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Liverpool Boss Accuses Mourinho Of Playing ”Negative Football”

Brendan Rodgers last night slammed Jose Mourinho’s negative tactics as Chelsea put serious dent in Liverpool’s Premier League title hopes after the Blues’ 2-0 win over the league leaders Sunday.Demba Ba and Willian scored on breakaways in stoppage time at the end of both halves at Anfield to move Chelsea just two points behind the Reds.

But Rodgers was not impressed by the time-wasting and defensive football from Mourinho’s side that handed Liverpool their first league defeat of 2014.

The Kop boss claims he would never play that way because it requires no tactical skill.He said: “There were probably two buses parked out there instead of one.

“It’s the style of football, it’s defensive, and the polar opposite of the way we work. It gets results, Jose has got his and he will be happy with that.

“Credit to them they got the result, bodies back, but it’s not difficult to coach to just get 10 players right on your 18-yard box.

“It is difficult to break through and they defended well. Jose is happy to work that way and play that way, and he will probably shove his CV in my face and say it works, but it’s not my way of working.

“I like to take the initiative in games and let players express themselves.

“This game will prepare us for Crystal Palace. We will have to deal with long balls forward which we did very well against Chelsea and we will have to deal with long throw ins.

Rodgers, who insisted he would never adopt Mourinho’s defensive tactics also criticised Chelsea’s constant time-wasting and was left bamboozled by the fact no Blues player was booked for it until right at the end of the game when Ashley Cole picked up a yellow card.

“We were the team that wanted to win the game, I don’t think there was any dispute about that. Rodgers said.

“It was disappointing. I think they got booked for time wasting in the 92nd minute, but you could see from first whistle that was the plan to frustrate.”Teams work in a different way. We are a team that tries to win in a sporting manner, try to work and initiate the game with the ball.

“Whether it was time-wasting or whatever it doesn’t matter, we lost the game and we move on to the next game.”

Mourinho, still feeling the effects of a bug picked up on Saturday, believed Chelsea were superior at Anfield and praised the performances of all his players..

“The best team won, the team that deserved it more won, that’s it for me,” he said.

“Defensive display? I’m a bit confused with what the media thinks about defensive displays, I’m a bit confused.

“When a team defends well you call it defensive display – when they defend bad and concede two or three you don’t consider defensive display. The team played brilliantly.”But despite being just two points off the Reds with two games to go, the Portuguese boss is still adamant his side have no chance of winning the title – but offered little explanation.

”We don’t have a chance of winning the title because we have no chance.”

Mourinho scooted off down the tunnel when Willian’s goal went in and was not around to shake hands with Rodgers at the end, but the Anfield boss insists there is no hard feelings.

Rodgers added: “It’s always the nature of how we work in this country but I won’t get hung up on it.