We won’t be underestimating Chelsea: Brendan Rodgers
The eyes of the country will be at Stamford Bridge tomorrow night as Chelsea take on Liverpool in the League Cup Semi Final second leg with the game being all to play after finishing at 1-1 in the first leg. After the "disgrace" that was the weekend, plenty of opinion from all quarters would have you believe that Chelsea are in turmoil and there for the taking as Brendan Rodgers brings his side to the Bridge after an impressive performance at Anfield a week ago.
Despite the criticism and the negativity that surrounds reports of Chelsea at the moment, the Irishman believes that Jose Mourinho's team should not be underestimated because of the poor performance on Saturday. Rodgers said:
“Certainly (their) result at the weekend doesn't help. It will be a great motivation for them to go out in a different competition to make a statement. They will want to go out and put it right, but in the back of their mind even if they are 2-0 up, they will have a bit of trepidation, wondering what can happen”.
“I think you guys - you write your reports and change it every week. Managers and coaches focused on performances know it is very difficult to do that. They (Chelsea) are a very good side. We played them last week when they came off the back of their best performance of the season - but we were outstanding”.
“Our strength is very much in terms of attack and going forward and we showed that. Of course (it will be a different game at Stamford Bridge) but we will have to be solid on our defending. We were very, very good defensively (last week). Confidence is high, but we won’t be underestimating Chelsea because they had a bad result”.
I hope Rodgers is right and we ARE motivated more than ever to put things right. It will be a totally different game and I am 100% certain that we will approach it differently.
People would be foolish to underestimate us. Rodgers knows!