Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic reopens Liverpool tensions with ‘defending’ jibe
• If you defend, you have to know how to defend’
• Mourinho accused of being ultra-defensive in 2-0 Anfield win
• Defeat effectively cost Liverpool the title
The simmering enmity between Chelsea and Liverpool has resurfaced ahead of the teams’ meeting at Anfield on Saturday after Nemanja Matic suggested sides must “know how to defend” to deliver the solidity which so infuriated the Merseyside club in the corresponding fixture back in April.
The visitors’ 2-0 success that day brought to a juddering halt Liverpool’s 11-match winning streak, and effectively wrested the destiny of the Premier League title from their hands, with Brendan Rodgers subsequently disdainful of José Mourinho’s methods in securing the victory. His post-match comments tested the pair’s friendship, with the Liverpool manager claiming Chelsea had “parked two buses, never mind one” and that it was “not hard to coach 10 players to be on the edge of the 18-yard box”.
Luis Suárez, in his autobiography released on Thursday, even claimed one of Chelsea’s players had expressed misgivings about Mourinho’s time-wasting tactics during the game. The Liverpool manager subsequently contacted Mourinho to clarify his comments and congratulate him on the win, though his own side, who have won only once in five matches in all competitions, remain defensively vulnerable despite spending £43m on Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno and the loanee Javi Manquillo in the summer.
“Many teams this season have tried to park the bus in front of the goal against us, but we win,” said Matic. “It’s not easy. If you defend, you have to know how to defend. In that game (in April) we showed we have quality. Nobody’s happy when you lose a game, and they weren’t happy after that match.
“Now is a different story, and we play a different way, but I’m happy because we play a big game on Saturday. We will see how we are going to play. I am surprised to see where Liverpool are, of course. They have a good team and I didn’t expect that they would be in this position. But we are ready, we are first in the table and we want to stay there.”
Liverpool’s toils to date this term have already left them trailing the leaders by 12 points with Chelsea hoping to establish a club record 17-match unbeaten start to a campaign in all competitions on Saturday. Roles have very much been reversed from the spring, when Rodgers had appeared to be on the verge of delivering his club’s first league title since 1990, his team carrying all before them, only for momentum to be checked by Mourinho and Manchester City’s late burst of form to reclaim the championship at the death.
“Last season was completely different from this one,” said Matic’s compatriot, Branislav Ivanovic. “It was three games to go, they were fighting for the title and they wanted to win – they struggled in a must-win. Now it is different. We are top of the table, we are going there knowing it will be difficult, but also that our team knows how to win there. It will be a very exciting game, but we know what we have to do. We have a lot of things to do to be successful and get points from Anfield.”
Chelsea returned to their Surrey base in the small hours of Thursday after their unimpressive 1-1 draw against Maribor and, with a warm-down and recovery session scheduled for the afternoon, will have only one day to undertake specific preparations ahead of the televised lunchtime kick-off on Merseyside. While Mourinho has been critical of the scheduling, with Liverpool benefiting from an extra 24 hours’ rest since their defeat at Real Madrid, his squad remain realistic.
“We still have two days to recover, this is usual, and it’s not our first time to play that,” added Ivanovic. “We know [how to prepare] and we are professional, and we have to do a lot of things to be ready for that game. It’s one of the massive, crucial games for us and for this kind of game you always have to find extra motivation. It’s not about the tightness or fitness.
“The Maribor game is a reminder [that standards must be maintained]. We cannot relax and know how our performance has to be to get the points. If we play against Liverpool like we did in Slovenia, we know it’s not possible.”
