Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti, has let rip on his team after an unconvincing win over Apoel last night. Chelsea got their noses in front early but failed to increase their 1-0 advantage, regardless of the fact that they had a number of good chances.

Ancelotti said: “I wanted Chelsea to play better and to take more control, to play with courage. But I think that at this stage of the season it’s normal. We have to change. They ran a lot, but we have to play better.”

“It wasn’t a good performance. We started with good control, scored a goal, and we had opportunities to do quick counter-attacks after that, but we didn’t do that.”

“In the second half it was different. We tried to control the game with possession, but we made a lot of mistakes. Nicosia played very well in the second half and deserved to draw the game.”

Captain, John Terry, speaking ahead of the next Premier League match with Liverpool, added: “We have to be better. They are a very good side who had a tough result yesterday [a 2-0 defeat away to Fiorentina]. They will be up for it and they are a big club so we will have to respond again when we play them.”

“Ideally you want to play well and win. We haven’t been at our best tonight, but there were times when we passed it well and we came away with three points, so you can’t ask for more.”

The weak performance is being used by Chelsea critics as evidence over why they will never be able to win the Champions League under the current management and structure.

They need to be stamping their authority all over games and teams such as this because when they come up against a better side they will not be allowed to get away with it.

The frustrations last night were clear as Terry himself got involved with a player right at the end of the game but the point is that a win is a win. Chelsea can take another three points away with them and they should be satisified that they are looking good for qualification.

There is time and space to get some hard work done ahead of tougher and more important games but for now the focus should switch to beating Liverpool this coming weekend in the Premier League, where they have just seen their lead slip.

Liverpool were soundly beaten by Champions League qualifiers, Fiorentina, 2-0 during a long night in Italy. Two goals from 19 year old, Stefan Jovetic, were enough to bag the Italian team three points and highlight a number of worrying points for Rafael Benitez to look at.

It was one of the worst performances by a Liverpool team in Europe over the last few years and they never looked as though they would threaten at any point. The result will be used by Benitez critics as justification as to why the Reds will not do at all well in the Champions League this season.

Benitez said: “Never have I seen the team struggle as badly as they did in the first half. It was a poor performance. We had too many problems and too many mistakes, and we had to change everything. In the second half we were much better. In the first half, they were on top of us all the time and we were not doing the things that we had been talking about before the game. We were bad in everything.”

“Fiorentina did a good job. They were pressing all around the pitch and we were too nervous, making mistakes, and if you make mistakes you will pay for them. The mentality was not good enough in the first half.”

“Clearly, this new offside rule is changing everything. The best rule in football is the offside rule, but if you don’t know if a player involved is interfering, it is difficult. This time it will be totally different. Hopefully, we will see a different Liverpool, the one that we saw in the second half tonight.”

Liverpool will need to turn themselves around quickly if they are to get out of their Champions League group. The problems last night were quite clear and this should allow the club to address them very quickly.

The problem for Liverpool seems to finding a good level of consistency that will stand the club in good stead ahead of more important games. At the moment no one is able to tell whether the well oiled machine will turn up or the one that lost to Fiorentina last night.

The club need all of their big players to turn up in every single game they play and if Benitez can get the importance of all these points into his players quickly then it will not be long until this type of performance is turned around.

Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, is being forced to defend his controversial zone marking policy that he uses during Champions League games. A lot of people have said that Rafa will get punished if he continues to use the system in Europe and that it will be one of the reasons that Liverpool will not progress this season.

The system works by giving each player a specific area of the pitch to be in and control as opposed to marking another player directly. Although this system may work well in the Premier League it does not always hold firm in Europe and the system was exposed by a much weaker European side in Liverpool’s first Champions League match this season.

The Spaniard said: “The system has been very effective for us. If you look at the records, we don’t concede more goals than other teams from set-plays. This is the right way for us to go and you see a lot of goals conceded with teams man-marking.”

Former Liverpool striker, John Aldridge, said in a newspaper piece: “Liverpool’s European exit at the hands of Chelsea last season provided conclusive proof that the defensive system is unreliable against intelligent opponents and it will catch them out again.”

“Guus Hiddink clearly identified a weakness in the Liverpool back line at Anfield that night and once Chelsea scored three away goals, their passage to another European semi-final was all but assured.”

“It is still an issue this season and I feel the defenders have lost a little bit of confidence. Liverpool are looking uncertain every time their opponent gets a corner or a free-kick around the box and it is a major worry as they start another Champions League campaign.”

“The truth is defenders make mistakes and this is why we have conceded some disappointing goals. We’ve also had some problems with injuries in defensive positions and this has affected us also this season. With everyone fit, I’m convinced our defence will be strong once again.”

The point is that Liverpool will come up against better class European teams, the likes of which they have not played before. The standard is better than ever and with the money spent by a lot of sides the pressure will be right on them to brush aside teams like Liverpool, who will not be considered serious Champions League contenders until the later stages. It’s a system they will stick with but one they probably shouldn’t.

Liverpool have become the latest Premier League club to be involved in the tapping up scandal that has infested English football. Crewe Alexandra have reported Liverpool after it emerged in the press that they had approached an unnamed 15-year-old player illegally.

The news comes shortly after Chelsea were banned from signing any players for the next two transfer windows, Manchester United about to launch legal action against Le Havre and reports of an apparent ban proposal to be put towards Manchester City.

It seems that the only way the biggest clubs in England are going to learn is if they are punished severely. At current it appears that there are holes all over the system that top clubs have been abusing and if these allegations from Crewe are correct then Liverpool could be next in the firing line.

Dario Gradi, Crewe’s Director of Football, said: “We have a situation where one of our 15-year-olds has been approached. He is an outstanding player by any standards and he has come in and told us that he wants to leave right now to join a big club.”

“The big clubs are stealing other people’s players and you worry financially for the clubs where the players are stolen from. What sort of compensation are we going to get for all the work that has gone into developing him? Any compensation is insignificant for the effort that gone in.”

“I’m delighted with what has happened with Chelsea. I would hope all the big clubs are frightened to death. There is no excuse for breaking the rules. We lost a 12-year-old to Everton. He was our best 12-year-old. The lure is that the bigger clubs pay big expenses. This kid will be getting several hundred pounds a week in expenses. We pay expenses but nothing like that. It’s more a case of giving out £20 if someone can pick a kid up en-route.”

Gradi’s point is a very simple one, only until similar situations appear, like the one at Chelsea, will big clubs stop poaching players from the clubs that have developed them. These are clubs that are in no position at all to be able to stop the bigger sides from offering financial incentives as a reward for playesr to break their contracts.

Credit must go for the action that has been brought against Chelsea but there has to be a universal action to stop poaching all together.