The most controversial tactic in football at the moment. Chelsea have done it twice. It may have been boring to watch, or frustrating for the opposition, but it has worked.

Below is a new Foosball table (Chelsea vs Liverpool) I believe.

So what are your thoughts on this tactic?

All opinions welcome.

• Not entertaining to watch. Football is a sport, therefore a spectacle for people to watch and enjoy...

• Sometimes effective as nothing else. Football is a sport, therefore a competition for teams to compete and try to win.

and here we go again, everyone vs. chelsea fans...

How a team plays is irrelevant.

How a team plays is actually relevant. There are attractive football, un-attractive football, boring, cowards, and there is "parking the bus".

Parking the bus is NOT a master-super-genius class, every weak team does this when facing a much stronger opponent. Succeed or not, now depending on how good their players are or how effective their counter can be.

Team like Chelsea is strong enough to play parking-the-bus and hit opponent on deadly counter. But accept it (Chelsea's fan), it's anti-attractive football, coward and MUCH EASIER to play than attacking or normal counter style.

Of course result is the most important, but you can't blame people for hating your team for playing such a sh-ity-style week in, week out.

heres the truth. both teams set out with game plans

chelseas was to defend and hit us on the counter
liverpools was to dominate the game with possession and score a goal by playing it up from defese

chelsea fulfilled their plan, so well done to them. whether they deserved the win, that is a different story. we may have dominated, but chelsea took their chances better.
but the opinions of chelsea fans and liverpool fans are biased

Every football fan is biased..

At the end of the day, whoever gets the points, is the winner. No matter what the strategy is a win is a win. Every fan is biased but whoever wins is the real winner. Liverpools attacking strategies are great, but at the end of the day the bus came out on top. That's football

It's a legitimate tactic in my opinion and every club uses it once in a while.

In the Liverpool - Chelsea match, you could see that Liverpool ran out of ideas and they didn't know how to break down a very organized Chelsea defense. They started shooting at ridiculous ranges and started crossing, etc...

Tuanjin spot on as usual, hope all EPL team fans share your view, we would probably spend less time in arguing for no reason....

Parking the bus ? Well you are never safe from a last minute goal, Lucky or not...

under mourinho chelsea only parked the bus 2times and now everyone is saying that always chelsea play like this? lol you guys need to watch more games

"only parked the bus 2times" you mean 2 times, just in last 2 games.

@tuanjinn Hating a club for the style of football is ridiculous. Hate is something you get by disliking the opposition fans or what the club represents not how they play.

@fabriy only 2 times under mourinho you chelsea hater

Quickly about liverpool match , because there are so many details that gave us victory and it is just too much to cover . It was not as if Chelsea just came out and parked the bus . THat is not how football works and not everyone can come out and hold out opposition like Liverpool from scoring .

• First and main mistake was Liverpool playing their usual "plan A" football ( P.s. Liverpool used to love playing the sty) Here is quote from Jamie Carragher ( not always like him but he was spot on )

"I've done it playing for Liverpool," he told Monday Night Football. "I remember going to Barcelona in 2001 in the UEFA Cup and we got a 0-0. We did exactly the same as what Chelsea did yesterday, we went there for our clean sheet. Johan Cruyff said after the game we were a disgrace to football. " ( sounds familiar does not it :D )

"Let's not forget that in the seventies and eighties when Liverpool went away they'd go there and do a job to try and get a 0-0. At times they'd play it back to Ray Clemence and slow the game down. "I remember with Rafa Benitez playing against Chelsea, we played them at their own game. We slowed the game down, played direct football, never got caught on the counter-attack and never risked playing a ball into Stevie (Gerrard) or Xabi Alonso, as they had Duff, Robben and Drogba for the counter-attack. "

"You can't complain and say 'we don't play like that'. We've done it before and been successful at it."You can't complain. Lots of teams have done it, we've done it, so get on with it and try to find a way to fix it."

• Liverpool should have come out and play for a draw , which would have forced Chelsea to play more open , because Chelsea was the one that needed 3 points . Instead , Brendan did exactly what Mourinho expected him to do . He told his players to play high line and keep pressing and then desperate Liverpool players made like zillion crosses into box , which all were cleared like it was practice session .

Mourinho fielded "B" team and decided that we are no match to Liverpool, if we play open football like we did at Stamford Bridge back in Fall . It was the right and best decision . I love Brendan Rogers , but he got simply out smarted by brilliant tactician .

Parking bus

I love the expression and I share the laugh when someone tries to mock the style ( ofcourse not if they mock my club ) . I like to call it evolved style of Catenaccio strategy .

Can this style be boring ? of course , but it can also be entertaining if team has players at their disposal to counter attack on the break .

( *again not going into details just general thought ) *Is it easy to play this style ? I certainly do not think so . It requires great deal of discipline and patience , stamina and etc .

Is it breakable ? Ofcourse it is breakable ! ( That match when we played draw against West Ham when we had 35 shots , we should only blame ourselves for not finishing chances )

Hating

I understand the hate . So no hard feelings . However, do not lie to yourselves that you mostly hate the style of football , because Atletico and Real Madrid used this style and I did not see as much outrage as when Chelsea used .

**P.S. *You should all go watch Ancelotti's press conference before today's match . He openly said that he will again use "Parking Bus " strategy in Munich . He called it Catenaccio *, because Parking bus sounds ugly and vulgar and dirty , but not the beautiful Italian word . :)))

I don't know why everyone is hating on Chelsea.

Liverpool for instance, played this style the whole 2000s' during the Houllier and Benitez era and won the CL in 2005 and almost won the title in 2008/09.

Also, many Italian teams were not different in the past. They played their 5-3-2 or 3-5-2, or whatever you want to call it and just waited for their quick counter attacks. Eventually this has changed but was had been implemented by the bus-driver Mourinho in 2010 and again, they won the Champions League.

My last example is Greece. They won the Euro 2004 just by their "ugly" football and counter attacks.

At the end only the win matters or do you hear anyone saying 10 years later:"Oh they played such ugly football, they don't deserve this trophy".

My point is, it doesn't matter which style you play whether it is Tiqui-taca, Kick & Rush, Mourinho-football, One-touch-football or whatever. Every manager needs a plan B if plan A doesn't work out. Rodgers didn't have a plan B and lost to Chelsea. Chelsea just switched to their plan B in their last two matches which eventually has led to a win.

PS: Chelsea's plan A is playing "normal" attacking football. They did that against Sunderland and lost it.

Parking the bus is like crossing in FIFA.
Can't beat it. Makes the game boring and frustrating.

Real took a 2-0 (AGG) lead and are bow parking the bus

Some people here just have no idea what good defense is. You guys want to know the truth? Chelsea out-played their opposition in the last two games. The difference is that the Liverpool fans can recognize and appreciate it, whereas the folks complaining about the CL tie can't, because they don't know what they're looking at. When you learn what good defending is, then games like Chelsea's last two games are no longer boring, because then you can see what they're actually DOING, and how hard it is to do.

@Lodatz

Well said, its good defending. Liverpool fans have recognised and appreciated it. Its just a tactic, other teams have to play to overcome that tactic.