Roman Abramovich backs Jose Mourinho's plan to field 'B team' in Anfield showdown

I will laugh so much if they play there u21's and Ake is captain

Liverpool been hammered into 1.7 now

Derek acorah has warned Jose off the title.

Will look a mug if they go out against Atletico after doing that. I smell BS. Chelsea don't really have a 'weak' team anyway.

Chelsea can play as many u21 players as they like, they don't even have to be registerd in the 25 man squad list. Hope Jose does the right thing and fields a full u21 squad here. Give them a chance to play at Anfield and that...

Well we know Matic, Mikel, Lampard and Salah will definitely play as they can't play in the 2nd leg.

He's unlikely to play Schwarzer or Cahill as an injury to either of them gives him a huge problem and Ramires is suspended.

Will this not hamper the notion of Chelsea fans that, "we will smash L`pool at anfield to win the title", time for them to lay some off imo.

Okay then, let liverpool win the substandard premier league B title.

is hilarious still the 3rd choice goalkeeper

Yes, he was sub keeper v Sunderland last weekend

Cue Bozzo - give you credit TBB you're consistent. Your recent behaviour suggests you are developing a leaning towards Chelsea.

chelseas team on sunday will cost about £20m more than liverpool i bet
they have such a big expensive squad compared to liverpools

Not sure we can play the kids.

They have the 1st leg of the FA Youth Cup final on Monday night so we don't want to harm their chances in that.

Jose could play though he might be banned too.........for sarcasm........because he wondered why Kenny Dalglish reffed and Phil Thompson ran the line in our game on Saturday.

59,000 expansion to Anfield, Wow... Id thought with Liverpool's caliber they would have bigger dreams than that.

blame the FA, it's them that come up with the fixture. Never happens in Spain which is why they have half of the semi-finalists across the two competitions. If it was City they would do the same.

Why don't Chelsea just recall their loan players?

did jose have any thoughts on how Ramirez wasn't sent off for trying to take a guys head off???

If I was Jose....I wouldn't even turn up to that cesspit.  Send in Ray Wilkins.

I think Jose would have been happy enough for Ramires to be sent off, he is going to play a youth team anyway?

themover • April 23, 2014 10:49 PM BST
blame the FA

you could blame it on the FA, blame it on the Premier League , blame it on Liverpool, or blame it on the boogie

did jose have any thoughts on how Ramirez wasn't sent off for trying to take a guys head off???

Might not have happened if the ref and linesman had actually noticed "a guy" barging into the back of him as he was about to put the ball into an empty net a couple of minutes earlier.

Feel sorry for City though I'm not sure they'll win all their remaining games anyway.

Who cares, safe with 3 games to go and we decide who wins it and who goes down.

...once the integrity is lost in a particular sport then its the beginning of the end....

..I suspect the Chelsea team on Sunday will be far stronger than expected.

it does make a bit of a farce of the EPL though when participating teams prefer to play their best team in another competition. RIP The FA

egner we can probably put out a decent midfield. Difficult to see what we can do in defence though as one more injury there really hurts us for the 2nd leg. Some rumours that Terry might actually make the 2nd leg which would be a help but still not sure I'd want to be risking any of the 4 who seem most likely to play against Atletico as things stand.

The EPL and integrity?

Didn't they fine Wolves or someone once for fielding a weak team against one of the top teams because they wanted to rest players for the next match they had more chance of winning?
Yet they let the top teams rotate the players they use all the time?

Also very unlikely scenario, but what happens if Victor Moses has open goal in the last minute of the season to win the title, but decides to blaze it over because he wants his club to win the league?

...you may as well have a go...play two up front..or three..that means risking one less in midfield...could even play 3 at the back.

if he is wanting to play a weakened team then he has given up on the title so there is nothing to lose anyway....

..if he does should be a good view for the neutrals.

maybe teams can put out reserve sides for next seasons EPL and just ocncentrate on the Champions league. Would save fans a lot of money as well.

egner, he said he might put out a B team, he didn't say he would stop being a boring c***.

This is a smokescreen. The ambition of the two main personalities at Chelsea means any team that Chelsea put out will be aiming to win.
The amount of money invested in players by the club demands it.
This is just mind games from Jose.

Doubt it's mind games, they can still go strong in midfield and attack though. But defensively it looks like Cole has to play the 2nd leg so do they let a 33 year old chase Sterling and Suarez for 90mins 3 days before the 2nd leg? Cant see it. And risking Cahill now would be insane.

Might aswell call the EPL the Champions League reserve league.

It didn't use to be, when the great Man Utd in their POMP were winning it year in and year out







SAD TIMES

It didn't use to be, when the great Man Utd in their POMP were winning it year in and year out

You appear to have lost what little grip on reality you had old girl - please indicate which years you mean by 'year in year out'. Thanks very much - i know you try very very hard so don't be put off.

Guaranteed that the side Mourinho puts out will still have cost more than the Liverpool XI

...fools and their money

whatever this egomaniac does now he's still the cheapest cheesiest bastard going

and a criminal.

If nothing else, his past two post match interviews have been performances worthy of a Bafta.

His 'thank you for the support' speech to the referee's association was a masterpiece.

Apr 24, 2014 -- 10:16AM, TheBetterBettor wrote:

Might aswell call the EPL the Champions League reserve league.It didn't use to be, when the great Man Utd in their POMP were winning it year in and year outSAD TIMES

During that "pomp" they won the champions league once.

Only reason they won the league every year is because no other team was any good.

Utd has too wait for Liverpool to turn bad before they could actually start winning the league

Shame that Liverpool went bad for over 20 years in that case isn't it?

Mourinho can smell another CL title...watching last nights game, Bayern and Real are clearly beatable by a well organised side.

without JT  any team will be weaker but trust me the Chelsea boys will never give up on any title hopes

spyker 24 Apr 14 10:39 Joined: 09 Oct 07 | Topic/replies: 3,859 | Blogger: spyker's blog
It didn't use to be, when the great Man Utd in their POMP were winning it year in and year out

You appear to have lost what little grip on reality you had old girl - please indicate which years you mean by 'year in year out'. Thanks very much - i know you try very very hard so don't be put off.

1992–93    Manchester United
1993–94    Manchester United
1994–95    Blackburn Rovers
1995–96    Manchester United
1996–97    Manchester United
1997–98    Arsenal
1998–99    Manchester United
99–2000 Manchester United
2000–01    Manchester United
2001–02    Arsenal
2002–03    Manchester United
2003–04    Arsenal
2004–05    Chelsea
2005–06    Chelsea
2006–07    Manchester United
2007–08    Manchester United
2008–09    Manchester United
2009–10    Chelsea
2010–11    Manchester United
2011–12    Manchester City
2012–13    Manchester United

5 of the last 11 is not year in year out. HTH.

but 2007-2009 is HTH

tbb you're a wart on jimmy savilles a.rse

It isn't difficult to see why Mourinho would play things out this way. He knows Liverpool has his number, and he knows for 90% certainty he isn't going to win the title, and fielding a full strength side that loses easily at Anfield will bring negative media to his door.

By playing a weaker side, he can use his boring tongue in cheek rhetoric after, to imply that's the reason Liverpool won and exclude himself from any blame for being outperformed by Rogers all season.

He also knows there's a fair chance he can land his side in a Champions league final, where he puts himself in the limelight and can bathe in his egomaniac splendor, believing people will all be paying homage to his greatness (regardless of if its a true public perception or not)

It has little to do with Chelsea at all, it is all about himself. Like it was at Madrid and Inter.

Liverpool deserve the title, regardless of the mind-game moaners take on it.....and if Chelsea do make the final, im hoping its Bayern they meet, so that Guardiola can serve him up on a dish as usual. Its about the only thing that shuts him up

The title was decided before the season began you quaint naive people. It doesn't matter who Chelsea put on the pitch. Liverpool will win the title.

they,ve just lost to sunderland, if they throw sundays game and lose to madrid,just a thought but with injurys and a ban coming for ramirez, with confidence low why are they so confident of finishing 4th,isnt it still possible for them to miss out

Ramirez gets 4 match ban for violent conduct.

Apr 23, 2014 -- 10:19PM, Hamsterdam wrote:

Will look a mug if they go out against Atletico after doing that. I smell BS. Chelsea don't really have a 'weak' team anyway.

Why would they?

Apr 24, 2014 -- 2:34PM, funkymonkey wrote:

It isn't difficult to see why Mourinho would play things out this way. He knows Liverpool has his number, and he knows for 90% certainty he isn't going to win the title, and fielding a full strength side that loses easily at Anfield will bring negative media to his door.By playing a weaker side, he can use his boring tongue in cheek rhetoric after, to imply that's the reason Liverpool won and exclude himself from any blame for being outperformed by Rogers all season.He also knows there's a fair chance he can land his side in a Champions league final, where he puts himself in the limelight and can bathe in his egomaniac splendor, believing people will all be paying homage to his greatness (regardless of if its a true public perception or not)It has little to do with Chelsea at all, it is all about himself. Like it was at Madrid and Inter. Liverpool deserve the title, regardless of the mind-game moaners take on it.....and if Chelsea do make the final, im hoping its Bayern they meet, so that Guardiola can serve him up on a dish as usual. Its about the only thing that shuts him up

spot on

.....and if Chelsea do make the final, im hoping its Bayern they meet, so that Guardiola can serve him up on a dish as usual. Its about the only thing that shuts him up

The problem for Guardiola is that he's never been able to serve Chelsea up on a dish. Poor sod had to get away for a year after getting done by 10 men and Xavi still has nightmares about it. As a team it could be argued that they've never quite recovered from it which is all very pleasing quite frankly.

some weird posts on here.

i dont think some of you get it do you?

he's discounted chelseas chance for the title, most people agree with him there.

so he's let it be known what he's going to do so that he can highlight certain policies that the english authorities pursue  that he dosent agree with.

the fa can scream about the integrity of the competition as much as they like, because while they have given city as much help as they can, this season, they can't stop,or penalise mourinho if he puts out the team he wants.

Anyone see the book about him serialized in the Times recently. Basically paints him as a paranoid wreck and there's one tie against Barcelona detailed where they lost the first leg to a contentious goal and he sent Real out for the 2nd leg all but telling them to lose but not by much so he can blame the officials for it. Casillas went mental apparently giving a separate team talk telling the players to ignore him.



(by the way, out of all the 4 CL semi finalists Chelsea have the most "rest" between their league match and the 2nd leg. Doubt Jose will be bringing that up mind)

o4k

i think his beef is that both spanish teams were given the option,and they both declined.

probably because they didn't want to get behind in league fixtures.

He just lacks class and dignity.

Would be surprised if Athletico were given that option as they play Valencia who played tonight.

This supposed 'B' team will cost £125m - more expensive than Liverpools.

JM is a classless jackass

scotty. they were given that option, but they probably took the view that it was the best time to play valencia.

He's already had 1 game moved so maybe he needs to realize the world doesn't revolve around his whims. As said, Atleti are playing at a later time and also have to travel to England so he's already at a considerable advantage.

To me this is all just posturing and deflecting any potential blame/setting himself as some sort of messiah if he manages to win something against such oh so insurmountable odds. I'm fapping up John Cusack to play him in the movie of his travails this season. Phil Collins will be happy as Against All Odds is sure to be soundtracked and fly up the download charts.

oh right, do'nt think they have done themselves any favours there. you would of thought it would make more sense to
play valencia on the saturday, probably would have been an easier game and given them an extra days rest.

well

he really gets up some peoples noses dosen't he?

do you know what, i think he might even mean to sometimes

ours4keeps the thing with that story is nobody can then explain how a squad who had heard this inexplicable demand then went out the following season and won the league.

Slightly surprising that those players were able to get behind the manager the following season to do that don't you think? Of course it follows the story where a few days earlier he was sobbing and rocking back and forth on the floor or whatever when he thought someone had leaked the side before a league match against them.

There's been some wild and wonderful stories that have come out since he left. Him breaking down in uncontrollable sobbing seems to be the gist of the ones designed to be most humiliating. Not sure that really fits with what we've seen during his years in this country to be honest. Of course Spain does compete with this country for the worst sports journalists around which may have something to do with it.

unlike English journalists

If Atletico were given the option it would have been to move the game from this weekend just as Real were allowed to do last weekend. It wouldn't have made sense for Atletico to do it because as it is they play Valencia in between the 2 legs of the Europa semi final and will almost certainly come up against a weakened Valencia side as a result.

other than Marca journos I think the Spain ones are generally ok

Alcacer out of the second leg for Valencia (suspended) so he'll prob play now. Bernat took a knock and could be out anyway.

Marcee, don't blame me, I didn't write the book. Could be true, could be believable fiction.

The problem with the Spanish journalists is that they're often aligned to a club. Much like this country in fact where journalists seem more interested in pursuing individual agendas than actually being informative. Martin Samuel a notable exception to that.

Also re ours4keeps point about one game being moved if it hadn't have been we'd have played Sunday v Sunderland and then Tuesday night in the 1st leg. Of course that ruddy game was moved. Hardly a huge favour of them to do so though was it?

perhaps we should have put our kids out agains sunderland

then we might have wanted to put our best team out on saturday

If it was wed - tue then our game would have been the one moved, that had been made clear.


Personally I'd have expected a weaker team against the mackems than against us and think it might have worked against you with several of them having the CL game on their minds.

Yes that game would have been.

The whole reason this weakened side thing has come up though is partly because we lost that game and partly because of the events of the 1st leg. If we weren't missing Cech, Mikel, Lampard and possibly Terry for next week then there wouldn't have been the same talk of a weakened side. We also don't know the situation with Eto'o and Hazard. If they're not fit we could actually go into the Atletico game with 14 or 15 established players available even without further injuries.

i#m of the view that even if eto and hazard are fit he'll hardly start them on saturday, but probably would have done if sunderland had been beaten.

the other thing to bear in mind is who would he rather have win it "my friend brendan" or a geezer he appears to hate with a passion

I agree there's very little chance of them starting on Sunday but their fitness for the 2nd leg will go a long way in saying who'll play anyway. If they're not going to be fit then I'm not particularly eager to see Oscar or Schurrle out there at Anfield either.

Ahhh but if he listened to our fans he may very well get a different viewpoint than that

how funny would it be if their weakened team gets beat and then , with a few more injured/suspended , they lose at Cardiff or whatever and finish 5th

funkymonkey  • April 24, 2014 2:34 PM BST 


It isn't difficult to see why Mourinho would play things out this way. He knows Liverpool has his number, and he knows for 90% certainty he isn't going to win the title, and fielding a full strength side that loses easily at Anfield will bring negative media to his door.

By playing a weaker side, he can use his boring tongue in cheek rhetoric after, to imply that's the reason Liverpool won and exclude himself from any blame for being outperformed by Rogers all season.

He also knows there's a fair chance he can land his side in a Champions league final, where he puts himself in the limelight and can bathe in his egomaniac splendor, believing people will all be paying homage to his greatness (regardless of if its a true public perception or not)

It has little to do with Chelsea at all, it is all about himself. Like it was at Madrid and Inter.

Liverpool deserve the title, regardless of the mind-game moaners take on it.....and if Chelsea do make the final, im hoping its Bayern they meet, so that Guardiola can serve him up on a dish as usual. Its about the only thing that shuts him up






..cracking post...agree entirely.

Yes top post. Nail on head etc.

obviously Hazard is the biggest loss by far,but it would also be nice to have mata, lukaku and moses to call on,but then jose is a great manager.