Firstly, I want to apologise for no new posts for a while, Jenn and I just had a little boy on the 2nd April. We named him Gunnar so that the Blackburn End at Ewood Park can chant, “Ooh Gunnar Walmsley, Ooh Gunnar Walmsley,” as well as, “Gunnar Gunnar give us a goal, Gunnar, give us a goal.”

Ok, back to the Champions League quarter final first leg. What a game!

More importantly, as coaches, what can we learn?

Well, Liverpool came out flying and Torres scored a great goal. Lesson here is to never give any space to the center forward in the box and even better, do whatever you can to stop the cross coming into the box in the first place.

Next lesson, Liverpool almost immediately conceded a goal after they went 1-0 up. I found it amazing that once they took the lead, had the crowd behind them and Chelsea on the back foot, they then started knocking the ball around, keeping possession and seemed to ease up. I think it would have been better to up the tempo even more and really go for the kill. As a result of taking the foot off the gas, they relaxed too much, lost their focus and gifted a chance to Drogba. He should have put away that chance, good save by Reina though.

How many times have you seen a team score a goal and then almost immediately concede one at the other end??? This is a lesson to be stressed to your teams, when you score a goal, focus, keep your discipline and put pressure on the other team immediately.

Next, Drogba could have scored again but blasted over the bar, he went for power instead of placement, again how many times have you seen your players make this mistake. Lesson here, work on your players passing the ball into the net instead of blasting it.

Then, two set plays, two goals!! I know looking back at our last two seasons how important it is to defend set plays, especially corners. I find it amazing that Liverpool conceded two goals from two corners and they were scored by the same player, someone who most of us had never heard of. Do you think that was the problem? Liverpool probably did not know anything about this player and probably did not put any importance on him in their pre match briefings. As a result, he was not picked up properly and Liverpool paid the price.

The third Chelsea goal was all about the quality of the cross and the quality of the finish. It is important to stress to your players what a dangerous cross looks like, with pace, across the back of the defense, at a height between the chest and the knees, incredibly difficult to defend and as a forward, just needs you to nip in front of the defender and direct it towards the goal.

So, all in all a fantastic game, lots of good coaching points and lessons learned, bring on the second leg!

If you saw any other points worth sharing, leave a comment and Let’s Talk Soccer….