Was a brilliant game, ourselves and Chelsea played great football. Still can’t get my head around why Chelsea substituted the goalkeeper when Mendy had a superb game. My husband said “I bet he misses” and he did
That tactic only works if you seriously don't trust the goalkeeper in the net at the time, which is frankly ridiculous considering Mendy's form since joining Chelsea. tbh Kepa should have started and I wouldn't be surprised if he was irked that he wasn't. If the plan all along was to bring him on for pens then you should trust him to do the game. This has been his tournament this season, and so dropping him was harsh for me. By comparison Klopp trusted Kelleher and it paid off.
Just the whole irony of it coming down to a Kepa miss of all things. By all measures, they could have had a literal cardboard cutout of Kepa come in and get the exact same result. I was looking up the stats of Kepa's record, and it is quite decent in 7 saves in 24 against Mendy's 2 in 30. It's obviously a lot closer now that you tack on 11 more non-saves, but in a vacuum, the move made sense. Theoretically, Kepa, statistically guarantees you a save in every 5 attempts, unfortunately for them this wasn't in a vacuum. Between the size of the occasion, to Mendy's individual performance, it was a calculated risk that didn't pay off on this occasion. To what Klopp said post-match, there's still a human element that needs to be taken into account, and that ended up being the deciding factor. Any other way, then we'd just settle the match on an Excel document.
For me it is one of those things, something can work but eventually logic dictates that it won't work. This was almost like a spectacular version of that since Kepa not only had a poor shootout in goal but he skied a decisive penalty. Poetic. I would also say that the keeper who plays the match should be doing the shootout and to do otherwise is overthinking. Kepa didn't seem ready at all and put more effort into his little mind games. Which is laughable against this Liverpool side. As if fannying about is going to faze the likes of Milner, Salah, VVD.
Had it been any other opponent other than Liverpool, I'd agree. Lost track of the amount of screamers you lot had against Kepa. Pretty widely known he's poor in this area and is now clearly targeted. Even Youri Tielemans after the FA Cup final said he was specifically instructed to test Kepa from long range.
I agree. But I also agree in dropping a keeper that has a very poor history against a side that has constantly worked his biggest weakness.
It's understandable, I was worried pre-match about Kelleher but I respect the call and understood it. I guess Tuchel is just far less sentimental than Klopp. At the same time I think he should have stuck with Mendy in net for the shootout once he made that call.
Tuchel started Kepa in the FA Cup final last year tbf. Had he started Kepa last night who knows what would've happened. End of the day, no shame in losing a final like that.
Also just imagine the added pressure of being put in as the "specialist" on it. The very definition of "you have one job." Would take some mental fortitude to be able to take that in during a cup final. Don't envy Kepa in that situation, especially seeing how spectacular Mendy had been for 119 minutes+.
I think that's probably the best 0-0 I've ever seen. Literally unbelievable there wasn't any goals - double save from Mendy, Mount missed a couple sitters, woodwork got hit a couple times, 4 disallowed goals, Lukaku had a great chance right at the death, Salah should've scored... crazy for that to end 0-0.
Just went to check his record and is it actually that good? He has no penalty saves in particularly high pressure scenarios outside of shootouts. Since joining Chelsea he has made 3 saves and 1 was in a league game against Everton, 1 was in the Champions League group stages against Valencia and the other was against Plymouth at home in the FA Cup. Chelsea lost a shootout in their last League Cup final against City with him in the net. The Super Cup is a glorified friendly and it was against Villareal. They lost the Super Cup on pens the season before against Liverpool with him in goal. His record going into yesterday was 3 won-2 lost and now it is 3-3. What a myth. His 3 shootouts wins were against Villareal, Eintracht Frankfurt and... Spurs.
Van Dijk back to his imperious best ,Trent defending with last ditch challenges like his life depended on it and Diaz just exceptional whenever he has the ball at his feet and Kelleher cool as a cucumber throughout .Great game ,superb atmosphere and just such a glorious day. I feel like sh*t though as I only got back from London this morning from traveling down Saturday and practically every limb is aching like I've threw myself through the Tough Mudder f*cking twice , so I'm guessing it was all the hugs and kisses being passed around at Wembley. Oh and not forgetting the added earache off the Mrs for not phoning from the Hotel on Saturday night. All worth it though and if it costs me a few handbags then I can deal with that
I mean that's part of it, right? Again, on paper, 1 in 5 looks fantastic for what it is, but that removes any other form of context. So to be labeled a specialist is just unwanted pressure. It's already nerve-wracking enough having to take 1 and subbed in before the end of extra time with the intention of you scoring one, let alone being the GK in that situation. Anyways, better him than us... I think I saw somewhere that Kelleher is now Liverpool's all-time leader in shootout wins, is that true? I think he has 3 under his belt
Mendy: Faced 32 penalties in his career. Saved 2 (one of which was the Aguero failed panenka). Kepa: Faced faced 23 penalties. Saved 7. Kepa’s also won 6 out of 8 shootouts in his career. Find in bizarre how much has been made of this sub. Kepa is statistically a far better option for a penalty shootout. He obviously can’t guarantee success but in the same way I’d prefer Jorginho taking a penalty over Kante you go with what history tells you.
Those numbers you’ve quoted are match penalties not shootouts so they won’t change based on yesterday. Kepa has still won 6 of 9 penalty shootouts. Honestly so so bizarre people are challenging this sub so much. Do people not know there are no guarantees in penalties? Salah can miss a penalty and Kelleher can score. You’d still want Salah taking them because you know he’s got a better track record.
These late offside calls are becoming a genuine threat to a players physical welfare. I lost count of how many times Chelsea were quite clearly offside and yet they were still allowed to get the final shot off on goal before a flag was shown. I actually thought Chelseas attacks were superbly marshaled by our back four pushing up and holding a high line ,it had shades of the Burnley game were the majority of their chances were offside. Other than ,I don't believe we ever looked in danger of losing that game ,albeit from when Keita left the field and we introduced a slower and decidedly less adventurous player in Milner and similarly when the drive and magic of Diaz was replaced. Only then did Chelsea start to get a grip on the middle and start really pushing for a goal after there was less of a threat from our front line and indeed the supply to them. I'd say Mendy was absolutely superb throughout and spared Chelsea a mauling ,but I suppose the Chelsea fans could say similar of Kelleher and like many fans inside Wembley I was positively elated when he was withdrawn from action and then I was equally as delighted when that Beaut Kepa ballooned his spot kick after his attempts to throw the penalty takers out of their stride. Lovely day.
We missed 3 sitters and had a goal ruled out because their bicep was offside and you have the arrogance to think you “never looked in danger of losing that game”. Do you not see how silly that makes your opinion look?
