I don't think it was a lack of commitment from our players, they ran themselves into the ground.
But sometimes the stats don't lie, 31 shots, 15 on target, 1 goal. Says it all really, their keeper didn't need to perform miracles to keep us out, the finishing was dreadful.

The referee got it wrong (and so did his assistant) for the penalty, but I don't think it was a blatant error. As soon as he went down I thought..oh shit. As Gus Poyet said afterwards it was one of those 50/50 situations and they got lucky.

Oh well, I'll settle for the Champion's League this season. A few summer signings and we'll clear up next year.

Terrible day, we have basically handed the title to Liverpool now.

We blame the strikers so often but bloody hell is it really that hard to thread a ball into the area ? I feel that Eto'o and Ba would get a lot more goals if our midfield would actually do something when they approach the oppositions penalty area instead of just pass it 5 yards sideways.

The ref had another terrible day, Ramires was lucky not to be sent off he was also lucky not have penalty in his favour after basically being smashed into on the goal line. The penalty they got was ridiculous and so frigging typical of the way modern day players are. Altidore is a cheat, he is too useless to score himself so he cons the ref, the problem is the refs buy it every time.

Things need to change because since the Newcastle win we have been hanging on. Our performances are woeful at times and if it wasn't for our defense we would be struggling for a top 4 finish.

Maybe if we stopped spending ridiculous amounts of money on overrated players we may see a more consistent midfield. Seriously, the amount we have spent on the midfield is ridiculous considering how up and down they are.

Commitment/balls. I think both apply to certain individuals. We have 5 players who play the AM positions, but only Hazard has the courage to try and make things happen. (Salah looks good, but the others should be better by now) Willian has such great close-control on the ball I really don't get why he's so afraid to take players on Oscar's had a terrible season and Schurrle seems incapable of being useful 2 games in-a-row.

The defeats earlier in the season I could take because our defence was so bad. They've improved so much since Christmas that losing the 3 matches we have recently have pissed me off more than I thought possible

I thought Willian had a great game ? He was everywhere, prompting and probing, looking for openings. Not much end product though, I agree with you there. I also agree with you about Oscar, a few lame attempts on goal but nothing more. I thought Schurrle looked quite dangerous when he came on, and Salah caused a few problems.
I'd still blame our strikers. We tried all three and none of them looked like scoring in the second half even if they'd carried on playing for another hour. Ivanovich often looks our most dangerous player, doesn't say much for our strike force.

Rui Faria looked so pissed off and I can't blame him. Ref had a bad game but our performance was worse. Move on to the next game.

We seemed to run out if ideas. Without Hazard its a struggle.
If Liverpool win tomorrow I suspect we will play a weakened team next Sunday.
May as well rest players.

This. Let's hope for better in the Champions League.

We went into this season with our eyes wide open knowing our shortcomings and problems and act surprised after every game when they are exploited, They are not suddenly going to disappear just because we have a chance of winning the title, I expect us to have a chance of winning the title every year that is just the bare minimum I expect.

We have done the very best we could have done this season and that's all I can ever ask from the team and the manager and something I could not say over the last two season's, yes we have done quite well but no where near the level we could have done.

As for Jose's comments I quite frankly don't care what he says in interviews, I have never seen the point of them, they seem rather pointless to me (apart from giving the comics something to print and the rest of the media something to talk about to justify their rather pointless jobs) so he might as well say something for them to talk about.

We are one or two players from a title winning squad and I pretty sure that will be sorted out in the summer.

The ref was not the best and we should highlight those issues but that was not the main reason we lost, We knew coming into this season we would have these issues and all though the season they have been as clear as anything, If we was scoring 4 goals a game but conceding goals I would be concerned as I knew defence would be our strength going into the season.

I'm reading through the posts and wonder wtf is going on in here!!!

I'm getting it in the neck for pointing out the bleeding obvious about what Jose has done to our creativity and flair, then see this kind of post.
He swaps our player of the year, our top goal scorer and the one with most assists, for someone who rarely scores and rarely assists. He did that because Willian sweats a cup full more than Mata during a game.
Oscar now looks like a 5 million pound player.
We have lost a shedload of points to crap teams at the bottom end of the table, and questions are being asked about the commitment of players in matches against the lower teams.
We are where we are because Utd have totally collapsed. Arsenal remain average and Spurs have gone backwards. If it wasn't for that and the efforts of Hazzard, we'd be out of the top 4.

Our strikers are shit, but the other players should know this by now. I can't help thinking that players with such high reputations (high enough to cost so much) should be able to find a way to compensate for such glaring inadequacies. Instead, the closer they get to the opposition box the more aimless our play becomes. Pointless little sideways passes, a ball to Ivanovic so he can hit the first defender, or long-range shots from players who can barely score from 2 yards, let alone 20. They should be looking to run at defenders, run past them, draw a foul, take a shot at goal.......anything but look for our strikers. Ba and Eto'o might get the rebounds, but they're not good for much else. Just pretend they aren't even there.......
Only Hazard seems to have the belief that he can make something happen. Willian is good on the ball, but lacks the same direct approach where it matters......

Seems like I watched a differrent match, are people seriously claiming the late penalty for Sunderland wasn't one? It was blatant, Altidore had his leg taken away. Shearer & Hansen said likewise, nor thought Larssons challenge was a penalty either. Ramirez elbow wasn't as bad as I was expecting either but was Deans only mistake. The linesman could've spotted the the handball.

All these so called "experts" have different opinions. I'm perfectly willing to accept that the referee and his assistant made a genuine mistake, but it wasn't a penalty.
If you look at the incident from behind (the camera facing the Chelsea end) you can see Altidore Stick his left leg out at a completely unnatural angle to tread on Azpil's calf.
I'm not saying he did that deliberately to give him an excuse to go down, but that's the suspicion. It would have been much easier to just continue a more natural route and cross with his right foot.

I wouldn't particularly argue with any of that, apart from saying that it's probably easier said than done. Don't forget we have adopted similar tactics ourselves (getting bodies behind the ball) with some success.
We sill managed 30+ shots on goal, but most of those were pretty pathetic and didn't require any heroics from their keeper to keep out. That's an average of a shot every 3 minutes, it's not like we weren't piling on the pressure.
I think some posters are just overcome with disappointment. I'm gutted as well, but I honestly don't think our performance was quite as bad as some are making out.
It was another of those freakish games. We conceded a goal when Schwarzer spilled the ball, then another from a dodgy penalty. After scoring first, we could just as easily have broken through again, gone 2/3 goals up and coasted the rest of the game. Everyone on here would be happy (accept Dixon, he never is. ) and looking foward to the week ahead.

I think you get it in the neck due to your ever changing views though to be fair you have been consistent with Jose.
We are still in a better place than last season. Let's not forget, which you always do, that Rafa took us out of a title challenge and the CL.
Your last point is just nonsense. Liverpool have replaced United.

It really was.

Norwich have got one back, could be an exciting last half-hour. Liverpool looking vulnerable in defence.

Oh well, forget that. 3-1.

No problem about him being pissed off - that's passion - - but his behaviour will bring a ban if not the sack.

Why, I thought it was extremely sporting of Jose to congratulate Mike Dean on his officiating ?

Only if you think that the interviews are meant to be serious journalism and are not looking for and designed for exactly that type of response

Exactly. These managers are forced to speak to them and they should be allowed to say whatever the hell they like. The only ones that seem to truly speak their mind is Mourinho, Pardew, Redknapp, and Sherwood.

I don't really understand how people can say it is embarrassing what Mourinho said, what the hell is so embarrassing about it ?

Rodgers has also already been fined this season for speaking his mind.

Well done to Jose for his intelligent use of sarcasm though. How can the FA charge you for 'congratulating' a ref?

He was well within his rights to say what he wanted to.

It's an unwritten rule that Liverpool must win the title this season for dear old Steven Gerrard. To finish his trophy cabinet.
Also so Liverpool can return to the top table in English football.
Jose has realised that and is unhappy that football isn't the motivation for championship winners.
Refereeing will determine the title as it has for 20odd yrs.
It's just a new team in red.

Blue most certainly is not the FA's colour!!!

It's nice to know you spout rubbish in other threads too.

Mourinho had the hump, nothing more. Chelsea have had their fair share of dodgy decisions too, same as everyone else.

Liverpool are top of the league because they've played the best football this season.

Who knows....we may be celebrating in Lisbon come 24 May.

Even if we don't win anything this season, I'm happy with the team in the sense that we are progressing. I agree with @The_don1 in that we did have shortcomings coming into the season (CM, ST) and with the squad that we've got I think Jose has done a pretty good job! We were (are? - depending on how optimistic you are ) still in the title race with 3/4 games left and we are on the cusp of another European final with a strike force consisting of Eto'o, Ba and Torres; our best CM is cup-tied and we're playing a RB in a LB position! It's nuts to think we're in this position! Of course you could argue Jose could've sorted the obvious issues in summer but I guess he was still learning about the team.

Mou has been downplaying our chances all season and you can see why (and it's not because of mind games!!!!!) He knows our team isn't ready. Look at his comments before the Arsenal away game:


He needed to make our team more defensively solid because we can't outscore our opponents every single game like Liverpool or City can. We just can't.

However, you could argue there were times this season where Mou was overly cautious in his approach. If we're playing at home, I want to see our fullbacks offering more support and for Oscar to have less defensive responsibilities so he can contribute to attack more (hopefully this will be rectified once we bring in another CM or use MVG?). I loved the quick movement between our players when we played against Stoke at home recently but we didn't see any of that yesterday and that played right into Sunderland's hands.

In short, once Mou brings in the right players I'm sure we will see more attacking football whilst still maintaining good results.

Ban would suffice, but the sack? I think that's a tad too harsh. Whenever I see him in the dug-out he always looks so laid back but the emotion just got the better of him yesterday - he's only human.

Challenging for the title is also not enough(although the number one priority), we need to build a squad also capable of getting to at least the semi-finals of two cups, I am not expecting us to win things every season but I don't expect us to be playing 2 games a week for as much of the season as possible. Even winning the title if we played as few games as Liverpool have done I would consider this season a slight failure. I would expect all 3 teams at the top of the league to be playing a similar amount of games per season. It's not always what you do in the season that's a good judgement of how it's gone but also what you did not do