Chelsea FC v Liverpool FC – Match preview
Liverpool travel down to London tomorrow to take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the early kick off. Manager Jürgen Klopp has made history in the build up to the game.
What do I mean by making history? Well the Liverpool manager may well be the first opposition boss to be praised by Jose Mourinho, who didn’t have a job he wants. Cryptic? Save to say it is credit none the less and fair play to the “happy one”, as he calls himself these days.
The “normal one” has been given a boost with the return of Christian Benteke for first team selection. Other than that Daniel Sturridge remains sidelined and captain Jordan Henderson still appears to be some weeks away. James Milner will return from his one match suspension picked up in the Southampton match which, I must say was well timed as a booking in the game against Bournemouth would have seen him miss this game. Call me cynical.
For the remainder of the team, I expect Simon Mignolet between the sticks and the regular back four to be recalled in Alberto Moreno, Mamadou Sakho, Martin Skrtel and Nathaniel Clyne although given the solid performance by young Conor Randall at right back in the League Cup tie the other night, I wouldn’t bet against a recall for him with Clyne switching to the left where he was equally impressive.
Midfield will see Emre Can restored along with Lucas Leiva ahead of the defence and the forward line is where selection gets a little more interesting. In a nice way for a change. Usually we can expect Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho and James Milner supporting Benteke the loan striker. However, given the impressive performances this week I’d personally like to see Lallana, Roberto Firmino and Milner across the supporting attack. Coutinho has been playing within his ability thus far this season and a break from the limelight may do him good. He endured a similar spell last season and returned to become one of, if not the most influential player for the second half of the campaign. Jordan Ibe may just miss out but his hunger seems to have returned judging by his recent efforts.
There remains a mutual respect between the two managers and this is never a bad thing. Mind games and fallouts become quite boring after a while. Klopp in his pre-match press conference said “…He’s emotional, I’m emotional…” Which I believe is a fair assessment of both! This along with the players of course, will make for an entertaining game.
On another note and in view of the impressive debuts made this week by younger players, Klopp intimated that he was not a huge fan of the loan system when asked his opinion on it. “It’s better they stay in the club… It’s not the best to give the player to other clubs… Maybe we can hold these guys longer, let them play in our second team, develop as a team…”. Interesting comments indeed and something I’m in complete agreement with. Let’s face it, and this is a question I’ve asked before: is it really beneficial to have a young Liverpool player working with a team from (generally) the lower leagues, with arguably inferior quality levels to those you wish to instil in the club? Frankly not in my view. This simply doesn’t follow.
In order to gain consistent standards with emerging players it is imperative that they play together. Learn to win and lose together. Learn each other’s games together. This in my view is why players like Andre Wisdom and Tiago Ilori have been on the fringe of the first team for seemingly, years without making a breakthrough into the first team. The likes of Teixeira, Brannigan and Rossiter have flourished at the club without the need to go to a lower league and/or perhaps inferior club to learn an alternative footballing philosophy. An interesting topic in any case. Loaned they may have been but not extensively.
This isn’t what I’d call a “must win” game for Liverpool but of course, in order to maintain the current feel-good factor, a win would be most welcome. For me, a draw away from home against a Chelsea side showing signs of a recovery would be no shame. Mourinho’s side has been spectacularly below par so far with signs of internal club politics being just as big a reason for the decline as the underperforming players. I expect the west Londoners to be a considerably different proposition to what we’ve seen from them recently. A “wounded” team as Klopp referred to tomorrow’s opponents is always a dangerous situation.
Ultimately, the aim has to be three points on the board and a few more places higher from the ninth currently occupied. In the four games these men have met Klopp has won two, drawn one and lost one. Liverpool’s record against the Chelsea in the Premiership over the last five games, however is: P5; W0; D3; L2.
As they say in boxing “Someone’s 0’s gotta go!” Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm Liverpool’s will have gone too!
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