Official Stoke City Match Thread

[Pablo]

Reina must be the most under-rated player in the Premiership by the way.


Everyone I speak to in work (not LFC fans) think he's ****, one even said he could name 8 better Premiership keepers! Clueless ******s can go wallow in themselves

[MrMichael]

It's like having an extra forward on the pitch.

He's just exactly what we need to take us to the next level. Last season we were good infact we were very good but we just missed out by 4 points. Johnson could be those 4 points. He is better than Arbeloa going forward and will score and make goals. Don't get me wrong Arby did well for us and I'm in now way slagging him it's just Johnson is better and he is going to make things happen.

Big time. I think its a massive plus him playing down the right primarily with Kuyt, they compliment each other extremely well. Johnson has the unpredictable flair and pace where Kuyt has the massive work ethic and intelligence to either get forward or track back as required. Pretty much a perfect fit from the look of last night.

[red g]

Reina must be the most under-rated player in the Premiership by the way.


Everyone I speak to in work (not LFC fans) think he's ****, one even said he could name 8 better Premiership keepers! Clueless ******s can go wallow in themselves

he is the best keeper by a country mile.....yet apparently Van der sar and Cech are definitely better according to most pundits

Reina said it before will say it again is the closest thing to schmeicel i have seen in 15 years. Quite simply a phenom of a keepr

[saj]

have to say shawcross looked like a quality player to be fair.

And glen Johnson is a brute, If only what could have been going back to the Alves Deal!! you can see why in Rafa's team Fulll backs are soo important.

Johnson Destroyed Stoke,

Benayoun has an almost Kuty like work rate, there was one point where he ran behind a stoke player from 10/15 yards and my firsdt thought was Babel would never have done that

That means bitch in my language

[Roboklopp]

Big time. I think its a massive plus him playing down the right primarily with Kuyt, they compliment each other extremely well. Johnson has the unpredictable flair and pace where Kuyt has the massive work ethic and intelligence to either get forward or track back as required. Pretty much a perfect fit from the look of last night.

Always thought Kuyt would flourish having a real flairy RB behind him. Not seen the game yet, but hopefully GJ will prove to be that player.

[MrMichael]

Reina must be the most under-rated player in the Premiership by the way.


Everyone I speak to in work (not LFC fans) think he's ****, one even said he could name 8 better Premiership keepers! Clueless ******s can go wallow in themselves

Just point at them and laugh

Then show this to the one who said he could think of 8 better keepers and ask him to name them, let us know what he says so the internets can laugh at him

2006 - LFC consecutive clean sheet record - 11 games
2006 - LFC record for fewest goals conceded in first 50 games - 29 goals
2006 - Prem Golden Glove - 20 clean sheets
2007 - Prem Golden Glove - 19 clean sheets
2008 - LFC record fastest 50 league clean sheets - 92 games
2008 - 3rd consecutive Prem Golden Glove - 18 clean sheets
2009 - LFC record fastest 100 clean sheets - 197 games

[greenbloodred]

Johnson is going to be absolute dynamite in these types of games. He didnt have to do any defending last night so we just used him as a second winger, and bloody hell hes good!

He will be one of THE key players in turning these annoying draws against the smaller teams into wins.

Spot on , agree with that 100%

[RedReet]

good luck ayala

why have voronin and ngog? i'd rather see nemeth or pacheco

[PTP]

great response last night following the spurs game!

Reina top class when needed as always

Johnson - simply outstanding! it's strange to say but our right back could be the key to unlocking the 'smaller' clubs when they have 10 men behind the ball, he offered width, pace and quality down the right hand side - it was like having an extra attacker on the pitch -

Insua - very solid performence and settling well into the first team - credit here to rafa, he handled insua very well imo and the manager derserves the praise - people had talked about insua for a few years but rafa never rushed him, gave him a taste here and there to get some experience and now when he looks more than ready for the first team

Benayoun!!! - jesus wept, trying hard to not slate babel here, but how much of a difference did it make to have yossi there, someone who shows for the ball, can control it, can keep possession or keep a move flowing, can make a pass and now and then beat a man or two. I reckon babel will have to flip his flow on the bench this season

[Neil Young]

I agree Reina is criminally underrated but, ignoring the "he plays for LFC and everyone hates us" conspiracy explanation, why?

I can only think it's because occasionally he looks less than commanding on crosses (like last night's misjudgement from a corner IIRC) but is he really so much worse on that account than Cech or Van Der Saar?

[DannyMan2006]

I agree Reina is criminally underrated but, ignoring the "he plays for LFC and everyone hates us" conspiracy explanation, why?

I can only think it's because occasionally he looks less than commanding on crosses (like last night's misjudgement from a corner IIRC) but is he really so much worse on that account than Cech or Van Der Saar?

No it's because he doesn't play international football on a regular basis or been in a title winning team. If he did one of those he'd get his dues. But what do we care? I'm happy for him to perform miracles in the shadows until such a time we win the league.

[Exiled_red]

I agree Reina is criminally underrated but, ignoring the "he plays for LFC and everyone hates us" conspiracy explanation, why?

I can only think it's because occasionally he looks less than commanding on crosses (like last night's misjudgement from a corner IIRC) but is he really so much worse on that account than Cech or Van Der Saar?

I think it's because of the sweeper-keeper type role he often plays, he comes out and clears the ball early rather than letting the opposition player get the ball and then be forced into making a good save. This IMO is good goalkeeping as it's spotting the danger early, but it means he has to make less "for the camera" type saves which I think is what alot of people judge goalkeepers on.

[EwarWoo]

Just managed to sit down and watch it - an amazing game.

Just loved the interchanges, no-one other than the CB's in a set position, keeping it fluid and moving. Screw Arsenal, now that was some sublime football.

Going from that travesty at WHL to not a single player having less than an excellent performance, including an 18 year old on his full debut.

I know it was only Stoke, but **** me that was good.

[The_weatherman]

Just going through the chalkboards, interesting that Lucas made 11 tackles and lost three but Mascher made 4 and lost 1.

Mascher made a staggering 100 passes of which only 5 were unsuccessful versus Lucas' 53/4 (of which three were unsuccessful corners).

Yossi's passing was interesting in that he seems to have been given a pretty free role, 41/5, but he also made 8 tackles of which he won 6.

In total Liverpool made 511 passes of which 61 were unsuccessfull vs. Stoke's 158/51.

Regarding the Tottenham game I found it interesting to compare Babel and Benni, Babel doesn't contribute much by the looks of things.

Against Tottenham Lucas made 9 tackles and won 5 of them vs. Mascher 2/1. Combined they made 90 passing attempts.

The whole team made 315/57 passes vs. Tottenham's 266/53.

In the 68th. minute Yossi replaced Babel, the former making 9/1 passes against 12/2 for Babel. Babel also went in for 6 tackles and losing them all.

[Roberto Bobbolino]

'Why Why Deliah' must be the most bizarre chant of all time.