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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Keifer MacDonald

'Ask Jurgen' - Brendan Rodgers reveals what he would change about Liverpool title heartbreak vs Chelsea

Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has insisted Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp would have lined up in the same way he did during the infamous Premier League clash with Chelsea in April 2014.

As Liverpool chased down their first league title since 1990, having beaten Manchester City just two weeks prior, Jose Mourinho's Chelsea visited Anfield and played the role of party spoilers as they threw a spanner into the Reds' title pursuit.

Of course, club legend and captain Steven Gerrard would be cruelly punished late in the first half as he lost his footing when trying to control a Mamadou Sakho back-pass, which handed striker Demba Ba the freedom of Anfield to pick his spot and slot past the onrushing Simon Mignolet.

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Having defeated Norwich 3-2 the week before, Liverpool knew if they avoided defeat to the Londoners they would virtually have one hand on their maiden Premier League title. However, with the game sandwiched between Chelsea's Champions League semi-final clashes against Atletico Madrid, Mourinho opted for a much-changed eleven, which saw his side deploy serve defensive tactics.

While Rodgers' side pressed for an opener against their Premier League foes, Chelsea were able to catch the Reds on the counter-attack twice either side of half-time to secure a famous 2-0 win at Anfield, with Willian adding to Ba's earlier opener with practically the last kick of the game.

And in the eight years since the encounter, the former Liverpool manager's tactics have been scrutinised and are often cited by critics as the reason the Reds didn't claim their first league title in 24 years.

However, speaking on the Proper Football Podcast, the current Leicester manager has defended his tactics from that infamous fixture eight years ago.

"I think what it was then was we were very inexperienced in that position that we were in, and there was a lot of emotion in that Chelsea game," said Rodgers. "So if I was to do anything different, it would maybe frame the emotional side of it a little bit differently. But actually the game idea...you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't ask Pep Guardiola now to play, to play how you play and then play something totally different

"If you ask Jurgen, he's not going to play any different. You know, we went out to attack the game and for 70 minutes we played really, really well. You know, in the first half we should have been [1-0] up in the game."

Rodgers would only last a further 18 months at Anfield after the notorious defeat to his former colleague, Mourinho, as he was sacked in October 2015 and replaced by Jurgen Klopp.

In his fourth full season with the club, the German was able to go one better than his predecessor as he delivered the Reds' first league title in 30 as his side finished an incredible 19 points ahead of Manchester City.

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