Rivals Football - Chelsea FC - Liverpool FA Cup 82

Was the game that cemented my love for Chelsea. Too be honest before that, I could take or leave us. My dad took me as a kid in the 70s and I was going on and off with mates from school home and away to a few London games. We were pretty shit and it was more of a crack getting into mischief and singing songs than any real love for Chelsea.

The game against Liverpool was a game we couldn't win. They were a great side, European Champions full of world class players proven at every level with the medals to show for it. We were mid table in Division 2 at the time with worse to come.

But the manager didn't bottle it, he set the team up to get the ball wide and get in behind Liverpool's full backs and put pressure on them. The players took their lead from the manager and turned the great Liverpool over 2-0. I was sold, it was Chelsea from then on because on that occasion they showed bottle and proved that just because a team may be better than you, doesn't mean you can't win.

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I think it all comes down to the definition of bottling it, I don’t think setting a team up to defend and nick a goal on the counter is bottling it.
I’m sure we could all name numerous games over the years when Chelsea gave it a go against better (and worse) teams and got hammered :-D
Maybe it’s cultural, what Conte did wouldn’t be looked at twice in Italy.

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I think football is far more tactical in 2018 mate. It's hard to 'get stuck in' when yellow cards are dished out so easily. Teams like City will continue to flourish imo...teams that can actually control and pass the ball to a high level. That 'hit em hard him em early' is now just a fond memory...all about tactical fouls and closing space today.

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City’s tactical fouls on Sunday were maddening at times but Pep’s teams have always been very good at that. It often went under the radar with the masses that Barca were sneaky, horrible bastards, but it was effective in combination with everything else he does to set his teams up as he does. Jose at his peak was another master at the tactical foul.
Rudiger seemed to be the only one wanting to get stuck in from our side.

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I think a load of waffle is spoken about football today B, that Liverpool side and Clough's Forest and dirty Leeds before them were tactical masters albeit under different playing conditions and different rules.

My memory of that day doesn't recall us doing a Vinnie on Steve McMahon and try and lay the law down. I may watch it again and be proved wrong but I just remember us getting it wide to Rhodes Brown & Walker and stretching them.

Just because City are a good side and may prove to be one of the best we've seen in a while doesn't mean the manager should shrug his shoulders and say I couldn't do this this and that because we might have got spanked. I'd rather us get carried out on our shield than set up like that and still get beat.

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He set up defensively away from home against a good side, some of the hyperbole over how defeatist he was from all over the place is just proving my point about lack of perspective!

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He was defeatist, he set his team up exactly how City wanted it to be meaning they could play with freedom and have the ball with no pressure from us and absolutely no concern about us scoring.

You can't dress this up as some tactical attempt that has gone wrong. You cannot beat a supposedly better side unless you are willing to risk losing or drawing and he was too scared to try either.

He had two strikers on the bench and the best number ten in the league on the pitch and made no use of them even at 1-0 down. all he was bothered about was not losing 3-0 and having his reputation damaged.

I will always admire your defence of the accused Famous and a lot of times I stand with you, but he doffed the cap to Guardiola on Sunday and scuttled away.

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The problem I see with the reaction to Sunday is there’s too much speculation and assumption from fans and pundits about Conte’s intentions and that’s being used a stick to beat him with by the vast majority.
Maybe I’m defending him cos I feel he has a similar outlook as I did/do, but ultimately I don’t believe that there’s a manager on the planet, certainly not one who’s achieved what he has, who would purposefully set up a team not to try and win the match in front of them, notwithstanding his failure to act sooner when it was crying out for a change to be made.

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Either side of that that game we lost at home to Norwich and away to wrexham, but yes it was a great game.
However we got up for a big tie knowing that no one gave us a chance and therefore had nothing to lose. Week in week out we were utter shite which kind of negates your unsubtle dig at the current manager.

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After the Liverpool game we beat Cardiff at home, then lost to Norwich (Promoted) & Wrexham both away, before the Liverpool game we lost to Watford (Promoted) which was no shame during that season

The first paragraph of my post says we were shit and continued to get worse before it got better. The point is the manager didn't look at that game and think "I'll take a 1-0 loss and try and set us up so we don't to get gubbed". Another point is, that losing to Norwich and Wrexham wasn't a problem, we weren't any good and the club was in a mess.

I appreciate it was a cup game and we had nothing to lose but in reality Liverpool were around 30 places higher than us in the league, it wasn't 1st playing the 5th placed team who were reigning champions containing at least a few players who could hurt them.

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Got nicked before the game missed it [cr]

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Trying to get in across the railway from the Cemetery?

I was in the Shed before midday and I think they shut the gates not long after, it was a mad day

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No mate about 300 of us got a train to Warren st and walked down to Euston [hit] happy days.

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