KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Benitez Comments against Hodgeson

Let's not forget that Essien and Lampard were absent, and Drogba only played 45 minutes, so we got this game at the right time. That's not to say I didn't see the improvement in our play. I did, and credit to all involved. Ancellotti may have been banking on us playing poorly in the first 45, as we have all season, but we instead played our best 45 then, and Torres turned on the style.

Solid all-round performance, from the goal scorer, to Lucas, to Kelly, to Reina stopping two strikes that may have earned them an undeserved point, lucky or no.

And I guess one has to give Roy a nod as well. Prior to the game I asked myself if it would really be fair on him to sack him should we lose, and tbh I couldn't say it would have been. They are the champions, they were very good defensively this season, and they were clear at the top by 5 points going into the weekend. Can't say Roy would have deserved the sack on the strength of a loss yesterday, even coming with us in 12th after 10 games and having been in the relegation zone a fortnight earlier.

But we won instead, against a side that easily beat us home and away last season, and we even managed to look comfortable doing it. You've done something right as a manager when that happens; whether it's tactics or morale or whatever. So credit to Roy. He's managing to get us out of the hole he got us into, but we've a long way to go yet. I'm still not convinced he's the right guy for the job, but at least we're playing football again so maybe he's learning from his mistakes; perhaps a case of him adapting to LFC rather than the players to his methods (I certainly hope so anyway). 3 moderately easy games to come, and hopefully we can continue to win.

No, I'm not going to come up with "Roy OUT!" when we next lose, even if it is our next game. I prefer quality football to the result, and we got that bit right for a whole game finally. He needs to show he can maintain it now, not lapse into bad habits now that he's dodged the bullet (assuming he has). He's not forgiven, but he has earned a reprieve.

I think all of you should take from wise words of Kelly, you are only good as your last game, so lets enjoy the win keep rafa out he done it for 6 seasons and is legend for many fans.

Roy has started something lets see where he takes it, next game.

This has nothing to do with rafa anymore and its just about Liverpool, and what roy does rite or wrong now. (one super game won't make are season)

So what was the difference in what you are saying about being outplayed second half in possession and territory against Chelsea then say What Roy said about our second half performance against Everton where we done exactly the same and Roy was slaughtered for saying the same thing.

Agree there, Lorenzo. I (and several others) have been calling for his head mainly on the strength of how shocking our football has been. But yesterday was a departure from that norm, and I'm willing to let him show me it wasn't a fluke. The players could very well have been really up for the game and it had nothing to do with the manager, but I'm willing to give him credit for it anyway. We did have some momentum going into the game, and that's not usually the result of luck (even if we were far from convincing against Bolton, and needed that special Gerrard magic against Napoli).

You've shown us we can still play, so now show us that we've really turned the corner, Roy.

still managed a couple of gilt edged chances, so we were doing something right. so far, no other team beat chelsea the way we did yesterday, and that may be their biggest defeat of the season. well done red men.

The difference was that we comprehensively outplayed Chelsea in the first half, while the Everton game was just more of the same rubbish in the halves. What LFC1984 is saying there was that Chelsea upped their game with the introduction of Drogba, and maybe we were clinging onto our lead by our fingernails. Everton we were just dire, and Roy deserved every strong word given to him after.

Chalk and cheese.

that's not fair. everyone blames him when we lose, then when we beat the champions 2 nil roy's got nothing to do with it?

of course not. we were great in the 1st half and we stood up in the 2nd. it's only natural for chelsea to dominate possession in the 2nd half when they were trying to get back into the game.

I dont think Everton were Dire though, I thought they came out of the blocks at 100 mile an hour and hunted us down in packs first half and made it really difficult to play against. Second half I thought we gradualy got a foothold in the game possesion wise and forced them onto the backfoot without really creating any proper chances. The point I am making is that Chelsea are being credited on here for there second half posssion even though they never scored yet when Roy said in an interview he was happy with our second half performance which was exactly the same he was ridiculed, so am asking whats the difference.

1st half we outplayed them and were the better side, better football and we scored twice.

They were always going to come out in the 2nd half the way they did, i wasn't shocked at that, majority of there attacks were perfectly defended.

Look at it this way... in the 1st half we were the better attacking side and chelsea's defence wasn't good enough to keep us out. We tested them and they failed.

In the second half it was our turn to show our defensive capabilities and they really pushed to attack, once again we outplayed there defensive capabilities by defending almost perfect 90% of the time, were as they failed to do this against us.

So overall we attacked better and when it was asked of us we defended better than they could. We outplayed them and were clearly a better side over the course of the game.