tpo pump balls into our box in open play. Allowing a set piece from there and giving them the opportunity to bring up Rudiger is dumb.

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Sky keeps bringing up the Sadio elbow. If you check the footage, you’ll see that Sadio keeps his eyes firmly on the ball at all times. When you jump, the arms will have to move about. It’s a shame that someone’s head was in the way… :laughing:
But there is absolutely no intention to elbow someone

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Kelleher is a big talent. But the experience from Ali can’t be replaced easily. The consistency as well. Ali can be sitting cold for 80 minutes, then be called to make one important save. And he does this time and time again, for several years, over many many games.

That takes some replacing.

A slight off analogy would be like those saying Reece James is a much better RB than TAA - one has been there consistently for 4 years, while the other is finally clicking for a few months. Whereas Kelleher is just starting his career, so is much furhter back in his development.

What we have is an excellent second keeper - just image Adrian having to play this game. Then again, don’'t

Sky still trying to push Mane red card. If Mane wasn’t off to AFCON, then as usual the other teams would try to milk any contact from him in the next games to get him sent off.

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Funnily enough I was thinking same.

I do think the title’s gone but agree with the rest of your points. I thought it was a brilliant game. We seem to have forgotten how to enjoy a couple of hours of entertainment after our success of the past few years

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Add Tomiyasu to the recent list as well.

It could have been a red tbf but it wasn’t as blatant as they’re making out, and not as dangerous as half a dozen tackles on our players this season

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I am perilously close to where I was last year when I stopped watching footy. That was poor from both sides, it was like a mediocre MLS game with better finishing. Commentators were thrilled at the up and down play, but it was mostly just sloppy. Not sure either side really deserved 3 points out of that.

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Mane is a lucky lucky boy , needless and silly challenge.
MOM is Kelleher , defensively konate is good but his positional awareness is still poor .
midfield had no fineness industrial yes but that is it (hendo and millner will give you all but class and composure)
OX is useless as always
Salah is not putting a shift defensively at all , compared to man city forwards his work rate is much less this season
Jota was very poor today .
this team needs signings at least 2 a forward and quality midfielder ( like kovacic or kante these two were excellent today we couldnt breath they pressed won thw ball kept it moving and carried the ball forward )
5 points lost in 2 games we need to concentrate to stay in the top 4 let alone thinking of catching man city

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Both were yellow, just like the Mount incident but with Taylor you know that only Mané gets a yellow. Not to put this draw on Taylor, we gave away a 2-0 lead all by ourselves.

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I thought Salah’s moments of skill were pure class this afternoon. We’re going to miss him for the next few weeks. Aside from that I thought Kelleher and Tsimikas stood out as not first choice players who are damn close to being it.

Kelleher in particular kept us in it on a few occasions. There was nothing he could do about yhe first goal. On the second I suspect Ali would have charged the player down but I don’t think it would have made any difference.

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Ain’t that the truth, one can only hope that Senegal and Egypt fuck up.

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