Chelsea vs Liverpool 2011
An extremely important game for both Chelsea and Liverpool. Is AVB 'special' enough to learn from the Arsenal debacle and sort out his defense? Will Kenny be under pressure for his 110 mil pound signings to deliver? Will Kenny's experience beat AVB's 'youthful' flair?
In the past two meetings between the two sides, Meireles scored in the recent encounter and Torres scored in the first encounter last year. What Chelsea have done is gone ahead and bought both these individuals. However the Biggest threat Chelsea will face is from Torres' replacement at Liverpool, Suarez, who is in very good form and is a wizard with the ball at his feet. He is also very quick and that might be of concern to AVB, with a high Chelsea defensive line.
The Chelsea center-backs in JT, Bran and Alex are not very quick, and can be easily beaten for pace by the wily Uruguayan. And David Luiz although quick has this rare edginess for a center back ( He needs to be played outside the penalty box, till he tightens his defensive errors and tackling. Wonder if he is better off as an attacking right back? It might also be worthwhile to try him out as a defensive midfielder)
Chelsea need to counter the threat posed by Downing on Chelsea's right wing. Downing is extremely accurate in his crosses and can easily beat Bosingwa one on one. If his return to form in the international against Sweden is any indication, then Bosingwa is in for a tough night.
Chelsea though will end up playing a similar style as the previous games. To do the same they might need to tweak their formation just a little bit. AVB was Mourinho's protege of sorts learning under the special one. And now he needs to learn again. Why not use a 4-2-3-1 tactic. With two players in front of the defense, the defense will become more compact and tight.
The two players can be Mikel and Meireles, with Mikel playing slightly deeper, and Meireles playing ahead and linking up play. In the attacking third, Lamps can play central attacking midfield ( He is extremely good at that), Mata on the left and Anelka on the right. Torres should lead the attack, he owes Chelsea fans a huge game and this just might be the right moment when he is facing his former club.
AVB needs to outwit the great Dalglish in tactics, whilst still trying to carve out an footballing identity for Chelsea. any compromise on his attacking style and he may lose his credibility.
This is easier said than done, especially now that there exists a subtle and implicit pressure on AVB from Guus Hiddink who was sacked by Turkey after an Euro 2012 qualifier draw.
