Pochettino: ‘In all of the areas they were better than us’

Did not expect a victory at Anfield. Did not get one either.

Not sure if I’m at the bargaining or the acceptance stage of my football grief. Apathy perhaps?

Unfortunately, Chelsea didn’t seem to expect a victory at Anfield either, despite the words of Mauricio Pochettino before the game.

The words of Mauricio Pochettino after the game also reflected the sad reality of it all. Outplayed, outfought, outthought, outgunned, out-pretty-much-everythinged. The penalty shouts may have changed the outcome (goals almost always do change games), but given how the rest of the 90+ minutes played out, it’s hard to grasp at those as anything more than some very weak straws. No Premier League team had more shots against us in the last 20 years than the 28 Liverpool put up (13 on target, also a record).

Pochettino loves a positive spin, but even he had to dig deep to find any in this one.

“The performance wasn’t good from us. They deserved to win, they were better than us. [We] didn’t perform in the way we wanted to perform. They were better than us from the first action, through the 90 minutes. This is the type of game when you say, ‘Well done, Liverpool’. In the final, I think we need to approach the game in a different way and I think it will be different.”

As an example what NOT to do, especially against the same team in the upcoming League Cup final, this game certainly had it all.

“They were more aggressive than us. For us it was difficult to connect and play. It was difficult to recover the ball at the first or the second touch. We lose the ball so easily. They won all the duels. [They] compete better, in all of the areas they were better than us.

“[We] want to be there and compete with a team like Liverpool who have been very good over the last few years, one of the best in England. We need to improve and learn from this type of game. [We] are going to be at Wembley [and] if we were to compete in the same way as today, for sure it is going to be the same result. If we don’t improve, then it’s going to be difficult. [We] need to improve because the way we were talking from the beginning [and] we need to push ourselves a little bit more.”

Yeah, we’re going to have to push a whole lot more.