You can't legislate for mistakes like Gerrard's. They could have played the way you think they should have, and it would have happened to a defender. The second goal doesn't really matter as it was late in the game and they were chasing a draw. 0-1 or 0-2 were similar.
Saying you played the right way seems like a Wengeresque claim. Doesn't mean it's connected to Mourinho.
You can't legislate for mistakes like Gerrard's, and the second goal didn't matter in the sense that Liverpool didn't score anyway, but Chelsea were only ever going to score in that game if Liverpool lost possession whilst their defence was high up the pitch, which is exactly what happened. Twice.
Of course it was connected to Mourinho. His comments were pretty much "anyone can play with 10 men behind the ball but we try to win the right way." He literally mentioned Mourinho's tactics as a comparison to him playing "the right way."
Chelsea weren't going to be drawn into a football match that day no matter what happened, if we'd sat back instead of pressing all that would have happened is that we'd have less of the ball. To be honest, what cost us that day was that Rodgers actually deviated too much from what we'd been doing all season. We were hitting it down the wings to cross it in far more than we'd done all season. If we'd played our regular game we'd have had more of a chance.
I don't think many people suggested we set up for a draw when Chelsea's line-up was announced, but then once we lost everyone jumped on the bandwagon.
Liverpool were only going down the wings because Chelsea stifled all of the space in the middle by sitting back so much. It was forced because that's where the space was.
I'm not saying Liverpool should have played for a draw, but they should have ensure they were defensively sound in their attempts at going for the win.
In the third and final minute of first half stoppage time, at 0-0, when your team only needs to avoid defeat to ensure that you stay clear at the top of the league, there is literally no need for a) most of your players to start streaming forward once you're in possession, b) your two central defenders, who are pretty much on the halfway line, being essentially on opposite wings, and c) for a midfielder to be dropping into the huge gap left between the two central defenders, and upon receiving the ball, frantically trying to turn and move the ball on, despite being under no pressure.
A midfielder collecting the ball off his centre back is a fairly standard part of football. Said midfielder falling flat on his face for no reason at all had nothing to do with Rodger's tactics. They were reserved enough to not concede any chances, one of their players had to gift you a goal because it was heading for a bore draw until that moment.
Chelsea had the first chance of the game, five minutes in, and had a further 4 chances prior to the slip. It's hardly like Chelsea had been no where near Liverpool's box before the goal.
Liverpool had looked shaky defensively all season, there's no reason to accept that it was any different in the Chelsea game, and whilst midfielders collect the ball off their centre-backs all the time, they tend not to do it from a squared ball on the halfway line, whilst their centre-backs are pretty much on opposite wings, with the rest of the team streaming forward.
It was incredibly naive to throw so many bodies forward so haphazardly and leave such large gaps between the defenders themselves, and the defence and the goalkeeper, when a draw
would have done. You can still try to win without needing your whole team to bomb forward every time you get the ball.
