Great performance. We've been saving this one apparently. A few thoughts:

1. The end of the high press is welcome and I hope it continues. We looked so much more solid and so much more threatening on the break. It was noticable when Jorginho came on that we bizarrely tried to press high again. Liverpool broke the press strolled pass Jorginho and nearly scored.

2. Giroud was immense. He did very well against the best CB combo in the country. His connection with those around him was great. Unlucky not to score. Pedro despite his miss was also massive. What a match from him despite the miss. Covered every blade.

3. Billy Gilmour could well see a few more fixtures before the year is out. What a performance. He was composed received under pressure and got stuck in when needed. Kind of what we would want from Jorginho.

4. Great goal from Barkley. This bloke is so frustrating. One moment he is genius, next minute he takes the wrong option. Even for the goal he should have played in Pedro twice but choose instead to speculate from outside the box which to be fair was a ripper.

3 hours ago, SFL82 said:

You can see glimpses of what frank wants to do in games like this that why it winds me up when people blame him so harshly, look at what he has and some of the performances we put in, his vision and his style of play are brilliant. 
 

Imagine this side with ziach one of cho or pulasic on the wings, Tellas at lb and RLC instead of Barkley, we would certainly be challengers I feel. 

Have to disagree here. We played totally differently to how we have recently. We sat and countered and did it brilliantly. 

The high press was gone which made us more compact in defence (two solid banks of defenders bought a little tear to my eye) we also went long from goalkicks to avoid Klopps gengenpressing and our recent struggles playing from the back.

This should have been the model for the Bayern game too. Hopefully we see Frank use it more often from here on ib. 

Great performance and the team will be buzzing after that. Could have done without the injuries but on the positive side that means we will probably see more of Billy Gilmour now ?

Great win, great performance.

Well done to all.

Ya Beauty !

3 hours ago, Slojo said:

Liverpool fans keep saying this while completely ignoring we started with an 18 year old in midfield and half of our side are our 2nd choice. 

Ah Liverpool fans and excuses eh...

6 hours ago, bluesfan said:

What about Kepa's performance? I think he saved everything that could be saved. Let's hope his form continues to improve.

Great performance. Just shows what a good keeper he can be.

Billy Gilmour was immense, to say the least.

Giroud led the line (well you know what I mean) very well.

We could and probably should have scored a couple more goals,with the really good chances we had.

However I am delighted with a 2-0 win over them.

BBC pundits last night unanimously declare we were by far the better team and that's the best they've seen us play all season.

 

BBC Breakfast News Sports headline - "Liverpool knocked out of the cup by goalkeeping error"

 

No narrative at all, mind.

All I’ve heard today from the media is “should Klopp have played a full strength team”.

With all our injuries we probably played more 2nd string players than them.

Anything to discredit a well deserved victory and make excuses for their darlings Liverpool.

2 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

BBC pundits last night unanimously declare we were by far the better team and that's the best they've seen us play all season.

 

BBC Breakfast News Sports headline - "Liverpool knocked out of the cup by goalkeeping error"

 

No narrative at all, mind.

No! Missed that and I was watching this morning to see what spin they would put on it. Strangely the sports news when I saw it was concentrating on Watfords mascot and no mention of their darlings even playing last night

Excellent result! My quick thoughts:

 - Barkley a frustrating talent. Clearly has skill / talent, but too often makes the wrong decision for me. This performance summed him up perfectly, sublime moments surrounded by a a lack of vision and some poor decisions in critical areas

 - Gilmour was immense. Not only on the ball, but his directing of play. He is vocal, shows no fear and was a breath of fresh air. Have a lot of hope for him becoming a star. Hope he sees a bit more game time through the run in. Thought we looked a bit exposed with him, Mount and Barkley in CM but the Willian injury and Jorginho coming on, Mount moving to the left 'wing' seemed to fix that.

 - Kepa deserves a recall. Big Willy hasnt exactly set the world alight or changed any of the underlying stats. Kepa's ceiling is higher and he did everything right last night.

 - Giroud. Not much more I can say. He helps us relieve some of the pressure through his hold up play, heading etc. As we don't keep possession well when in front, we need someone like him. His link up play and general effort was also excellent. Miles ahead of Bat Man for me (I like Michy and want him to do well but...)

 - Alonso our best left sided option. Was solid defensively (can't always say that) and useful in attack. The extra dimension going forward when we sometimes lack a solution makes up for the defensive weaknesses in my view.

At points during the game, I was still worried about a few things, particularly our ability to maintain possession and look solid. Shape wasnt too bad and we seemed more disciplined, but still looks quite open to me at times. Also, we played out the back horrendously.

Take nothing away - great result. Lets hope the draw is kind....Que sera sera....

10 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Assuming no upsets it would be nice if the draw ended up as:

 

Sheff United vs Leicester 

Man united vs Man City

Chelsea vs Newcastle

Spurs vs Arsenal.

I want to Get the mancs as in United and put them gibsh*tes to the sword for a change 

11 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Assuming no upsets it would be nice if the draw ended up as:

 

Sheff United vs Leicester 

Man united vs Man City

Chelsea vs Newcastle

Spurs vs Arsenal.

Top set of matches that, gotta agree that would be the best for us+likely to be most entertaining set of quarter-finals possible this year

Tell me I wasn't the only one yelling "Pass the ball you ******" just before Barkley scored.

Fabulous win.

Gilmour's performance and Kepa's return were the highlights of the night.

57 minutes ago, ZippyNW said:

Tell me I wasn't the only one yelling "Pass the ball you ******" just before Barkley scored.

You weren't alone there, I was also screaming at him to pass the ball and then..... boooom! 

There was a very similar previous occasion few minutes before where Barkley was undecided to whether to take on his man, pass the ball to Pedro or shoot himself, and at the end none of the above happened and he lost the ball to a defender.

1 hour ago, ZippyNW said:

Tell me I wasn't the only one yelling "Pass the ball you ******" just before Barkley scored.

I was actually yelling shoot. And he did thank god.
Great atmosphere at the bridge last night even in the upper west. It was a difference out-singing the away fans for once, who ironically came in more numbers for this game.  Lots of plastic scousers who are quieter than their usual lot maybe. I thought they were crap on and off the pitch. Surprisingly soft in the center with Fabinho particularly awful, getting the run around from a 5’5” 18 year old. Scotland spanking Brazil for a change.
I felt relaxed watching it, thinking they were sh*t apart from the odd Mane turn or run by Robertson.
Everton and Ancelotti will be a much harder test in a strange way. We won’t be able to play on the counter so it will be a tough match especially with the injuries. Fancy us to sneak it though.

All in all a brilliant night and result, just hope we don't draw Man Ure at home in the quarters (providing they can beat Derby)

The previous 25 pages highlight the virtues of the performance much better than I can, but I just hope that this really is the "tonic" that the side needs to play up in the last 2 months of the season and nick that 4th (3rd maybe) place? If it hadn't been for 1. The ban, 2. The Injuries 3. Youth being somewhat inconsistent and 4. not having a very good pair of keepers, I have zero doubt that we could have finished runners up.  If we can get a few lads off of the injury table and collectively take delight and confidence from the Spurs and Dippers performances, we have a real chance.  I'm more worried about Wolves and Sheff Utd than Spurs or Arsenal and I think the battle will be between Man Ure and us and I think both of us can finish above Leicester.

5 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

BBC pundits last night unanimously declare we were by far the better team and that's the best they've seen us play all season.

 

BBC Breakfast News Sports headline - "Liverpool knocked out of the cup by goalkeeping error"

 

No narrative at all, mind.

Sky are even worse. I remember a few years back when Clattenburg admitted to bottling the 2-2 game against Spurs because he was afraid to send any of their players off. The headline on Sky was "Clattenburg helped Spurs Implode", not "Clattenburg let Spurs try to injure our players and get away with two footed tackles". Spurs were the victims somehow, I'm not into all the tinfoil hat anti Chelsea media malarky but there are some things just blatent out there, Liverpool are definitely one of them, they're absolutely loved by the mainstream media. 

18 hours ago, ddrblue said:

I can never understand why corner takers think what addvantage

It's mental... getting a little extra space away from the corner flag makes you feel like you have a cleaner swing... like being under a tree playing golf, you KNOW you have enough room, but it's just in your head that you might hit a branch with a back swing. 

When I was a kid, right footed on the left side, the first time I saw a corner flag, I uprooted it and threw it to the side... lol

There's so little room for a run up on some of these pitches as well, that any little advantage, even if it's just mental, is still an advantage you want.

It has taken about 20 hours, but I've finally noticed we didn't play in our sharp anniversary kit yesterday. Shame, it's beautiful.

I didn't see this video on the thread & I thought I would share it

Got a feeling we will get City away next round ?

3 hours ago, Skinnedy said:

It's mental... getting a little extra space away from the corner flag makes you feel like you have a cleaner swing... like being under a tree playing golf, you KNOW you have enough room, but it's just in your head that you might hit a branch with a back swing. 

When I was a kid, right footed on the left side, the first time I saw a corner flag, I uprooted it and threw it to the side... lol

There's so little room for a run up on some of these pitches as well, that any little advantage, even if it's just mental, is still an advantage you want.

Iam trying to take onboard what you have pointed out ,but for iam dam sure of myself that this thought process of nicking a inch two help a players mindset when taking a corner never happened in the 1970s,80s,90s,early 2000s and its only came into the game in last few years .would love to know what player or team that started the ball rolling with this mindset .

Was traveling yesterday so didn't manage to see it live.  I was pleased to read about Barkley getting a goal, and that Kepa had made some great saves.  Manged to watch it on replay today and I think Kepa had a very good game, but other than the goal Barkley again showed that he's a backup player at best.  

What a shaky start to that game, and I wonder if that comes from changes in the CB pairing, but thankfully didn't concede and then took the game to Liverpool which was refreshing to see.  Yes they had about 7 changes, but still a great team and we should hold our heads high.

Injuries look to really plague us this season, and I'm struggling to think what formation we play against Everton at the weekend.  I hope Kova is fit, because in the post match interview, Lamaprd said that even RLC knows that he's not fully match fit, so I can't see him starting.  I could see us playing 3-4-3 but who makes up the midfield 2 I don't know!

Love seeing Billy getting MOTM, I felt he'd get overrun in the midfield but his composure was exemplary for a lad of only 18; he looked more mature than some of his seniors in that game. I try not to get too hyped about him, as anyone that's known me over the years knows that I've longed to see another Scotsman in the ranks of Chelsea.  I hope he gets a couple more games, or at least game time while Jorginho is out.

Frustrating that we didn't score more, but onto the next round, so that's all that matters.  I do have to call out Pedro, though.  I though he played well, but frustrating.  His defensive contribution was exceptional, his finishing was maddening.  I think he ran out of steam around the 75 minute mark, and therefore I think he's got to be replaced in the starting 11 next season.  Hopefully by then all our young lads, and Ziyech will be ready to go.  Absolute stalwart of a player, and I'll miss him, but the time is right to accept that this is his final season with us.

20 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Assuming no upsets it would be nice if the draw ended up as:

 

Sheff United vs Leicester 

Man united vs Man City

Chelsea vs Newcastle

Spurs vs Arsenal.

Iam sat watching the Spurs v Norwich game now 1-1 85 mins played and if i was a betting man i put a few ££££
on the later as the spuds dont look interested at all