Kenny Dalglish's team selection left Liverpool with too much to do as they tasted FA Cup heartache.
Kenny Dalglish's team selection may have cost Liverpool the FA Cup and handed Chelsea a timely boost in their quest for domestic and European glory, says Sky Sports' Chris Burton.
Too many Liverpool players will wake from an uncomfortable night's sleep on Sunday morning, look themselves in the mirror and wonder whether they could have offered more to a showpiece occasion that, in all honesty, passed them by.
The Anfield ranks are filled with world-class performers used to gracing the very top of the game, be that internationally or domestically, but they were the rabbits in the Chelsea headlights at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
From the get-go Kenny Dalglish's Reds were sloppy in possession, all over the place defensively and unable to offer anything close to resembling a threat in the final third - with Luis Suarez's desperate attempt to replicate his recent moment of magic from the halfway line during a league tie with Norwich proof, if it were needed, of how frustrating it can be to be plough a lone furrow when your game is built around sniffing out chances in and around the penalty area.
By the time Suarez's ambitious 50-yard effort skewed awkwardly towards the corner flag, Liverpool were already trailing and facing up to the fact that once again they would be forced to do things the hard way at the home of English football.
They will point to the fact that they came from behind to win the Carling Cup against Cardiff and an all-Merseyside FA Cup semi-final date with Everton as demonstrations of what they are capable of with their backs against the wall, but with just 11 minutes on the clock the travelling ranks of Reds supporters must have been fearing the worst.
Ramires' early opener encapsulated in the space of 30 seconds all that was wrong with Liverpool's first-half display on what was being billed as a game to make or break their season.
That may be slightly unfair given that they ended a six-year wait for major silverware by tasting League Cup glory earlier this term, but a failure to make any kind of impression in the Premier League after sizeable summer investment suggests Dalglish should be delivering more than success in a competition many of his rivals regard as little more than an inconvenience.
He will know that, deep down, and must have felt John Henry's eyes burning a hole in his back as he watched Liverpool shoot themselves in the foot in spectacular fashion after barely getting out of the traps.
Jay Spearing lost the ball in midfield, Juan Mata played one simple pass in behind the Reds' back four and all of a sudden Ramires was brushing aside Jose Enrique and firing through Pepe Reina.
It is some achievement for three players to get things so wrong all at once, but Spearing, Enrique and Reina will all feel that they should have done an awful lot more to prevent their side from falling behind.
Liverpool were all at sea, though, and Dalglish's team selection was looking increasingly misguided.
The sight of Spearing, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing being included in midfield from the off would hardly have filled Reds supporters with optimism, and they all struggled to get into the game.
Difficult
Spearing is a favourite of Dalglish, and it is good to see home-grown talent being given an opportunity to shine, but he is a difficult player to categorise and to fit into a team that he seemingly offers little to.
He is not a bite-yer-legs enforcer who will break up play and frustrate opponents, neither is he your quintessential quarterback-type - in the Xabi Alonso mode - capable of spraying passes here, there and everywhere from a deep-lying position.
What does he offer? The fact that he lasted only 55 minutes at Wembley suggests Dalglish realised he was the weak link and Liverpool were infinitely better the moment he wandered from the field and was replaced by Andy Carroll.
The Reds were two down by then, though, and chasing a game that was quickly slipping away from them.
Didier Drogba had just written his own piece of FA Cup history, with a hot-shot striker who boasts an enviable Wembley record once again justifying the faith of Roberto Di Matteo - who has started him in three semi-final ties and a final over recent weeks - by becoming the first man to find the target in four cup finals.
Drogba is exactly the type of player Liverpool were missing up until that point, but is the type of player Dalglish had at his disposal - a brute of a forward who poses plenty of problems.
Carroll may not have pulled up too many trees since his £35million arrival from Newcastle, but he his performances of late - including a match-winning display against Everton to take Liverpool to the final - have been much improved and few would have questioned his presence in the Reds' starting XI.
He would have occupied the thoughts of John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic from the off, offered an out ball, held up play and provided a goal threat from set-pieces or balls into his feet in and around the box.
He proved that he is capable of doing all of that after entering the fold - but he was, no doubt about it, 55 minutes too late.
Within nine minutes of being on the field Carroll was celebrating another Wembley goal, as he twisted and turned, left John Terry on his backside, and lashed the ball past Petr Cech and high into the roof of the net.
With eight minutes left on the clock he was wheeling away again, believing that he had dug Liverpool out of a giant hole and kept their FA Cup fires burning.
He had every reason to believe that was the case, having planted a trademark header goalwards, but he was thwarted by a truly outstanding save by Cech.
Doubt
Liverpool argued long and hard that a ball which was palmed onto the underneath of the crossbar and away had crossed the line, and will continue to do so for as long as anyone is prepared to give them the time of day, but none of the replays suggest the match officials could, without a trace of doubt, have given the goal.
So, the game ended 2-1 and the Reds were left to reflect on what might have been.
In the end you have to admit that luck was not on their side - be that the Carroll header, which could have been given on another day, or the loose balls in and around the box in the dying minutes which stubbornly refused to break their way.
Chelsea's name has been etched on the famous old trophy, though, and Liverpool must console themselves with the polishing of one piece of silverware.
Ifs and buts will undoubtedly linger - with there little to occupy the mind in the Premier League - and Dalglish, although he probably will not admit it, will be left to ponder whether he should have played a different hand at football's top table.
Carroll from the start could have made all the difference, Maxi has impressed during victories over Chelsea in the league and cup this season and Dirk Kuyt will always give his all and is a man who has a World Cup final appearance on his CV.
Does Henderson's CV compare to that?
It may be wrong to point fingers, as Liverpool ended up coming a lot closer to getting their hands on the trophy than their showing in the opening 45 minutes suggested, but the very fact that they were so much improved after the interval proves that something, somewhere went amiss.
For Dalglish et al it is back to the drawing board, with big decisions needed to be taken on whether the club are heading in the right direction and, if so, how do they ensure that the 2012/13 campaign is a marked improvement on the current one.
Chelsea may have similar questions to answer this summer, with it unlikely that a solitary FA Cup win will satisfy the appetite of owner Roman Abramovich, but the big games keep on coming for them.
Victory at Wembley has provided them with the ideal tonic heading in a UEFA Champions League final date with Bayern Munich on 19th May and, having disposed of one team that play in red and white in knockout competition, you would not bet against them landing another hefty blow when they take to the continental stage at the Allianz Arena.
We are back to ifs and buts here, though, and the respective campaigns of Liverpool and Chelsea were not, and will not, be shaped by the events that unfolded underneath the Wembley floodlights on Saturday afternoon - they have just posed plenty of questions.
